What treatment works

My mother is a severe hypochondriac. She's had it for many years and i haven't had a lot to do with her over the years because i can't manage her endless obsessing about her false health concerns.

What i want to ask is has anyone had any treatment that has helped. My mother has had therapy in the past but that hasn't helped her. It wasn't specifically for this condition i would say but anyway she's so bad now. I actually think she might have delusional disorder or a personality disorder as well. She's impossible. And i think if there was something that could get her to see reality she might actually become happier.

Hypochondria is an anxiety disorder. You're simply not going to 'get her to see reality' without addressing her anxiety. In practice, treating her hypochondria means treating her anxiety. The obsession itself is just a superficial manifestation of a deeper, underlying issue.

Some anxious people self-medicate with alcohol. Others obsess... It doesn't mean the obsessive habit itself doesn't need to be addressed, just like alcoholism itself has to be treated when it's present. But just like alcoholism, it can't be treated successfully without treating what leads the person to compulsively return to the habit.

As for specific treatments, sorry, I don't really know about any... But I hope this helps anyway.

I like anagram's answer, and I think it's a good one.

I just want to add, as someone who used to be chronically hypochondriacal (I still am occasionally) - even when you KNOW you have hypochondria, and KNOW you are dealing with irrational fears, it can be really hard to see it in the moment when you're worrying about Disease X.

So when a person doesn't really understand that they're hypochondriacal (and how do you tell someone that without seeming insulting?) I think it's almost impossible to come in from the outside and alleviate their fears.

What did help me (when I realized I had hypochondria) was to build rules for myself. If the disease I worried about (say, cancer) could wait a week or two before I saw a doctor, then I would wait that week or two and intentionally NOT think about it. If after the week, the "symptom" was still there, I'd see the doctor. 9 times out of 10, the symptom was gone after a week and this strategy alleviated my anxiety.

angelina4 wrote:What did help me (when I realized I had hypochondria) was to build rules for myself. If the disease I worried about (say, cancer) could wait a week or two before I saw a doctor, then I would wait that week or two and intentionally NOT think about it. If after the week, the "symptom" was still there, I'd see the doctor. 9 times out of 10, the symptom was gone after a week and this strategy alleviated my anxiety.

That does sound like a great strategy!