While the average hypochondriac mirrors the textbook case of a thirty to fifty year-old person who languishes with one complaint after another without any medical diagnosis for them; with the Christian hypochondriac the case is a horse of a slightly different color. And while the average hypochondriac is a Doubting Thomas who harbors distrust for physicians, the typical hypochondriac believer who runs to the phone instead of the throne is a chronic wolf-crier who inadvertently abuses the pastor.

With the believer, the drama is continual when a parishioner calls the pastor for prayer for the third time in as many days, and at the most inopportune time; with a complaint that, “my heart is racing uncontrollably, and I can hardly breath.” Another time it is the fear and fiasco that she has contracted AIDS because her gay nephew kissed her on the cheek. On each entreaty the pastor is constrained to pray an intercessory prayer on her behalf and there is peace –at least until the next episode.

The tragic reality is that whether the case involves a believer or non-believer, hypochondriacs exaggerate chronic concerns about disease and pain without reasonable medical justification. This is a reality that also gives credence to the fact that, certain emotions such as anxiety, guilt, anger, unforgiveness and depression seem to occur more often than other emotions in Christian counseling. Still, there’s no further need for worry, since help is available through the appropriate coaching and counseling that can produce a breakthrough from this kind of disorder.

Job’s experience, for example, shows that the greatest adventure a person can take is one of self-discovery. Self-discovery properly utilized often leads to the absolution of similar mental disorders. Where there’s resistance to change, the question that abounds is, “What does self-discovery mean in light of the adage, ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same?’” What does self-discovery amount to when you are stuck in middle age, and have become too set in your ways to even want to change a hairstyle?

But if self-discovery is vital to peace of mind and survival, then one is compelled to take the first step on the road to finding a breakthrough. The first step to Job’s breakthrough was spiritual transformation. And this is the path he was compelled to take when he arrived at his turning point.

In one of a series of biblical counseling sessions with a person, the pathology of hypochondriasis became suspect and a cause for concern. It was determined that hypochondriasis is a somatoform disorder that can affect even believers, of which the common trait that characterizes this group of disorders is the presence of physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition, but is not fully explained by a general medical condition.

The prefix soma is a Greek word meaning body. As such, somatoform means that what is psychological in origin is being manifested physically as back pain, neck pain, nervousness, fatigue, muscle spasms and insomnia. It is for this reason this author believes there is great value in exploring the subject further to determine in what way this condition affects the counselee. The goal of this book is to examine top researches and treatment protocols to see how they match with the hypothetical diagnosis, in order to have a more effective approach in counseling.

It is not strange that the pathology of hypochondriasis can inflict a Christian person in his or her walk of faith. It is observable that Christians develop personality disorders when they succumb to life’s cares. Personality disorders are normal and natural to human existence, but when this normalcy has capsized from the pressures and stresses of the environment they become a cause for worry.

Throughout the centuries there have been many books, journals, and reports aimed at addressing the issue of hypochondriasis and its attendant disorders, with only a marginal understanding derived from them. As a general rule, hypochondriasis is the preoccupation with the fear of having, or the idea that one has, a serious disease based on the person’s interpretation of bodily symptoms or bodily functions.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) explains that, “Individuals with hypochondriasis may become alarmed by reading and hearing about disease, knowing someone who becomes sick; or from observations, sensations, or occurrences within their own bodies. Concerns about the feared illness become a central feature of the individual’s self-image, a topic of social discourse, and response to life’s stresses.”

There’s still a big question of how much is really known about this disorder, because it is often slighted and ignored by general psychiatry. Hypochondriasis and somatization are rarely included in national surveys on mental health—much to the disappointment of primary care doctors, and other physicians who feel that psychiatry should offer help in this area of medical practice. Because these disorders mainly occur in primary care and secondary medical practices, many psychiatrists are not aware of the suffering, functional impairment, and the high financial toll that can result from them.

Hypochondriasis of itself, and as a somatoform disorder, has been described in recent times as the most controversial and challenging areas of psychiatry, due to the various unknown factors that are associated with them, to the extent that researchers become frustrated in their efforts to come up with a formal diagnosis. Because it is so characterized, perhaps it is the foremost reason hypochondriasis has been so ill-defined.