5 ms·

I've seen this exact thing happen with a facebook acquaintance. She already posted a lot about every problem she has on social media even before she got Covid,

I've seen this exact thing happen with a facebook acquaintance. She already posted a lot about every problem she has on social media even before she got Covid, but with covid it was another beast. She tested positive before she got symptoms but before the symptoms even really began she was reading anything and everything in full blown hypochrondia-mode and getting more and more depressed and anxious about it (from what I could surmise from the editorializing she added to every covid related article or study she shared). Within one week of testing positive she was deep into the articles about chronic issues, so it was well before quarantining period was even over. It was pretty wild to observe and she's still posting stuff these days. It's hard to distinguish what is legitimate and what's for attention. While there may be legitimate issues, I can't help but think that it would be hard to separate legitimate issues from psychosomatic ones brought about by the way she dealt with it (and how it has become part of her facebook identity). She may be an extreme case, but I could totally see the same happening with other people to a lesser degree.

treeman79 6y ago
Oh it can be both. She could have a chronic issue, and be an attention seeker. Hypochondria is a major problem. Part of me finding out what was wrong to make a list of every symptom, every condition that a subset of symptoms, keep track of every test and what conditions it eliminated as possibilities. The sets of possibilities are enormous. At every step you get called a hypochondriac. I didn’t directly find it, but when I showed table of symptoms, and what medications had been tried and failed and what tests had been run a doctor realized it was a rare autoimmune condition. It’s such an odd thing to be given a terrible diagnosis. But feel immense relief that it’s not “in your head” From support group, this is Apparently a common reaction.
- malandrew 6y ago
  Yeah, totally agree it can be both, but of all the people I know that have had it, she's the only one exhibiting both hypochondria and posting comments suggestive of anxiety/depression. Certainly anecdotal, but enough to merit further investigation.
srinivgp 6y ago
> separate legitimate issues from psychosomatic ones I know what you are trying to say, but phrasing it like this is harmful. Psychosomatic issues are absolutely legitimate. Knowing it's psychosomatic means there may be other avenues of addressing it than if it wasn't, but calling the issues "not legitimate" is very problematic, akin to telling someone with depression "just think happy thoughts".
- malandrew 6y ago
  Yeah, that was poor word choice. I guess I was going for issues actually caused by the disease and not issues that are self inflicted or inflicted by society's response to the disease.

treeman79 6y ago

Oh it can be both. She could have a chronic issue, and be an attention seeker. Hypochondria is a major problem. Part of me finding out what was wrong to make a list of every symptom, every condition that a subset of symptoms, keep track of every test and what conditions it eliminated as possibilities. The sets of possibilities are enormous. At every step you get called a hypochondriac. I didn’t directly find it, but when I showed table of symptoms, and what medications had been tried and failed and what tests had been run a doctor realized it was a rare autoimmune condition. It’s such an odd thing to be given a terrible diagnosis. But feel immense relief that it’s not “in your head” From support group, this is Apparently a common reaction.

malandrew 6y ago
Yeah, totally agree it can be both, but of all the people I know that have had it, she's the only one exhibiting both hypochondria and posting comments suggestive of anxiety/depression. Certainly anecdotal, but enough to merit further investigation.

srinivgp 6y ago

> separate legitimate issues from psychosomatic ones I know what you are trying to say, but phrasing it like this is harmful. Psychosomatic issues are absolutely legitimate. Knowing it's psychosomatic means there may be other avenues of addressing it than if it wasn't, but calling the issues "not legitimate" is very problematic, akin to telling someone with depression "just think happy thoughts".

malandrew 6y ago
Yeah, that was poor word choice. I guess I was going for issues actually caused by the disease and not issues that are self inflicted or inflicted by society's response to the disease.