The word hyperchondria is defined in the medical encyclopedia as follows: "Undue preoccupation with ones real or supposed ailments. More of a hobby than an illness. It differs from malingering and hysteria." The malingerer may say he has a headache, when he has none, simply to avoid work. The hysteric does a similar thing, but at an unconscious level, and gets a real headache from no physical cause. But the hyperchondriac spends a happy day trying out new remedies for the headache which might come on. The problem here is, that people because so used to the imagined illnesses of the hyperchondriac that when real illness strikes, they're totally unprepared and tend to turn a blind eye. You might say, it's a case of Cry Wolf...