Symptoms part 2

Hypochondria

My mother has a long list of ever-changing yet always-present physical "ailments." Her hypochondria has escalated in recent years as a result of the internet. She is now a cyberchondriac, which according to Webster's New Word Dictionary means that she is "a hypochondriac who imagines that he or she has a particular disease based on medical information gleamed from the Internet." She will read about an obscure medical condition either online or in a book and will quickly become convinced that she suffers from that illness.

She truly believes that she is deathly ill. "I'm dying" or "I feel like I'm going to die" she will often say. Although she has said that she would be better off "with God" instead of "on this earth," it is clear that she fears death.

As a result of her numerous imagined illnesses she has a very large supply of nutritional supplements. She believes that each new purchase will be the one that will somehow solve her physical problems.

She has a very strict diet. There are numerous foods that she refuses to eat because she believes that she is allergic to them, or that they are not good for people with her blood type, or because they may be contaminated.

She is overweight and does have one allergy, however most of her illnesses only exist inside her imagination.

Today, after many complaints of a supposed UTI she went to the doctor, who of course found no such infection. She arrived home still insisting that she is ill, it's just that the doctor couldn't see it.

She enjoys letting people know how sick she is. So much so, in fact, that her pastor's wife has found it difficult to speak to her on Sunday mornings, knowing that she would be stuck listening to her complaints and unable to greet any of the other churchgoers.

She complains almost nonstop to anyone who will listen. ("I am too tired." "I am so thirsty." "I feel like I could die." "I am too hot." "I am so sick." "It stinks in here." "I can not keep up with it all." "There is too much to do.")


Failure to Take Responsibility for Own Actions

My mother refuses to acknowledge that she has contributed to any of her own problems.

She believes that she is unable to lose weight because of her metabolism, or "mercury poisoning," or her thyroid, or... anything else, except for her lack of exercise and her refusal to change her diet. She even blames the pediatrician, who instructed her parents, to feed her Karo syrup as an infant. That, she says, is what set her up to be overweight.


Lethargy

My mother's daily routine consists of sleeping, eating, and sitting on the couch with her laptop. She has not been employed for many years. She does not like light, and prefers to sit in the dark instead of opening up the curtains. Her lack of personal hygiene is also disturbing. She dislikes any form of exercise. She will not even go for a walk in her neighborhood.


There's more to come.