Kelly is a fit, healthy woman in her 50s. Both her parents died (her mother from breast cancer, and her father of heart failure) before she was 16 – after which she was raised by her grandparents. Both her grandparents passed away in their 80s of natural causes.
Recently, one of her best friends died of breast cancer. Her friend had been a very healthy woman who took good care of herself, ate well, and exercised regularly. Her cancer was un-expected. She went through many months of distressing treatment before dying at the age of 53. Kelly was very upset and frightened by the death of her friend. She said after the funeral, “I thought we would grow old together, drink wine, and enjoy many meals – but it wasn’t to be”.
Since then, Kelly has begun to focus on her own body and on any experiences which could be interpreted as a symptom of ill-health. If she gets a headache, or a muscle twitch, or notices an ache in her body, she becomes pre-occupied with it and worries endlessly about what it might mean. She stated, “You know, such things could be a sign of something bad, so I say I should get it checked out”.
Kelly looks up symptoms on the Internet and asks others what they might think is wrong with her. She visits her doctor more often than before, asking for reassurance that her symptoms are not a sign of something more serious. After visiting the doctor, Kelly feels better for a while but then she begins to worry again. As she worries more, she gets more headaches, and feels tired and unhappy. When her doctor tells her that she is fine and there is nothing to worry about, she begins to doubt her doctor’s opinion and begins to seek advice from alternative therapists. She says, “You can’t always believe doctors, because they are not always right”.
