COVID 19 AND THE HYPOCHONDRIAC…NOT A GOOD MIX

Larry Restler was feeling sick, but he always felt under the weather. Since he was born Larry thought there was something wrong with him. His parents had taken him to their family doctor more times than they could count and he never found anything.

As Larry got older his parents suggested that maybe his maladies weren’t physical and they got him an appointment with Dr. Rebecca Goshen a Psychiatrist.

Every week Larry would go to visit Dr. Goshen and share his aches and pains and his fears of getting fatally sick. Every week Dr. Goshen would remind him of the tests Dr. Gazelle had sent him for and the results, which always came back nice and clean.

Rebecca would give Larry exercises to control his fears, but they never seemed to really work. She was hesitant to give anti-anxiety drugs because of the addictive nature of the prescription. Instead, she met weekly and had some deep, philosophical discussions.

As Larry aged, Dr. Goshen continued to meet with him. He went to University but didn’t want to live on campus, so he went to a school that was only an eight-minute walk from his house. He didn’t drive because of the number of car accidents that happened every year. He didn’t want to be a victim of a reckless driver.

After University, Larry took a job with an Accounting firm. He liked what he…