High school students will have an innumerable amount of worries during their four years of attendance, and their concerns for their own health are certainly not to be overlooked. Some students’ worries over their health borders on “health paranoia”: feverish obession over their own well-being. However, despite its importance, how concerned should students be over their own health?
Senior Brian Lin is unconcerned. “[Health paranoia] doesn’t have an impact on us because a lot of us don’t have any family members or friends that are really paranoid, so we don’t experience any effects either,” he says.
While Lin remains unconcerned, for some people, intense concern over their own health is unavoidable. For instance, people who suffer from hypochondriasis constantly obsess over their own well-being. “Hypochondriasis is a psychological somatoform disorder, meaning that the mind and body of a hypochondriac will show evidence of two different things,” says psychology teacher Carlo Corti. “The mind will think it has a physical ailment and will be convinced it’s hurt, but there will be no medical evidence for anything wrong.”
While students such as Lin hardly worry about their health, and hypochondriacs constantly fret over it, the majority of students appear to take the middle ground. For instance, many athletes become genuinely paranoid at the slightest sign of physical ailment, only to return to practice a couple days later.
“When I was a freshman, I had a pain in my leg that turned out to be a cist. So when I felt another pain this year, I was really worried it was going to be the same thing,” says junior, and three-sport athlete William Rivera. “I became really nervous about it, even though it turned out to be nothing.”
Similarly, senior and varsity football player Jeremy Wint was distraught when he experienced a pain in his leg. “I thought I had torn my knee, and I practiced a lot softer because of it,” reminisces Wint. After taking a few practices easier however, Wint’s knee felt a lot better. “It turned out alright though; I wasn’t injured.”
When it comes to maintaining a comfortable balance between paranoia and apathy, students can find support in Aragon’s well-developed health and psychology courses. “Knowing information about diseases and disorders reduces the level of paranoia at Aragon,” say senior Matthew Hwang. “If students are not educated, it becomes more likely for them to jump to false conclusions.”
“One of the major causes behind health paranoia is student stress,” says Corti. “When students have heightened levels of anxiety and increased levels of stress, they often [become] fearful of other problems in their life.”
While some students believe these stress-induced concerns are just examples of students being oversensitive, health paranoia remains a warranted issue. “People who are really paranoid about their health need to go see a therapist,” advises Rivera.
Aragon’s experts agree. “Students need to use the medical world,” says Corti. “If they feel hurt or injured, the most important thing they need to do is go see a doctor.”
