hypochondriacs

+------------ Bizarre Celebrity Hypochondriacs ------------+  

Howard Hughes was so obsessed with health that he once wrote out nine-step instructions to his housekeepers on how to open a can of fruit. He used Kleenex tissues on everything, and refused to touch doorknobs or let other people use his bathroom. He even kept a urine collection, purportedly for medical testing.  

Charles Darwin was a life-long hypochondriac who kept a daily diary for six years that featured a running commentary on the state of his health.  

Napoleon Bonaparte had a lifelong fear and hatred of  
medicine. To combat his hypochondria, he took steaming hot baths, and developed meticulous grooming habits. He suffered a plethora of maladies, most of them the result of stress, including: skin disorders, ulcers, dysuria, and a nervous cough.  

Alfred Lord Tennyson was beset by seizures, fits and trances, which included seeing animals floating across his field of vision. He was obsessed with going bald and blind. Among the treatments he sought was a radical form of water therapy called hydropathy, which included being rolled naked into blankets and then plunged into water.  

Essayist H.L. Mencken suffered an obsessive-compulsive need to continually wash his hands. Among his real-or-imagined maladies was a chronic sore throat, hives, low blood pressure, lumbago, sinus infections, ulcers, and hemorrhoids.