Dealing with a Hypochondriac

[C'est Moi]

Anyone have to deal with a hypochondriac? I have a friend who makes me crazy with her imagined illnesses. Oy. Thank goodness for caller ID.

 

[Aunt Bea]

You need to establish a don't ask don't tell policy when it comes to health issues. layful:nthego:

 

[terry123]

My daughter had a MIL that was one. Constantly going to the doctor and always something wrong with her. One of her doctors told her she would be pre-diabetic if she did not take better care of herself. Now she has decided she has diabetes. I used to go out to lunch with her and her neighbor until I could not take her wanting to taste my food. Eating out is a treat for me. She would want one of my fried shrimp to taste as she was allergic to shell fish. I finally told her that if she was allergic then she could not have mine as I did not want to be responsible for her having a problem. She finally got the message and did not ask to taste my shrimp or cheesecake anymore. My daughter and her son got a divorce so I was not subjected to family dinners anymore and I declined offers to eat out with her and her neighbor. She did call some but I finally stopped answering and let it go to voice mail.

 

[Falcon]

I wouldn't want one for a friend. I have limits.

 

[C'est Moi]

You need to establish a don't ask don't tell policy when it comes to health issues. layful:nthego:

Currently I'm locked into "don't answer the phone!!" mode.

 

[gennie]

I have an acquaintance who is not just a hypochondriac but is forever doing a 'poor, pitiful Pearl' routine. Very tiresome.

 

[Keesha]

They usually are the ‘poor me ‘ type and a total buzz kill

 

[C'est Moi]

Yep. And usually into the one-upmanship of illness... they always have a more serious case than anyone else.

 

[Camper6]

I have a friend and everyone claims he is a hypochondriac. He's not. He has lots wrong with him.

So if you ask how are you he will tell you.

 

[Keesha]

Yep. And usually into the one-upmanship of illness... they always have a more serious case than anyone else.

Omg yes. My MIL. She’s the only person I know who is happy to be sick and unhappy if anyone happens to be sicker than her.
Its like a competition in who can be the sickest
Its truly a warped way if thinking

 

[twinkles]

keesha that sounds like my sil---he has been in been bed all week with a cold

 

[jujube]

My grandfather was the king of hypochondriacs.

He would turn to the obits every morning to see who had died and what they had died of. If he knew the deceased (and he usually did), then he would start having symptoms. Heart attack? Pains in the chest. Cancer? Pain in the side. stroke? Oy, what a headache I have!

The doctor would put him in the hospital occasionally just to give my grandmother a few days' rest. Not that it did her much good, because she'd have to go to the hospital several times a day to take him food or rub his back or any of the thousand things he demanded.

So, finally he died in his sleep and to this day we have no idea what he died of, as my grandmother wouldn't allow an autopsy. ( I think she snuck into his bedroom and smothered him with his pillow.)

 

[SeaBreeze]

I worked with a woman like that, thankfully I didn't have to 'deal' with her as a friend. If someone had a headache, she had a migraine. If someone had an ulcer, she had a hundred, etc. She really didn't seem to be sickly at all...hard to be around people like that. If it was nice and sunny outside, she'd comment that it wouldn't last long. Their negative comments seem to leave them in a minute, and stay with you all day.

 

[C'est Moi]