Hypochondria is an emotional condition in which people believe that they have grave health problems that are actually either absent or not a serious threat. Medical doctors try to sound clinical about it, and refer to this emotional state as illness anxiety disorder or hypochondriasis, but almost everybody else still uses the term hypochondria.
The trouble is that the stress caused by the mere belief in a health crisis can itself cause health problems. What’s more, there are many health conditions that are difficult to diagnose, leading doctors to dismiss patients who actually have severe health problems as hypochondriacs. There is no name for the emotional state that leads some doctors to be dismissive of their patients’ suffering. Perhaps there should be.
A version of hypochondria that’s specifically associated with the digital age is called cyberchondria, the feeling of having a health problem after reading about it on the internet. Of course, a person might actually have a medical condition that they’ve read about on the internet after experiencing specific symptoms. There is no name for the defensive emotion felt by doctors who worry that their professional status is diminished by the proliferation of good online sources of medical information. Perhaps there should be.
