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Jesus, you people sound like the clueless assholes who tell people with clinical depression to "get over it." I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder that from time to time will cross over into hypochondria. Fortunately, it's not too bad and I've been able to manage it positively by turning it into motivation to work out like a fiend, eat a great diet and get really healthy. But it never truly goes away.
Hypochondria is not being self-absorbed, having nothing better to do or looking for attention. It is a full-blown, honest-to-Pete fucking anxiety disorder. A mental illness. Not the worst one a person can have, but no picnic, either. So unless you know what it's like to spend 24 hours in a cold sweat because you bled into the toilet bowl after a particularly rough bowel movement, spent six hours obsessively surfing the Web for symptoms and were convinced you had colon cancer, shove your all-knowing "get over it" advice, please.
