How do you know if a person is hypochondriac?

Gauthier Delomez 5:15 p.m., December 6, 2021

During a pandemic, it can be more difficult to reassure people with hypochondriacs.

About eight million French people suffer from this behavioral disorder, which is characterized by an advanced state of anxiety.

In the program

, the psychologist Antoine Spath evokes the signs of hypochondria and gives several ways to fight against this phenomenon.

The feeling that everything is a pretext for serious illness

The true hypochondria is characterized "by the duration, the repetitive and unreasonable aspect of the complaint. We feel that there is something imaginary", explains the psychologist on Europe 1. "To qualify someone as hypochondriac , it is necessary that it passed by the doctor and that this one diagnosed something nothing ", continues Antoine Spath. A person affected by hypochondria also suffers from anosognosia, "that is to say, he is unaware of his disorders (...). He is convinced that something is wrong", adds he does.

The Covid-19 epidemic has worsened the anxiety of many people, believes the psychologist.

He explains that a hypochondriac patient needs to be given "clear rules".

"He adores the mask, he adores the gel, he adores the little instructions that we have been able to give him. A true hypochondriac will put his phone in a freezer bag so as not to contaminate," says Antoine Spath.

For him, one can develop hypochondria if one has "the feeling that there is a lethal risk, of death, in the face of a serious illness. Anything can be a pretext for a serious illness, like a small pimple growing on the nose. ".

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Convince the person to consult a shrink

The mission of those around the hypochondriac is to convince them to go see a psychologist. A very difficult task because people suffering from hypochondria think that they are not taken seriously. To achieve this, the psychologist explains that one must listen to the patient.

There are also other ways to reassure people with hypochondriacs, in the absence of a good therapeutic tool. If sport can help, "there are specific techniques of relaxation, self-hypnosis, which are relatively effective", assures Antoine Spath, to allow a patient to be more calm in his body, before consulting a doctor. shrink. One of the tricks is to focus the mind of a hypochondriac on something other than its symptom. "We try to suggest to a person to shift his attention, to defocus it on a part of his body, to also show him the unreal aspect of his anxiety.

The psychologist Antoine Spath advises between five and ten hypnosis sessions for the hypochondriac person, according to the seniority and the difficulty of the disorder.

He also urges to see a shrink as soon as possible.