how do you know when to worry about an overdramatic hypocondriac?

Question

my girlfriend is a major hypocondriac with a tendancy to overdramatize tot he point where shes always "dying" she once felt her side hurt and her first thought was that her kidney was going to burst . now shes sick again . but i cant tell for sure if shes exagerating her symptoms at all. she refuses to tell her parents i cant convince her otherwise and so forth. but i frankly have no idea if i should be worried or not.

Answer 1

unless she is running a fever, throwing up, or broke a bone ignore her.

Answer 2

Well, the best thing to do is to take her for a psychiatric evaluation and obtain a formal diagnosis of hypochondriasis. If she's a true hypochondriac, then reassurance from a medical professional will be sufficient to convince her that she doesn't have whatever she's convinced herself of. She might have somatoform disorder though, which is something similar but different, and is treated in a different way.

Answer 3

have you heard of enabling? Some people are never happy unless there's something wrong. My mom is that way. I think counseling would be worth a try, my guess is that she'd resist and say "why don't you believe me?" Ever read that story about 'crying wolf?" That's the sad thing, some time there might be something wrong and no one will believe her. She has to try and find something to focus on besides herself.