Health Anxiety

What is Health Anxiety?

Experiencing some concern about your health from time to time is normal, and even healthy. Health concerns prompt us to seek medical advice, encourage us to eat a healthier diet, engage in regular exercise, give up smoking, and reduce alcohol consumption. It is normal and expected to be anxious when waiting for test results or if you go into hospital for a surgical procedure.

When does worrying about our health become a problem?

Health concerns become problematic when they take over your life and cause considerable distress. 

People with health anxiety are preoccupied with their health and having or getting a serious illness. They will frequently experience worrying thoughts and images about becoming ill.

People can develop health anxiety whether they are healthy or have a diagnosed medical condition. 

What are the signs you may be experiencing health anxiety?

Monitoring for physical symptoms

You may repeatedly monitor your body for signs of illness throughout the day, checking for symptoms to ensure that you catch a serious illness early. The more you check for symptoms of illness, the more likely you are to pay attention to any physical sensations, and small lumps or bumps in your body. Your anxiety may be excessive compared to the actual likelihood of having a serious illness.

Worry about physical sensations and symptoms

You are more likely to engage in ‘what if…?” thoughts and catastrophise harmless physical sensations misinterpreting them to be a sign of severe illness, e.g., “what if this tightness in my chest means I’m having a heart attack?”.  If you have been given a clean bill of health you may fall into the missed diagnosis trap, and worry doctors and medical tests have missed something life threatening, e.g., “What if my blood test was ok, but they didn’t test for the real issue?”  What ifs…? Can also focus your worry into the future, e.g., “What if I get a terminal illness, and I ruin my family’s future?”.

Reassurance seeking

You may contact your GP often with concerns about your health and have medical tests. Negative results may not reassure you, and you may feel that something has been missed. Even reassurance from healthcare professionals that you do not have a serious medical condition may not ease your worry. This can lead to a person seeking a second opinion, ‘just to be sure nothing has been missed’. You may also seek reassurance from family or friends, asking them if a physical symptom, for instance a headache, aching joint, or any physical sensation could be a sign of serious illness.

What therapies are helpful for treating health anxiety?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are both effective psychological treatments for health anxiety. At Harper Psychology we offer. At Harper Psychology a typical course of CBT would target the unhelpful cognitive (thinking) and behavioural loops that keeps your health anxiety going. You could expect to:

• Develop skills in Cognitive restructuring – learning to spot unhelpful thinking patterns, e.g., assuming a minor ache is indicating a serious illness and updating catastrophic thinking with more grounded balanced thoughts. For instance, “This headache must mean I have something seriously wrong with my brain”, to “I’ve not drank enough this morning, maybe I’m dehydrated”.

• Plan Behavioural Experiments with your therapist to test out your fears about skipping a body checking habit, delaying seeking reassurance from others, and consulting ‘Dr Google or AI’ about psychical sensations and symptoms.

• You will learn to understand that physical symptoms like a racing heart, shortness of breath or dizziness are often a normal anxiety response as your brain and body produces cortisol and adrenalin to prepare you for fight or flight. Rather than being signs of a serious health issue.

• You will plan exposure therapy with your therapist to gradually face situations you may have been avoiding; such as medical appointments, watching health shows, visiting others in hospital, or talking about poor health. Exposure therapy is carefully planned with your therapist in small, achievable steps to

For extra information on health anxiety please see the following blogs as well as the resources page on our website:

Health Anxiety: the Overly Sensitive Smoke Alarm

Anxiety: Using a Very Unhelpful Crystal Ball

Understanding Anxiety: The Power of Facing Your Fears