HEALTH ANXIETY

Health anxiety involves excessive worry about having a severe illness, even when medical tests show no cause for concern. Many people worry about multiple things, including health – if this is true for you click here to go the page about anxiety.

How health anxiety can look

Lucy (not an actual client, but a hypothetical case study) started feeling health anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. She worried constantly about catching the virus and spent a lot of time googling the symptoms. When the pandemic ended, she still felt anxious about catching viruses, and this meant she started to avoid meeting up in groups in case someone in the group had a cold she could catch. When she felt anxious, she noticed sometimes her heart would beat faster, and she would feel shaky; these physical symptoms made her worry there was a health issue. She would then try to get reassurance by going to the doctor or speaking to family but then worried that people were getting “fed up” with her and she was becoming a burden. Her self-esteem started to decrease, and she began to withdraw from friends and family.

If I were working with Lucy, I would give her the space to express all her worries and then gently help her challenge the distressing thoughts. I would work with her to help her build resilience and her belief in her own ability to cope with her problems. Over time, she would feel able to cope with physical symptoms, and her anxiety would start to naturally decrease.

I have worked with many people experiencing health anxiety, so I know you can recover from it with the right help, which often involves a combination of therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes. It’s essential to find a therapist who specialises in anxiety disorders and is experienced in using evidence-based treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Person-Centred Therapy.

Symptoms of Health Anxiety

Constant Worry About Health: Frequent fears about having or developing a severe illness.
Checking Behaviors: Regularly check your body for signs of illness, such as lumps or sores.
Frequent Doctor Visits: Visiting doctors often for reassurance but finding little relief from their answers.
Avoidance: Avoiding places, activities, or people you associate with illness.
Intrusive Thoughts: Persistent, distressing thoughts about health, even when there’s no medical evidence of a problem.
Physical Sensations: Experiencing physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, or muscle tension that you believe are signs of a severe illness.
Reassurance Seeking: Asking friends, family, or doctors for reassurance about your health repeatedly.
Impact on Daily Life: Difficulty focusing on work, school, or personal relationships due to constant worry about health.
Researching Symptoms: Check every symptom on Google and research the worst-case scenario in every case.

One of the biggest problems with health anxiety is that anxiety can cause a raft of physical symptoms (headache, dizziness, shakiness), so the anxiety itself can end up causing a lot of physical symptoms, which then make anxiety worse in a vicious circle.

Health anxiety often follows a cyclical pattern, which means that the same sequence of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours tends to repeat itself. This can be difficult to break because each cycle reinforces the belief that there is a serious health issue, leading to more anxiety and more cycles.

Intrusive Thoughts: Worries about health begin as intrusive thoughts that are hard to dismiss.
Physical Sensations: These worries can lead to heightened awareness of bodily sensations, often misinterpreted as signs of serious illness.
Reassurance-Seeking Behaviors: To alleviate anxiety, individuals may seek reassurance from doctors, tests, or loved ones. However, the relief is usually short-lived. Over time, they worry they are being labelled as neurotic or becoming a burden and start to feel worse about themselves.
Avoidance: To avoid feeling anxious, some may steer clear of activities or situations that could expose them to illness, which makes anxiety worse in the long term and can lead to isolation and lower self-esteem.

Treatment Approaches

Overview of CBT

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective treatment approach for managing health anxiety. CBT helps you to identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviours that contribute to anxiety. By understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions, you can develop healthier ways of thinking and coping with your fears.

Techniques Used in CBT

Cognitive Restructuring: This technique involves identifying and challenging irrational or distorted thoughts about health. You can develop more balanced and realistic perspectives by examining the evidence for and against these thoughts.
Exposure Therapy: Gradual exposure to feared situations or symptoms helps reduce anxiety over time. Facing your fears in a controlled and supportive environment lets you learn that anxiety decreases naturally without the need for avoidance or reassurance-seeking behaviours.
Behavioural Experiments: These are practical activities designed to test the validity of your health-related fears. By conducting experiments and observing the outcomes, clients can gather evidence that disproves their catastrophic thinking, leading to reduced anxiety.

Overview of Person-Centred Therapy

Person-centred therapy emphasises creating a supportive and non-judgmental environment where you feel heard and valued. By providing a safe space for you to explore your thoughts and feelings without fear of criticism or rejection, you can unravel the issues that have led to your health anxiety and find ways to move forward.

Benefits of Person-Centred Therapy

Empathy and Understanding: Clients with health anxiety often feel isolated and misunderstood. Person-centred therapy helps them feel truly heard and validated, reducing feelings of loneliness and frustration.
Unconditional Positive Regard: This approach fosters self-acceptance by showing clients they are valued regardless of their fears and anxieties. This unconditional support can be transformative, helping clients feel truly heard, valued, and understood, thereby reducing feelings of loneliness and frustration.
Therapeutic Relationship: The strong, trusting relationship between therapist and client is central to person-centred therapy. This bond encourages clients to open up and engage fully in the therapeutic process, leading to deeper insights and lasting change.

I combine CBT and Person-Centred Therapy in my approach to working with health anxiety. CBT provides practical tools and strategies to manage and reduce stress, while person-centred therapy ensures you feel supported, understood, and empowered throughout your healing journey. If you are struggling with health anxiety, these therapeutic approaches can help you regain control and improve your quality of life.

How Soon Can Therapy Help Me?

I like to look at therapy as taking place in stages, so I usually consider short-term and long-term outcomes in therapy.

Short-term

In the first few weeks of therapy, clients can expect to experience several immediate benefits that contribute to a sense of relief and empowerment. These early wins can provide a glimmer of hope and set the stage for further progress.

Reduced Anxiety: Through techniques such as cognitive restructuring and exposure therapy, clients often notice a decrease in their anxiety levels. Understanding that their fears may be irrational and learning how to challenge these thoughts can provide significant relief.
Better Coping Strategies: Therapy equips clients with practical tools to manage their anxiety. Techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness exercises, and grounding techniques can help individuals respond more calmly to health-related worries.
Increased Awareness: Clients become more aware of their thought patterns and behaviours. This awareness is the first step towards change, enabling them to recognise when they are falling into cycles of health anxiety and apply the strategies they’ve learned in therapy.
Improved Emotional Regulation: Learning to manage intense emotions and anxiety can help clients feel more in control and less overwhelmed by their fears.
Enhanced Support System: Early therapy sessions also focus on building a solid therapeutic relationship, ensuring clients feel supported and understood. This emotional support is crucial in helping clients stay motivated and engaged in their treatment.

Long-term

As therapy progresses, and even after treatment ends, by continuously applying the learning and insight from therapy, clients can achieve long-lasting benefits that enhance their overall well-being and quality of life:

Sustained Anxiety Management: Clients develop a deep understanding of their health anxiety and master techniques to manage it effectively. They become adept at recognising and challenging irrational thoughts, using coping strategies, and facing their fears without excessive anxiety.
More fun!: With reduced anxiety, clients often find they can engage more fully in their daily activities, relationships, and hobbies. They experience greater joy and satisfaction, free from the constant burden of health worries.
Resilience to Future Stressors: You can’t avoid all the stress in your life – things do go wrong. Therapy builds resilience, enabling clients to handle future health scares or stressors without reverting to old patterns of anxiety. They learn to approach health concerns with a balanced perspective, reducing the risk of relapse.
Enhanced Self-Esteem and Confidence: Overcoming health anxiety can boost clients’ self-esteem and confidence. They gain a sense of accomplishment from facing their fears and managing their stress, which can positively impact other areas of their lives.
Better Relationships: As clients’ anxiety decreases, their interactions with others often improve. They may find themselves more present and engaged in their relationships, leading to deeper connections and a stronger support network.
Overall Mental Health Improvement: Addressing health anxiety can also positively affect other aspects of mental health. Clients often experience reductions in general stress and anxiety, improved mood, and greater well-being.

Often, it’s best to attend weekly sessions at first. Once your confidence improves and you understand how the techniques work, you can apply them on your own. You might either end therapy or attend once a month for a quick check-in to prevent spiralling backwards.

Self help

I have a free downloadable guide which helps to reframe anxiety. You can download it here

I also recommend the RAIN meditation technique. Click here for more information on this

I’m Anna and I trained as a therapist after I went through anxiety myself and I wanted to help others do the same. Now I help clients in Chester, Birkenhead and online and if you’d like to find out more about therapy with me click the button below to book a free 20 minute phone chat with me.