I live with multiple chronic illnesses and a high level of pain to go with these disease. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, Gastroparesis and Chronic Gastritis just to name the major disorders. Do I have times when I worry about my diseases and their effects in my life, of course I do! Do I have anxiety and brain fog from having to deal with these diseases and all the meds and pain meds that I have to take, yes I do. And when I thought I was going crazy my doctor told me that ANYONE living with a chronic illness or chronic pain lives with more anxiety, more depression and more cognitive problems because our brains are having so much trouble taking in all the sensory input from pain and sickness. She made me feel comfortable about having these feelings and now, according to this new diagnostic manual, I guess I'll be labeled with a mental health disorder just like everyone else who has ever worried about their worsening health or stressed because their life was falling apart as they had to move from a normal life to a life of permanent disability. Wow. if the information could be used in a way to help people somehow, maybe it could be a good thing. But knowing how corrupt and insensitive most doctors and insurances are, I get not comfort from their being a diagnosis for it, just an eerie feeling that those of us with chronic pain and illness will just have more difficulty getting the care and understanding we need as we try to live our lives with these disease. I think the part that bothers me the most about it all is the "spending excess time devoted to their health or symptoms." So many of us with chronic illness/pain not only do our best to fight to live each day as normally as possible but many of us, myself included try to help others by writing articles, publishing blogs, using Facebook to create communities to help others. Now everything we do to help raise awareness by sharing our stories and helping others just puts us in a no win situation to be diagnosed with Somatic Symptom Disorder, whether we like it or not. Pretty scary stuff...