worried well

English

Etymology

Coined in 1970 by Sidney Garfield, founder of Kaiser Permanente.

Noun

worried well pl (plural only)

1. (medicine) Users of medical or psychiatric services who are not suffering from any diagnosable disease.
   • 1987, Kathy J. Harowski, “The Worried Well: Maximizing Coping in the Face of AIDS”, in Psychotherapy With Homosexual Men and Women‎^[1], →ISBN, page 302:

     "In cities with a high and more visible number of men becoming sick and dying from AIDS, the worried well report panic attacks, somatic preoccupations, and difficulty functioning on the job because of obsessional worrying about the syndrome."

See also

• hypochondria