Editor’s note: This is the second of three installments of this story. The story continues from the last issue.

Jenny, 28, of West Seattle, is a hypochondriac and experiences extreme fear and medical anxiety every day. She spends hours researching diseases and symptoms on the internet and has recently made the decision to get help.

Last month she married John, an employee of Boeing. He’s been in the Northwest for a few years working, while she just recently relocated. They had a large wedding in southern California, where they were both raised.

While most brides experience nerves on the big day, Jenny’s experience, in contrast to her daily life, was very calm, even when she was stuck in traffic and late for the ceremony.

“My support group was there with me. My friends are big time worriers and control freaks. When they are around, I don't feel so anxiety-ridden and I really think my issues over the last few years are about not having them around to vent to,” Jenny says.

This large group of close friends met in high school and even though they don’t live in Washington, Jenny she still feels close to them. When a doctor prescribed a heavy medication for psoriasis, Jenny consulted her friends by email as usual.

“I’m one of those people who reads the small print on the pharmaceutical inserts,” Jenny admits. And she terrifies herself by imagining all the worse case scenarios happening if she takes the medication.

Her friends are usually there to give her advice and steer her away from going too far with her medical worries.

But lately she’s noticed a change in their behavior around her. “It’s in their faces, when I come in the room,” her voice lowers as she plays with the strings on her black hoodie, “they seem tired of hearing about all my crazy fears.”

A few of them have approached her to admit they are worried she should get help for her severe medical anxiety.

Jenny traces her phobias and anxiety to illnesses in her childhood. “I was the sick kid. My mom would always imagine a cough turning into pneumonia or worse. I was even hospitalized once and often stayed home from school.”

She was an only child and was raised by a mother who is addicted to prescription medications. “I came home once to the front door wide open, the vacuum on in the middle of the room, and my mom was really high.” She recalls sadly, “She took muscle relaxants and so she seemed really scary to me as a kid with her odd movements. She would always berate me and I felt trapped until I got my driver’s license and could just leave.”

Jenny was adopted as a baby and someday wishes to meet her birth mom.

“When I was fourteen, I asked my father to look up my birth mom’s information, but never followed though with meeting her. Looking back, I think finding my birth mom, at that time was just a way to try to punish my adopted mom.”

She says she went through her teenage years feeling bulletproof, but sometime during her early 20’s she realized her mortality. “ It hit me that I was going to die someday,” she says. “ It’s not like I’m going to be the one lucky person who cheats death.”

Although a large portion of people may fear death, but Jenny’s fear is crippling and holds her back from doing what she loves.

Last week, after a search for free help in her community didn’t turn up any results, Jenny wrote an anonymous add on Craigslist:

“I am a 28-year-old married woman who is wanting to seriously start a support group for hypochondriacs. Serious replies only please.”

No one replied to her ad and she removed it within a week.

Editor’s note: Read the third and final installment of this story next week.
The first installment can be read HERE.