whats the word.......?

[EminOz]

that means you imagine you have symptoms of an illness becasue you are reading about them. theres a word and i cant for the life of me remember what it is. its where youll look up symtoms of something you dont have but then as youre reading them you feel like you have them and think you actually have the disease or whatever. dyu know what im talking about? anyone?

[Quizmonster]

Hypochondria(sis), perhaps?

[EminOz]

good answer quizmonter but not the one im looking for im afraid, there is a word i know it, as soon as someone tells me ill recognise it! thanks though!

[Quizmonster]

How about psychosomatic illness?

[Quizmonster]

Or even 'medical student syndrome'...click here for more info.

[jno]

wow QM, I never heard of that one before, but I think I may have it!

[helliebobs]

you don't mean Munchausen's syndrome do you?

[Quizmonster]

M�nchhausen's Syndrome is where someone believes him/herself to be ill or where he/she actually makes him/herself ill deliberately. They do this over a lengthy period in order to gain the attention/publicity this brings to them, putting them in the spotlight, as it were. The same disease, with the added words 'by proxy' means they do this to someone else, often their own child.
These are truly pathological conditions, whereas Medical Student Syndrome is a passing fantasy....ie I had lumbago yesterday, I've got liver cancer today and I'll have AIDS tomorrow, for example, simply because these are the diseases described in my reading matter on the days concerned.
There are many websites devoted to 'Medical Student Syndrome', most of which seem to state that it is a form of hypochondria, as offered in my opening response above.
Don't worry, J, you're not alone!

[Ward-Minter]

Dot Cottonism

[Clanad]

Such symptoms are sometimes described as sympathetic illness. Seen in cases of sympathetic pregnancy as an example...

[Ward-Minter]

or maybe "phantom" as in phantom prenancies or when you lose a limb you have phantom pains where it once was.

[EminOz]

thanks for all your help guys, i think its the psychosematic one, or however you spell it.

[mike b]

A friend of mine was told by his doctor, "You're not really a hypochondriac - you just think you are..."

[reinganum]

The best description ever of this particular phenomenon is at the start of Chapter 10 (I think) of Three Men in a Boat. It is absolutely hilarious (ROFL). The narrator is whiling away a wet afternoon in the public library, and he picks up a medical textbook....