How To Deal With Health Anxiety

Introduction

We’ve all heard about anxiety, otherwise known as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), but did you know that people can have anxieties that focus on particular things? Health anxiety is one of these specific forms of anxiety and it describes an excessive worry about having or developing serious medical conditions. Many clients have come to me to learn how to deal with health anxiety because of how it can disrupt daily life, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. The common signs and challenges of health anxiety include: constant symptom-checking, doctor visits, Googling symptoms, and the inability to feel reassured. So knowing how to overcome health anxiety is necessary for peace of mind. This article will discuss practical ways so you can understand how to manage health anxiety, but it’s not just about how to deal with health anxiety, it’s about how to overcome health anxiety. This article discusses strategies, including practical tips. It will also emphasises the importance of support systems, as well as giving advice about when it may be necessary to seek professional help. These are all important in your journey because coping with health anxiety is about developing mechanisms to help you regain control and reduce anxiety, rather than be consumed and controlled by your anxiety. This is the paradox of any form of anxiety disorder; when we partake in compulsions and obsess about something due to fears about it, we are not in control, and yet, anxiety disorders often develop as a response to feeling out of control. So let’s understand how you can take control of your health anxiety.

Practical Tips For Coping With Health Anxiety

Focus on What You Can Control

So let’s get down to the issue of control right away. If you’re reading this because you’re worried about your health in ways that are excessive, then one of the first useful health anxiety coping mechanisms we will discuss is changing your perception. The stoic philosophers talked about how one of the few areas of control we have is our minds. For this reason they often emphasised how it is not an event itself that affects our feelings, like anxiety, but it is the way we view the event that does. I often give the example of 3 people witnessing a car accident. One of them may feel a bit shaken, but feel okay fairly soon afterwards. The other may feel nothing at all, and the third person may feel so traumatised that they develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They all witnessed the same event, but their perception of the event was different and so it affected their feelings and their wellbeing in differing ways. So if you can accept that your mind is the place to start so you can feel more in control, then you can understand how to manage health anxiety. Beyond this, you can also think of other areas you can control. For example, identify areas where you have influence, like exercise, nutrition, or sleep. You can also practice setting small, achievable goals to manage health anxiety effectively. By doing these things to help yourself, as well as working on changing the way you think, you can shift focus from uncertainties to actionable steps and feel the control you need to feel. When you feel more in control generally, you will notice how this reduces the anxiety you feel about health as well. Focusing on what we can control is a highly powerful way of actually taking it back.

Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques

One of the symptoms that many of us can experience when we’re in an anxiety state is an increased heart rate. This is because our brain is signalling to our body that something is wrong and that we need to fight, flee, or freeze. So the blood that your heart pumps through your body at an increased rate is aimed at preparing your muscles to do one of these things. This is a highly well developed survival response, which was established and honed in situations in which we did indeed have to fight (for example, if we were confronted with a physical threat), or flee or hide from the threat (if say, someone was wanting to hurt us). This is what makes this anxiety threat response so useful – it’s what helped our species survive and exist today. But, in the case of something like health anxiety, there is no present threat that is going to do us bodily harm. It’s to do with how we are thinking – yes perception. So if you want to develop healthy coping mechanisms for anxiety, one way is to try using mindfulness apps or guided meditations to help you stay present, rather than catastrophising and creating hypothetical scenarios to worry about. Mindfulness includes relaxation exercises such as deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation and these can help reduce the physiological symptoms that emerge with health anxiety. Indeed, these often make the anxiety worse because individuals mistake their increased heart rate as a sign that something is physically wrong, when it is often the anxiety that is behind the change in heart rate. And remember, although mindfulness can be a healthy coping mechanism for anxiety, it requires practice. So, don’t expect it to work for you straight away, it’s called mindfulness practice for good reason – it requires consistency to work. By committing to it, you can learn one way how to cope with health anxiety. Now let’s learn more…

Challenge Unhelpful Thoughts

One of the most well researched and proven ways how to overcome health anxiety is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This treatment for health anxiety aids individuals by helping them do what we talked about earlier – change how they think about things. It does this by teaching people to identify irrational or catastrophic thinking patterns. This involves keeping what’s known as a ‘thought record,’ which is simply a log of unhelpful and anxious thoughts. This record allows the anxious thoughts to be interrogated rather than accepted at face value, which they often are. An example of a recorded thought might be “I’ve got a heart problem and I’m going to die.” This is a commonly reported fear that people with health anxiety experience. But what makes it irrational? The way we would determine this is by using evidence-based reasoning. This involves a CBT technique called cognitive restructuring. This technique aims to help people develop a thought process that is based in reality and logic, rather than based on irrational fears. Over time, cognitive restructuring helps individuals counteract fears about symptoms and achieve a more balanced perspective. Individuals are able to come away from their anxious thoughts and reduce their feelings by metaphorically taking a step back from their emotions and questioning the very thoughts that are causing their anxious feelings. So if this sounds like something that you would like to try so you can learn how to deal with health anxiety, you can use self-help books, or find a therapist who practices CBT. As a therapist myself, I recommend the latter, especially if you’ve tried to do this by yourself and found it didn’t work for you. This is because, with something like cognitive restructuring, we are trying to challenge some deeply ingrained thought processes, and when you take the part of therapist by using self-help, you may not be as capable of challenging unhelpful thoughts, because you’re not a CBT trained therapist, and because your thoughts are compromised already.

Limit Reassurance-Seeking Behaviors

Another thing that mental health professionals will try to help you do is limit reassurance-seeking behaviours. Why might this be, you wonder? After all, reassurance helps you, right? WRONG! Reassurance is unhelpful when you’re coping with health anxiety, or trying to. Why? Because when you go to your friends or family to question them about your health worries, you’ll notice that the worries don’t stop. They may subside temporarily, but the countdown simply resets itself until the next time you need reassurance. This cycle maintains itself because of what happens when you seek reassurance. For example, let’s say Susie is having the thought: “oh no, I’m having a heart attack” because she’s feeling anxious and has noticed (or imagined) a spike in her heart rate. Susie asks her husband Greg, who is at work if he thinks she’s having a heart attack. Greg doesn’t reply, so Susie calls him. Greg is in a meeting so does not see her call. Susie’s anxiety is increasing because she believes she is having a heart attack and is going to die alone. So she calls his boss and tells him it’s an emergency and she needs to speak to Greg. When Greg gets to the phone, he feels frustrated with Susie, but he also reassures her as he needs to get back to his meeting. Susie feels relieved and tries to distract herself. But the message her brain has received is: when I feel threatened by the though ‘I’m going to die’, I need reassurance to feel the relief I feel now, so I can be okay. This keeps the pattern going and instead of reducing health anxiety symptoms, they intensify and increase in frequency. As a therapist, I try to help my clients learn how to manage health anxiety by reducing reassurance seeking behaviours like frequent doctor visits, over-questioning loved ones, or Googling symptoms. This encourages self-reliance and building trust in your body by teaching your brain that you survived without reassurance, proving nothing was wrong with you and there was no reason to feel threatened.

Establish a Healthy Routine

Another of the helpful health anxiety coping mechanisms if you’re constantly worried about your health is to do things that contribute to the establishment of a healthy routine. This is not to reassure you that you’re in good health, because as mentioned, that would be counter-productive and would only reinforce the health anxiety itself. No, by establishing good habits and practices you create routines that will reduce health-related anxieties. This is because the structure of routine is grounding, but not just this, the things you include as part of this structure may be things like exercise, balanced meals, and regular sleep. All of these are generally good practices for overall mental health and wellbeing, which will in turn, help you to manage health anxiety. How does this work? From my work with clients who experience health anxiety, we’ve often noticed that their health anxiety worsens when they’re experiencing various life stressors. This indicates that the anxiety that manifests as health anxiety is affected by general stress and anxiety, almost like it is fed by the general stressors of life which latch on to the theme of ‘health’. So, if you’re able to put good habits in place so that your general overall life is setup with good foundations, you are more likely to feel resilient in the face of life’s stressors. This can also mean that health anxiety will not be triggered by additional stressors. So, think about the ways you might build the foundations, the structure of your life so that it stands strong and firm in the storms of life. When you feel you have these anchors in place, you will likely feel more resilient and strong and this will give you a feeling of being more in control, and therefore, greater confidence.

Engage in Positive Activities

But it’s not all about building and effort all the time. Another aspect of a healthy routine is simply to create ways to enjoy life. This means engaging in positive activities so that you are able to experience fun and joy, and not be swamped in fear and anxiety all the time. So how might you do this? It’s about exploring your hobbies – you may have enjoyed certain things in the past that you miss, you may have stopped doing these things because you got too busy, and now you may even have disconnected with the things you enjoyed because you’ve become detached from the feeling of pleasure. And even if you think you have no hobbies anymore, it can be fun to figure them out. Some of my clients have told me they do not enjoy their jobs and they wish they could do something more fulfilling like volunteering. This can be something you do as a hobby, if it’s not feasible to change careers. Alternatively, you may have a hidden talent so by trying some creative things, even things you’ve never done, you could find outlets that nurture your creativity. Exploring creativity is always positive and can be a great way to learn how to cope with health anxiety and reduce it in the longer term. How? Positive distractions contribute to coping with health anxiety by giving you opportunities to feel positive not just in general, but about yourself. This is because you may discover you have a hidden skill or talent, or you may simply feel more confident because you’re learning something new. Who would have thought that fun could be one of your healthy coping mechanisms for anxiety! So, set some time aside and list your hobbies, or anything you wish you could learn or do!

Keep a Journal of Your Thoughts and Feelings

Journaling can be a great tool to manage health anxiety by tracking triggers. When you identify your health anxiety triggers you will more easily be able to distinguish between actual health issues and health anxiety. You may wonder how keeping a journal of your thoughts and feelings will do this but it’s back to CBT. CBT teaches us that out thoughts, feelings (both physiological and emotional), and behaviours are all connected. By altering one of these we can affect the rest of the connections. So, by writing to express fears, you will be able to recognise recurring patterns in these areas. For example, if you notice that you often have a bout of health anxiety when you’re generally stressed, this will start to emerge in your thoughts because you will notice it whenever you write down what else is happening in your life around the times you experience increased anxiety. You may also notice that your anxiety spikes if you have a medical appointment or if someone you are close to is interacting with medical personnel. You may even notice that health anxiety happens when you’re away from a loved one. By consciously making these links in a deliberate and repeated way, you will be able to better deal with health anxiety because you will develop a more measured and rational thought process that accounts for context. This will help you come out of the anxiety state, and into the rational brain. Many of my clients have found this approach to be a game changer for them. This is because they notice that it quickly gives them alternatives that they can believe because they have something to refer back to (such as the last time it happened to them). Eventually you can learn how to overcome health anxiety by teaching your brain to make these rational connections in real time, without the need to journal, but journaling is always an option when needed.

Create a Balanced Perspective

When you’re anxious about your health and checking for signs of illness in your body, I think you’ll agree after reading so far, that it’s likely that instead, you need to focus on creating a balanced perspective of the situation. One way my clients are able to rebalance perspective is by reflecting on similar past situations in which they felt anxious and learned that their fears were unfounded. This is a useful and effective way of learning how to deal with health anxiety because you are able to reframe your health worries in a constructive way, one that is based on logical thinking and not on anxious worries. Yes, as you may have gathered, health anxiety is just that. If you experience this, it does not mean that what you think is the problem is the problem (for example, a heart problem). The problem you have is a psychological and emotional one. You have developed a keen fear of something, whether that be getting ill, dying, or losing loved one. This fear is powerful. It consumes your mind and is always knocking on the door, asking you “But, what if….???” And this is hard to ignore. It’s like being in a room and wanting to shut out the noise but people are banging on all the doors and windows. Of course you’re going to feel threatened. But what if I say to you, those people are not real? They are manifestations of your mind, of your fears. By trusting this, and yourself, and accepting this, you can nurture the balance you need, to help your mind settle. When you do this, you will gradually learn that your fears were not realised, and each time this happens, it will reinforce the message. This is changing perspective and we are here to help you get there, if you need us.

Stop Googling Your Symptoms

Another useful tip when it comes to how to cope with health anxiety is something I tell my clients very early on in our work together: Stop Googling your symptoms. Why is this? It’s because of the way this behaviour maintains health anxiety. Think about it, if this actually helped you, it might be something you do time to time, but actually it’s not. It’s a symptom of health anxiety because people do it time and time again. Why? It’s that reassurance we talked about before and it takes many forms. When your loved ones aren’t around to help you, Google takes their place but this is the trap you set for yourself. Because your symptom-checking has a role in reinforcing your health anxiety. So how might you stop doing this so that you can break the vicious cycle that is this trap? Try this, set yourself a time limit, say 15 minutes. You can use that time to rationalise your thoughts, this may be using the CBT techniques your therapist has shown you, or just ways you’ve developed to help you manage (that aren’t going to reinforce the problem). If after 15 minutes of rationalising, the urge is still strong, try a soothing distraction technique for another 15 minutes. This might be going for a walk, some other form of exercise, or something else that can help you feel calmer. Just remember, if it involves talking to someone, try not to have them reassure you. You see, all the things you were doing that you thought meant you were coping with health anxiety, like speaking to medical professionals or family and friends, and Googling – those things are just maintaining this very psychological problem. This is because you are answering the calls of the phantoms in your mind, the anxiety. You stop, and so will they.

Develop A Support System

Talking to Trusted Friends or Family Members

So based on all you’ve read so far, you might think that you shouldn’t speak to your loved ones – this is not the case. Why? Because we all need support through difficult times, otherwise it creates isolation and that just adds to the problem. Talking to trusted friends or family members and having open conversations does not have to be about constant reassurance seeking. You can share your feelings and articulate your concerns as a helpful way in dealing with health anxiety. For example, if you think you’re experiencing physical symptoms that worry you, instead of going to them or to Google to take reassurance, you can just let them know that you want to speak to them about your worries but that you are not seeking reassurance. You might simply say something like: “I know this is my health anxiety and I know seeking reassurance only keeps the problem going, so I’m not coming to you for that, so please don’t give me any kind of reassurance. I just feel quite anxious and it’s hard.” This is a tricky thing to do, maybe also for the person you’re talking to who may be used to reassuring you and may even want to. So, it will require some practice and there may be moments in which you cave, or they reassure you without meaning to. If so, try other ways to prevent it. For example, after you’ve let them know how you’re feeling, you could agree to change the subject and talk about something else. This distraction means you were able to talk about how you’re feeling and not feel alone with it, but also move things on. There will initially be much discomfort when you try these tips, but stay with them and you will learn how to cope with health anxiety.

Joining a Support Group for Health Anxiety

If you’re frequently checking your body and desperately need healthy coping mechanisms, another good option for you could be to join a support group for health anxiety. Support groups can be great places for people to be with others who have shared experiences. This shared experience can facilitate mutual support. And you can feel understood by others who know what it’s like to experience something like health anxiety. The other helpful aspect about support groups is that there are many online and local support groups available and because of the prevalence of health anxiety, it’s likely you will be able to source a group either locally or online. Another specific benefit of support is the sharing of knowledge. For example, you may hear about how others manage health anxiety, which may be helpful for you. However, when it comes to joining a support group, there are other factors to consider, as they may not suit everyone. For example, some people feel that hearing others’ talk about their health anxiety may exacerbate their own worries and fears. Some people also feel that they don’t get enough time or space to talk about their own concerns. This can make them feel unseen, especially if there are quite a few members in the group and not enough time. Then there may be other forms of anxiety that people experience that can add to the problem of accessing support in a group format. For example, if you experience social anxiety, a group setting can feel daunting so may even be counter-productive, as if anxiety heightens more generally, as mentioned, it can filter into anxieties around health. So, if you are concerned about support groups, or have not had a good experience of them, you may benefit from individual and tailored support.

Consider Professional Support

When to Seek Therapy or Counseling

So if you’re desperate to know how to deal with health anxiety but finding that you do not have the support you need from those around you, or from a support group, then it may be time to consider seeing a therapist on a one to one basis. So how might you determine if individual therapy will be worth a try? Well, if after trying the things mentioned here, you’re still struggling with health anxiety, this may indicate that you need professional help that is tailored to you. Also, if you notice that your anxiety is worsening, and that it’s beginning to interfere with your daily life and relationships, then therapy can support you in dealing with health anxiety by offering you ways to cope and learn how to manage health anxiety. But more than this, it is about teaching you a new way of thinking about your health, and about anxiety. Therapy is useful in this way because it allows you to establish a focused way of working through your worries with the guided support of a professional, who is psychologically trained and experienced with working with people who suffer with health anxiety. So it’s important that you check your therapists credentials because when you work with someone who is placed to help you, you will be held accountable by them too. But, it will be in a way that is encouraging and supportive. Get in touch today, if you need help with this problem because it is about your health – just not in the way you think – it’s about your mental health, so let’s change that together.

Exploring Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

So you’ve had the medical tests, or you’ve avoided them altogether – health anxiety can manifest in varying ways between those who experience it. This is because we’re all individuals with our own ways of thinking and perceiving, even when it comes to the same condition. This is why when considering how to overcome health anxiety, you may want to do what many have found helpful; explore CBT. But, just as symptoms manifest in different ways from one person to the next, even when they both experience the same problem of health anxiety, the treatment one person finds helpful may not be as helpful for the next. So when considering how to cope with health anxiety, it will vary. However, CBT is worth a try as it has a strong evidence-base for helping those with health anxiety. This is due to some of the techniques it teaches, like exposure therapy and thought restructuring, as mentioned. CBT may be just what you need to learn new ways of thinking, so you can develop a more rational thought process. Thinking more rationally will temper feelings of anxiety, including health anxiety. Remember, it’s about mental not physical health – anxiety. So you don’t need medical tests, or to avoid them. You need to alter your thought processes. CBT might just be the solution.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand that your health related worries and anxieties are important to address. This can be done in actionable ways. We have aimed to give you some practical ways to help you better manage health anxiety, but it shouldn’t stop there. Yes, this article has highlighted the importance of the practical tips, including building a support system, and seeking professional help when you need it. But, it’s also important to consider how far you can go when it comes to the problem of health anxiety. With this article, we hope you will understand that you can take control of the part of this problem that is within your control; your mind. But dealing with health anxiety does not have to feel as lonely as it often does. Indeed, it’s likely you’ve experienced that most people around you don’t understand how you feel. But, with the right kind of support, you can develop the kinds of coping mechanisms you need, the ones that will help you not only learn how to cope with health anxiety, but how to overcome it and live a better quality life. A life that is not held hostage by anxiety and worries about your health, a life that allows you to live more freely.