I Told You I Was Ill

Do you worry that spots are cancerous? That headaches are caused by tapeworm larvae burrowing into your brain (cysticercosis, it’s called)? That shoulder twinges are cardiovascular accidents waiting to happen? If so, you’re almost certainly a hypochondriac. But don’t worry about it, and whatever you do, don’t let anyone make you feel guilty or ashamed. As this hilarious book shows, hypochondria is the only sane response to modern life—an illness in itself, and part of a noble tradition of neurosis stretching back thousands of years. From Darwin to Tolstoy, many of history’s greatest writers and thinkers have been incorrigible hypochondriacs. They understood what too many of us have forgotten—you can only get better by imagining the worst.