HypochondriaThe Imaginary MaladyThey say that “the worst enemy is the one so close that we cannot see”. In this issue’s article this enemy is the Sub-conscious. It can be defined as those dark areas of our psyche, thoughts and ideas that we cannot see or unders-tand but nevertheless control us from moment to moment. “Blind spots”.

Studying the human subconscious is to dive into an unknown sea, discove-ring with amazement ancient mons-ters and strange creatures living in its depths...Fears, anxiety, worries, re-grets, resentments, mistaken beliefs... So if we claim to be “normal people” it means we still haven’t taken that dip. We don’t know ourselves. The truth is nobody is “normal”; normality is ap-pearance, it’s a mask that cannot stand the greatest psychological test ever invented: COEXISTENCE. It is certain that those who are close to us have probably met several times with the-se “strange psychological characters” we carry within; our small insanities, our daily obsessions, our “dark side” full of ideas slightly, say…absurd. In coexistence we reveal our own Mr. Hyde. And if we’re not careful, bye, bye relationship. So when it comes to human beings…normality doesn’t exist. As Shakespeare correctly put: “When we are born we cry that we are come…to this great stage of fools.”

One of these strange “characters” we might carry within, well hidden in

our subconscious, is the Hypochon-driac. Although it is pretty common, we seem to regard it as a myth or an exotic disease; it’s mostly something eccentric that we joke about. One of these comic – but serious – portraits of Hypochondria is the theatre play by Molière called “The Imaginary Invalid”, or “The Hypochondriac”. As usual, Mo-lière uses comedy as a tool to give us a raw portrait of the human nature. He makes us laugh, but teaches us some truths. Like this:“Nearly all men die of their remedies, not of their illnesses.”

A hypochondrium is a psychological condition characterized by the belief that you suffer from a serious disease. It’s generated by the fear of disease (and death), and it generates an ex-cessive concern for health, anxiety, melancholia and depression. The “in-ner hypochondriac” always believes there’s something wrong with his body and creates a process of constant self-examination to feed his belief. He perceives normal organic reactions as symptoms of some serious illness that he keeps struggling to discover. Exam-ples: Digestion sounds, heartbeats, small stitches, headaches, dizziness, bad digestion, minor skin spots, etc.

An easy way to recognize him is to look at his “medicine kit”, frequent drugsto-re visits, too many rules for eating, slee-ping...living. He also loves reading and talking about health issues. If he sees a doctor and is told that he doesn’t have any serious problem, he feels angry, frustrated and looks for some other doctor, saying that Dr. X. is no good. However, modern hypochondriacs have a more “practical” diagnosis tool:

the Internet. They spend hours doing searches on their symptoms and pains, just to get a little more desperate. Most times this ends up in self-medication; they buy a medicine for an illness they don’t have. And if there actually was a health problem, it won’t be treated.

Actually what made me want to write about this is not intellectual curiosity; I’ve lived it. Maybe if I had found out earlier, I would have had more peace and fewer illnesses…Anyway, one of the experiences I had was when I was in my early twenties. I’d just realized I had some skin spots and I was wo-rried. Without telling anyone I started doing internet searches (of course) and found an incurable disease that caused similar spots. That was it. The agony lasted several days, just to dis-cover that I was perfectly healthy. But the thing is, since hypochondria is a psychological element that must feed on new fears to stay alive, the relief of not having a disease quickly leads to new anxieties, new pains. The hypo-chondriac mentally creates over and over what he hates the most: disea-se. He’s unconsciously addicted to it.

So some time after not having that other illness, a very peculiar kind of hea-dache started. I then remembered I’d beaten my head severely three months before, in the same exact spot! Oh God…Skull damage? Or even the bra-in… These thoughts unleashed a wave of anxiety, mood swings and sleepless nights. I just couldn’t see that the more I worried, the worse were the heada-ches. Summarizing: I later found the pain was connected to a jaw articula-tion problem, which was psychosoma-tic: caused by anxiety and stress. That’s when I realized I’d been inflicting myself that pain and pills would never cure me. I had to overcome my negative emo-tions. I had to relax. And as by magic…the pain disappeared. As for my jaw, I feel that if I keep working on my anxie-ty, this problem will simply disappear.

This is the message I want to leave you: most diseases are caused by ne-gative psychological states on a daily basis. Therefore to achieve health we must project light over our subcons-cious, through Comprehension. And if we’re feeling some kind of pain, we should do something practical and lo-gical about it: go see a good doctor.

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admit to having our hearts won over completely when we realized that Tierra Mágica offers a French cream cheese from La vache qui rit (The Laughing Cow) for breakfast. Love goes through the stomach they say, and this is certainly true for us!

Doña Barbara and her staff know how to take care of their guests. Somebody al-ways seems to be there when you need them, but they are never too close for comfort. If you win doña Barbara’s trust, she will give you a remote control to operate the main gate so you’re free to come and go as you wish, otherwise you simply call and have somebody operate

We regularly travel to the Central Val-ley on business and pleasure excursions and have tried out a variety of hotels or bed and breakfasts. We have stayed with friends in upmarket Los Laureles, tried the Courtyard Marriott, right along the recently completed Prospero Fernandez Highway leading from San José straight to Puntarenas, or the more fashionable Beacon Hotel in old Escazú, with its first-rate dining and luxuriously appointed rooms. All of these above-mentioned options have their pros and cons but we finally have zoomed in on a beautiful and romantic little bed and breakfast, not far from downtown Escazú, called Tierra Mágica.

Barbara Odio Yglesias, the artist-owner has given this little gem her magic touch. She used to live in Puerto Jimenez, on the

Osa Peninsula, for over ten years but has chosen to go back to the sophistication of big city life with a touch of country life in Escazú. The beautifully appointed grounds remind one of the lush tropical setting in Osa. We always completely appreciate the unobtrusive service and the quietness of the Tierra Mágica. The entire place is kept in immaculate condi-tion – both the rooms as well as the en-tire grounds. There is space for two cars right in front of this charming bed and breakfast.

The ground floor room, the Amapola, has two queen-size beds and all the amenities you would find in a hotel such as a nicely appointed bathroom with a shower, a mini-fridge, cable television, wireless In-ternet access, and a safe. The Bromelia room, located on the second floor, has the same amenities but features a king-size bed, and the windows overlook the beautiful courtyard. We particularly en-joy the delicious home-made breakfasts featuring freshly brewed coffee, natural fruit juices, fresh fruit and cereals with yoghurt, a bread basket, and a selection of eggs cooked to your taste. We must

it for you. This is a pet-friendly place but not really suited for family with children under the age of 5.

The historic center of Escazú is within walking distance and all the fancy restau-rants and shopping facilities are only a short drive from Tierra Mágica.

If you mention Dominical Days you will get a small discount and there are special rates if you stay longer than a week.

Highlights: We love the beautifully ap-pointed rooms and grounds of Tierra Mágica and the fact that this place is completely spotless. Considering this is fashionable Escazú, there is probably no better place to

Mapa de ubicación de Tierra MágicaTierra Mágica location map

Emblema de Tierra MágicaTierra Mágica Flower Emblem

stay in terms of price-performance. The breakfast is included in the room price and beats any of the fancy hotels. Tierra Mágica is a perfect blend of charm en-countered in a private home, coupled with the privacy you might seek from a commercial hotel.

Room for Improvement: With two rooms, there is an obvious limitation to Tierra Mágica, but then again, that’s ex-actly what we like about the place. The lack of any commercial outdoor signage makes it at first difficult to locate the place, but once you’ve learned to read the map and spot the flower emblem, you’re rewarded with the coziness and privacy of Tierra Mágica. We at first found the lack of shower curtains an oddity, but doña Barbara’s staff doesn’t seem to mind cleaning up the occasional water splashes on the bathroom floor.

Tierra Mágica infoTeléfono | Telephone 2289 9154Correo Electrónico | Emailtierramagica-1@hotmail.comInternetwww.tierramagicacostarica.comSkypebarbara.odio

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