Are you hyper-vigilant about your health, constantly monitoring yourself and panicking when you feel the slightest symptom? You're not alone. Writer Caroline Crampton has a new book about illness anxiety disorder, a.k.a. hypochondria. We talk about our evolving understanding of the disorder, its connection to PTSD, and new treatments. Her book is A Body Made of Glass. John Powers reviews two new spy series, Black Doves and The Agency.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. I think I may have a mild case of a health condition I just learned about, and you may have it too. It's called cyberchondria. It's a cousin of hypochondria. Cyberchondria is when you Google your symptoms and convince yourself you have the worst case scenario and are doomed.
My guest describes the internet as the most expansive and spacious playground that hypochondria ever had. Carolyn Crampton is the author of a new book about hypochondria because she's pretty sure she has it. She has a reason to be hypervigilant about her health. When she was 17, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
After months of treatment and monitoring, she was given the all-clear and went to college. But a year later, she found a lump in her neck. The cancer had returned, requiring more chemo and a stem cell transplant. She spent weeks in a hospital isolation ward. After five years had passed, she was told again she was in the clear.
Is it any wonder she's always feeling the sight of the tumor and going to the doctor every time she feels a twinge in her neck or any suspicious symptom? Crampton's new book is called A Body Made of Glass, A Cultural History of Hypochondria.
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