What is Illness Anxiety Disorder?

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This video describes illness anxiety disorder. Illness anxiety disorder is a mental disorder where an individual is preoccupied with concerns about having a serious illness. This is an interesting disorder because it's fairly similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder and there's even a debate in a mental health community about whether or not illness anxiety disorder is really just a variant of OCD. When we look at the criteria for illness anxiety disorder, there's another interesting feature. A lot of mental disorders in the DSM have a symptom criteria section and then other criteria, so there may be nine symptoms in the symptom criteria section and somebody might have to meet four or five of those symptoms to qualify for that criterion. There is no section in the DSM with illness anxiety disorder that has a number of symptoms where somebody only has to meet a certain number less than that for the diagnosis. For example, if we consider borderline personality disorder. It has nine symptoms in the symptom criteria, but an individual only needs to have five of those to qualify for that diagnosis. Again, with illness anxiety disorder, all the symptoms are required. The first symptom is a preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness. The DSM doesn't specifically say that this would be a mental disorder or a medical disorder, but most of the time we interpret this as relating to a possible medical disorder. This first criterion being related to medical disorders brings up an important point in terms of the distinction between a talk therapist and a physician. For example, I have a PhD in counselor education and supervision and I'm a licensed counselor. I'm not a physician and most talk therapists are not physicians either. With this particular diagnosis of illness anxiety disorder, as a talk therapist you would be working with somebody who has complaints or concerns about a medical disorder, so it's important to make the referral to a physician so that you know if they, in fact, have the disorder or don't. The second criterion is that there are little or no somatic symptoms. The third symptom criterion is the individual is experiencing a high level anxiety about health-related concerns. The fourth is that there's excessive health-related behavior like checking or maladaptive avoidance. A lot of times when we think of this disorder and compare it to OCD, it's this particular symptom criterion that makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. The fifth symptom criteria is that the disturbance has been present for six months, but the illness that the person is worried about can change in that time. A lot of times when we think of illness anxiety disorder, we think of one particular illness that the person is worried about having or acquiring. Sometimes with this disorder, if they have evidence that shows that they don't have a particular medical disorder they were worried about then they might develop a fear about another potential medical disorder. The illness can change, but the disturbance would be present for at least six months. The sixth symptom criterion is that this disturbance is not better explained by another mental disorder.
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I have this.. Every day Im "scanning" my own body.. "how do I feel now, what is this sensation".. Every day I think about death and dying. Its exhausting. Its terrifying. My mother has severe OCD. I have never been diagnosed with ocd myself.

allidoiscry
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I thought I was just alone.. now I think I have this.. every single day, I cant even concentrate in school. I spend late nights searching for symptoms of anything ranging from cancer, to parasites, to diseases. I get severe anxiety if my stomach hurts or I feel weird in the slightest... I've been dealing with this for longer than I can remember and i and slowly breaking down. What should I do? I dont think I can tell my family. I dont think they will believe me.... and if I go to a doctor, or look it up online, I find out I am fine and then I start fearing another illness right after... and eventually, I start fearing the illness I was fearing before... sometimes I fear more than one illness at a time....can anyone relate or help my situation?

BeanProphet
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but what if you really have a disorder?? I have myofascial pain syndrome and I am in pain everyday in my neck, shoulder, jaw and head, my ears are ringing and it changes tune when i move my neck. Been to 10 doctors including ENT = ALL NORMAL. IT IS SO FRUSTRATING!!! I am so hyperfocused on my symptoms that it gives me severe anxiety which feeds off of the disorder. Its a chicken-egg cycle. I'll never get out of this cycle and it freaking scares me. This is all I think about everyday. Doc tested me for everything, none, x-ray all normal. Said that I am just stressed!!! well WHO WOULDNT???

toxicwaste
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Hi Dr. Grande. What if the illness we feel is the fear we're going to develop a more serious mental/psychiatric illness? For example, I've been diagnosed with GAD, depression, possibly hypochondria. I've often feared my heart, but I've had a heart issue in the past. Secondly, I have a constant fear I'm going to going to go "crazy", more specifically, go into a state of psychosis, and possibly develop Schizophrenia. I don't know if it's a/the cause but in my 20's, after some heart palpitations, I started to become more nervous it would happen again and developed anxiety issues ie: fear in public places, being in lines, feeling trapped etc. I didn't understand then what I do now but I got better through exposure therapy (didn't realize what it was called but was doing it naturally). It got to the point of very minor anxiety for many years and not really even an issue. I'm now 41, and about a year ago woke up with heart palps again, worried about my heart all over again, and the past year has been up and down with issues/symptoms, fear, racing thoughts. However the past month/weeks the fear and feelings are so intense that I'm scared all day, every day, afraid of the smallest things, can't handle stress, can't concentrate, feel this nervous tension, skin crawling almost and can't stay still, feel I'm literally going to go crazy. Like it literally feels my brain is going to melt, I'm going to perhaps pass out, wake up unconscious and not know who I am, wake up in institution etc. Biggest reason I worry about psychosis/schizophrenia specifcally? I have an older brother with it. He was diagnosed in his early 20's - he's now 48. Anyways, I've seen a psychologist for the past year, and he thinks I'm being neurotic, but I can't shake this intense fear of psychosis. I've watched so many of your videos of schizophrenia, schizotypal, etc.... I don't connect many things but the one thing that stands out everything I did in my 20's to get over this isn't working. You mentioned the more a person goes into social situations and feels worse, could be a sign. I keep telling my psychologist I feel worse and worse every time, come out of the situation and feel even more anxiety/fear/worry. My mind is racing, I'm now having terrible sleep patterns, this is spiralling out of control and my wife feels she's losing her husband :( Any info appreciated - love your videos. Ps - I wonder if this intense feeling I have that lasts hours all day is mania but I find it hard to understand, even after watching videos. I'm extremely, extremely depressed :( . I don't expect you to diagnose me by the way - just wanted to vent to somebody who hopefully understands.

robhoffmann
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Omg. I am a text book case of this. I need help for this so bad! I worry myself to death everyday! And drives people and doctors absolutely crazy!

micheleshertenlieb
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It is important to consider a holistic approach to treatment including life style, stress, etc...

jackiesorrells
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I will just share, coz i have this anxiety too, since my father died in cancer, this anxiety sickness suddenly occur because im afraid that i also have cancer too bcoz im the only child and my mother is 65 years old, im afraid if i die earlier than my mother what will she do? shes old no one will take care of her since im a only child, thats why i have this illness anxiety disorder, pls help me doc.

yadel
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This video was very helpful in explaining Illness Anxiety Disorder and showing how some OCD traits, like perfectionism, are not a symptom of this disorder. I think it can be tricky to differentiate this disorder from Somatic Symptom Disorder.

angelinastanton
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This is a very interesting video and complex disorder. Back in the day the term hypochondriac was used for someone with similar symptoms.

veronicabetz
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Having ALL of those symptoms for nearly 2 years :'( please help me
Actually, it's my first time to know my condition. I've been searching because I have a hint that this is mental disorder 😭

nicolelauren
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I would really love to see a video on Borderline Personality disorder and comorbidity with actual physical illness, as I've seen a study or two that said that this could be somewhat likely (i.e. I have many physical illnesses and BPD and I've encountered others like this as well). Also, if you want to include BPD and somatic illness, that could be interesting. I know there have been studies done on how ppl with BPD experience self inflicted pain vs. other types of pain, so the topic always interests me. Looking forward to this! Thanks!
Kathleen

anihobbs
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Thanks for your video. I am suffering with this disorder, I believe, in silence, as others would think I am losing my mind. I am in the care avoidance silo. I currently live my life on a roller coaster of looking up symptoms and then go into full on panic attack when I discover the worst outcomes to symptoms. It is affecting all parts of my life. It seems to be getting worse as I get older. I just hope each day when I wake up the feeling will be gone. If not, I make it through 1 more day. Not fun.

jeffmutter
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As soon as you said “9 symptoms” I KNEW you were going to mention BPD... I watch too many videos

BL-hwmn
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This is a very interesting video. Thank you, Dr. Grande.❤

rejaneoliveira
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Interesting video, I enjoyed watching this along with the other videos concerning anxiety. Each video relates to each other and offers important relevant information.

virginiamurrey
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Very subtle distinctions between many of the disorders. Good thing there's a manual.

jillbeck
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I have this some times then if I learn about a new illness mental or physical for some reason I think I have it so

wyattbunnell
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What about if you have an illness, and extreme anxiety is one of the sickness symptoms? What is that called? I got that with Covid in ‘22, and again this year.

hannahperkins
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Wouldn't that be the same thing as hyperchondria?

johnnyjohnston
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Very impressive video. Wonderful information. Great job.

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