A Cultural History Of Hypochondria

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are you hyper-vigilant about your health, constantly monitoring yourself and panicking when you feel the slightest symptom? You're not alone. Writer Caroline Crampton has a new book about illness anxiety disorder, a.k.a. hypochondria. We talk about our evolving understanding of the disorder, its connection to PTSD, and new treatments. Her book is A Body Made of Glass.

John Powers reviews two new spy series, Black Doves and The Agency.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR programming, whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at NPR Wine Club.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase.
0:18.7	This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. I think I may have a mild case of a
0:23.7	health condition I just learned about, and you may have it too. It's called cybercondria. It's a
0:30.6	cousin of hypochondria. Cybercondria is when you Google your symptoms and convince yourself
0:36.2	you have the worst case scenario and are doomed.
0:39.7	My guest describes the Internet as the most expansive and spacious playground that hypochondria ever had.
0:47.6	Carolyn Krampton is the author of a new book about hypochondria because she's pretty sure she has it.
0:53.7	She has a reason to be hypervigilant about
0:55.9	her health. When she was 17, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
1:01.8	After months of treatment and monitoring, she was given the all-clear and went to college.
1:06.9	But a year later, she found a lump in her neck. The cancer had returned, requiring more chemo and a stem cell transplant.
1:14.8	She spent weeks in a hospital isolation ward. After five years had passed, she was told again she was in the clear.
1:22.5	Is it any wonder she's always feeling the sight of the tumor and going to the doctor every time she feels a twinge in her neck or any suspicious symptom.
1:31.7	Crampton's new book is called A Body Made of Glass, a Cultural History of Hypochondria.
1:37.0	It's about her own experience of hypochondria, and it examines how our understanding of hypochondria has changed from ancient times to today, and she reports
1:46.8	on the latest therapies for treating it. Crampton is also a critic who has written for The Guardian and
1:51.9	other British publications, and she appears regularly on BBC Radio 4. She's the creator and host of
1:58.5	the detective fiction podcast, She Done It.
2:01.8	She's speaking to us from her home in England.
2:05.2	Carolyn Crampton, welcome to fresh air.
2:07.8	And how is her health? Are you in good health now?
2:10.9	I'm in good health at the moment.
	...

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