Some of you might be familiar with this excerpt from a fantastic book called "a demon haunted world" by late scientist Carl Sagan. In this excerpt, Sagan provides a scenario and shows just how far people can take a claim and make it seem real. Sagan shows how to properly question such scenarios using simple logic. I feel there's a message within this excerpt that could assist some Health Anxiety sufferers by encouraging them to appeal to their logical side. There is a point to this, honestly;
"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage" Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin[3]) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!
"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle--but no dragon.
"Where's the dragon?" you ask.
"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."
You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.
"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."
Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.
"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."
You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.
"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.
Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?
Now, my point is thus:
A lot of people on these forums use this type of warped logic and special plead when talking of perceived illness. This is not a criticism of anyone, merely an observation of how anxiety makes some people behave.
We see, for instance, a poster who is convinced the lump she has found is cancer. As observers, our initial question is "what makes you think you have cancer?" Of course, the poster will report they have a lump.
You'll ask if it's been checked by a doctor. "Yes it has, and they say it's fine."
Well there you go then. "But what if they're wrong."
That's very rare. Does it move? "Yes it does."
Cancerous tumours don't move. "I know, but what if this is a tumour that does move?"
Is it growing? "No, but what if it's a slow growing tumour?"
Are you ill or in pain? "No, but some cancers aren't painful and don't make you ill"
Are you losing weight? "No, but I dont excersise and have a big appetite"
And so on.
The point is the same. Sagans dragon existed only in make believe, and he had to put forth a series of special arguments in order to justify his hypotheses. In his conclusion, what is the difference between an invisible floating dragon that breathes heatless Fire, and one that doesn't actually exist?
In the HA sufferers scenario, it's much the same. What's the difference between a cancerous tumour that doesn't grow, doesn't make you ill, doesn't hurt or make you lose weight, and a cancer that simply doesn't exist? Evidence always becomes flimsier the more special arguments you need to put forth in which to justify something's existence, with health anxiety it is no different.
I realise this is a bit long winded but I do hope some people will see the point I'm trying to make, and hopefully it can make some others recognise this pattern within themselves.
God knows, we see a lot of bloody dragons around here.
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