A term often applied to individuals who are afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis but have not yet been diagnosed. From an outside vantage point it appears that the individual could very well be manufacturing the ailments, since they are transitory and often involve numbness, blindness or inability to speak coherently. This is often seen as either an attempt to get out of working or a ploy to get sympathy from a group of friends.

The accusations do not stop when the person is diagnosed however. It is difficult for people to understand that someone can be extremely unwell yet will show little or no outward signs of the disease. If the diagnosed individual falls down or runs into a wall friends will often attribute it to normal every day clumsiness when it is actually caused by the body's poor nerve conductivity.

In any case, this term should not be used lightly. Nervous system disorders can cause a wide range of ailments, some of which are thought to be completely unrelated to the brain by uneducated assholes. Unfortunately EVERYTHING about you is controlled by your brain/nervous system and if there is a defect in that system, it can and will affect any number of usually normal processes.

Hy`po*chon"dri*ac (?), a. [Gr. affocated in the hypochondrium: cf. F. hypocondriaque, formerly spelt hypochondriaque.]

1.

Of or pertaining to hypochondria, or the hypochondriac regions.

2.

Affected, characterized, or produced, by hypochondriasis.

Hypochondriac region Anat., a region on either side of the abdomen beneath the cartilages of the false ribs, beside the epigastric, and above the lumbar, region.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hy`po*chon"dri*ac, n.

A person affected with hypochondriasis.

He had become an incurable hypochondriac. Macaulay.

 

© Webster 1913.

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