Hypochondria is a belief that real or imagined physical symptoms are signs of a serious illness, despite medical reassurance and other evidence to the contrary.
Symptoms
1) Misinterpret symptoms
2) No apparent physical disorder than can account for symptoms
3) Persistent fear of having a serious illness with no medical reason
4) Preoccupied with fear of illness
5) Symptoms may shift and change
6) Symptoms may be vague or specific
I'm just gonna go out on a limb and diagnose myself. I've always had this weird habit of thinking I have a sickness if someone mentions it. Kinda like if someone talks about being itchy...you're suddenly itchy too. Except I have it worse. For example, once I walked into the room while Jamie Fox was on an AIDS commercial...all he said was "1 out of 4 people don't know they are living with AIDS." That's all it took. I convinced myself I was dying, cried myself to sleep..and even told my Mom what was wrong. Quick blood test, and I was cured!
I've also suffered from a broken toe, a weird armpit-affliction, cancer (when I was younger I thought my hair falling out meant I had cancer..,) and many other things. You name it, I Google it...and then I have it.
Miley, the newest and cutest member of our family, scratches A LOT. She starts off licking her legs, then starts biting them. She scratches her ears endlessly. She has scabs, which I'm sure is why they are itchy (hell, my new tattoo is itchy right now!) I'm 95% certain she doesn't have fleas (she sleeps with a white blanket and there are no fleas to be seen on it.) So, of course, my good friends at Google had answers for me. I have diagnosed her with mites, hot spots, heartworm, and loads of other things. Poor dog.
I'm pretty positive she just has dry skin, like a lot of beagles, but I worry about everything!!!!!!
