Hypochondriac friend.

* than * ( their bodies )

I once had a female GP who sat in her chair propped up with pillows. I hadn't the heart to tell her what my problem was at the time so I told her that her need to see a doctor was greater than mine and left.
She's no longer at the surgery and hasn't been for a few years now. It was a long time before I visited the surgery again in case I had to see her.

I have met other people who have every ache and pain under the sun but who also manage to holiday/shop and generally enjoy themselves.
It's more to do with their minds that their bodies. Can't be doing with them.

My friend whom I've known since school days is diabetic but 'can't help' stuffing cakes and biscuits at every opportunity. Not too surprisingly, she suffers with her health. She must weigh twice what she did at school. She spends a fortune in addition to NHS services on teeth, eyesight, joints, you name it.

She has become an old woman before her time. Such a shame.

Yes. I have one; it may be anxiety, or it may be attention seeking but she sure as hell talks about it. All the time.

I think we all know someone like this. I have a friend, who whatever is going on in someone’s life, health or otherwise has been there, done it and bought the T shirt as they say. It doesn’t extend to bragging about wealth fortunately but only in terms of has suffered the same, seen the same, been through the same. Can’t complain though as she is also very kind and the first to offer help.

I know quite a few people like that. One friend said she'd got "terrible Eczema", which turns out to be a small rash about the size of a 10p piece, caused by the nickel in her watch. It irritates me but I say nothing....

minniemoo that is very sad. i had a sister who was not listened to by GP and others. I listened but didn't know what to suggest. her postmortem showed 3 diseases of which 2 were terminal and the one very painful.
All her GP ever gave her was Prozac. I will never stop missing her.

These people probably really feel they are experiencing illness.

You have to feel sorry for them and thank the lord that you have more sense!

I think some people who could be described as hypochondriac are just frightened. They are afraid every twinge might be something serious.

The ones who have always had the same illnesses as you, only worse, are trying to show that they understand what you feel like.

I had a 'hypochondriac' friend. Endless trips to the GP. We were at a loss as blood tests and scans were fine. We did wonder if she had health anxiety. Her GPs were becoming less than helpful. IBS they told her. They wanted her to take anti depressants and go to CBT. She eventually went to a private GP and it was discovered that she had Stage IV bowel cancer. Tricky one. She was only 32 and the doctors never dreamt to test for it. Very sad.

My husband was like this when he was alive, he was always so much worse than anyone else, he was ‘cured’ of this habit when I had really bad period pain (paracetamol, hot water bottle etc) and he started telling me he knew how I felt as he had ‘caught the same bug’!

I used to have a boss like this, she claimed to have everything ranging from Bird Flu, Pig Flu, Legionnaires disease, why she even had sepsis over one weekend! the last straw was when she claimed to be going deaf and went through going to have her hearing tested and picking hearing aids out of the brochure, I had a bet with my work colleagues ( who didn't know her as well as I did ) that these hearing aids would not happen, and sure enough they didn't. The last time I heard of her she was claiming to have a bad heart. Used to make my blood boil with these out and out lies

I used to have a family doctor who had always had what I had, but worse. For example he had driven to Oxford from Cornwall with severe labyrinthitis. I don't think so, the real thing is prostrating. The only ailment he hadn't also had was vaginal thrush!