More people seem to be crazy than sane these days, especially in my town. Maybe the John Birchers were right about fluoridation. Maybe it's all the people on pharmaceuticals with the side effects emulating OCD and psychopathy among many other less common side effects like mass murder followed by suicide or just being a silly goose. Maybe it is all the cooked brains from cellphones. Maybe it's the television constantly showing us a parade of psychos, depressants, manics, attention whores and assorted other whackjobs over and over again with no sane people portrayed to counteract the constant drumbeat of negative programming.

You can call it what you want and give it fancy names and specialized kinks of it but the bottom line is that people are crazy, insane and just plain stupid.

What can you expect from domesticated apes?

Some people should never ever watch television or go to the movies.

Monkey see, monkey do.

First of all you're very welcome. I've made it part of my life's work to share my story and lend support to other sufferers of PD. It might seem odd (for a variety of reasons) but it has made me a far better (and more empathetic) EMT, firefighter and healthcare professional. I guess it's almost like the "Monk" effect. I see things I wouldn't otherwise in the ER and on the street both.

Oh yes, I also developed asthma in my teens. Sure didn't need that after already having developed PD! This is a fairly frequent early assessment (panic attack as asthma attack) but is quickly differentiated once someone with a stethescope and a decent ear has listened to the patient's lung fields. There's no sound like an asthma attack in full swing: kind of like an orchestra warming up. No feeling like it, either. Of course both PD and asthma can be aggravated by stress, which makes that predicament all the more a challenge for the patient afflicted with both. But I guess I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

The article, I felt, was potentially very educational as well as entertaining (and lord knows humor is the one indispensible resource we must never lose in caring for ourselves -- and for others). There is also a certain sadness, and of course the feeling that anyone could be pushed over the edge of self-concern between all the disease du jour news stories and the barrage of big pharma ads which also include all the worst possible side effects. Still, the true hypochondriac (I hate that word but it honestly is easier for me to type) has a unique challenge which can be amenable to psychotherapy, but can be very difficult for patient and provider alike.

As for those cold, cold individuals who suggest "get a life" or worse, Salon seems to be rife with them of late. While I wouldn't wish ill on any person, they certainly do make me rethink that policy. I know they wouldn't be writing things like that if they'd only been there. Those sorts of posts almost always come from a place of blissful ignorance.

I agree, Ms. Traig is dealing very well with her problem, and especially that humor (Oscar LeVant's trademark strategy) is quite possibly the best thing we've all got going for us. I'm sure the late Norman Cousins would give me a thumbs-up for saying that, too. (How'm I doing, Norm?).

Again, thanks for the kind words and for sharing your experience with panic disorder. It's a bear!

You're female and you're convinced you have prostate cancer.

But seriously, folks, the other side of this coin that greatly intrigues me is how physicians seem to follow trends in diagnoses--to the point where new epidemics appear to be springing up every few years.

I'm thinking about disorders such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable-bowel syndrome, multiple-personality disorder, etc. I don't mean to imply that these diseases and their diagnoses aren't real. I just find it interesting that one condition will spike in the population, then gradually fade out, only to be replaced by another condition.

I have strong empathy for hypochondriacs. I think they believe that good health is a gift that they don't deserve.

Simmer down there fellow!

What is the title of the article?

"Sick in the head"

Crazy, man! Crazy!

You think that crazy is a derogatory term but all those DSM terms are not? Get labeled as mentally ill and it can put a real limit on your options as well as toxify your mind and body.

I don't like war and I don't like drugging people with nerve poisons and pesticides - go ahead, vent. I also value people over profits. I also remember what it was like before the country went nuts.

You probably think the country isn't nuts.

" For me, transmission usually occurs through the television. They mention it on the news, and within a few hours I'm pretty sure I have it. "

That quote is from the article.

Monkey see, monkey do.

She should not watch television.

Television programs mental illness.

It is a science, not an art form.

Intentional behavioral conditioning.

I prefer consulting with a smart hypochondriac rather than a dumb doctor any time, and under most conditions.

True story: In my prime, and in superb good health, I suddenly started waking up in the night with terrible pains in my upper back...

Two aspirin, back to sleep and fine in the morning.

However when it it became routine, rather than occasional, I consulted a doctor who told me I had pleurisy and recommended daily shots of penicillin for a week... which directions I followed, yielding nothing more nor less than huge bumps in my posterior that could be noticed beneath my jeans...

Another doctor suggested arthritis in the shoulders and recommended a pillow (cost $200.00) which direction I obediently followed.

And so forth..

Until one attack was so debilitating and left such residual discomfort when I awoke in the morning, that I mentioned it to my friend Sybil who told me after briefly considering my symptoms that I probably had an inflamed gall bladder...

Hmmm...

Mentioning this to the next doctor led to the following dialogue:

Me: A friend suggests that I am suffering from gall bladder problems..

Doc: Ah your friend.. is he or she a doctor perhaps? With a specialty?

Me: No not at all.. She is a hypochondriac..

Doc (sniffing from his own infection of infinite superiority ): Well, you are hardly a candidate for gall bladder problems, being distinctly lacking in any of the Four EFFS: Fat, flossy, fair, forty.

Me: the four effs? Is that science? Does that mean that dark skinned people who are over forty and are not flossy (fussy, high strung) or overweight NEVER had gall bladder problems?

Doc: Of course not... but statistically... okay why don't we do a test and get some x-rays..

End of story: doctor called me at home a few days later to report that I had so many gall stones that he recommended emergency surgery...And indicated extreme annoyance that I had allowed my condition to progress to such a state.

Okay, that was long ago... in the Sixties...

Medicine here in the USA has progressed well beyond such medical incompetence and self-aggrandizement on the part of doctors..

Did I really say that?

Jeez... I sound like a Republican..

But Sybil l is still MY consulting physician ... and I'm now in a dotage exceeding the general statistics for longevity in the United States.

Remember this: while every doctor's mother likes to report that her son was in the top 5% of his class.... there IS that bottom 5%.. with the same diploma from the same medical school hanging in his office..although the top 5% probably do equally well on the golf course.

Hypochondriacs have no such authoritative credentials... so a hip- hooray for the sickness obsessed.

They who suffer just as much, and more often, that those who aren't Eskimos but who actually DO have pibloktoq

And who can save you a shit-load of time AND money, if you listen judiciously.

Norma Manna Blum