CBT for health anxiety
Worrying about your health is something most people experience from time to time. But when concerns about your health become persistent or difficult to control, they can start to take over your everyday life.
You may find yourself constantly monitoring your body, searching symptoms online, seeking reassurance from other people or healthcare professionals, or worrying that something serious has been missed.
Even when you receive reassurance, the relief may only last for a short time before the worry returns.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help you understand the cycle that maintains health anxiety and develop different ways of responding to health-related thoughts, sensations and uncertainty.
I offer face-to-face CBT for health anxiety in Guildford, Godalming and Farnham, as well as online therapy for adults throughout the UK.
What is a health anxiety?
Health anxiety involves persistent worry about having, developing or overlooking an illness.
You may become particularly focused on physical sensations or changes in your body and find yourself repeatedly questioning what they might mean.
Health anxiety can involve:
-
Worrying that a physical symptom could be a sign of a serious illness
-
Frequently checking your body for signs of illness
-
Searching symptoms or illnesses online
-
Repeatedly seeking reassurance from family, friends or healthcare professionals
-
Feeling unconvinced by medical reassurance
-
Monitoring changes in your body or how you feel
-
Worrying that something has been missed or misdiagnosed
-
Avoiding information, activities or situations that you associate with illness
-
Frequently making or considering medical appointments
-
Finding it difficult to tolerate uncertainty about your health
-
Becoming highly alert to normal or minor physical sensations
Health anxiety can occur whether or not you have a diagnosed physical health condition. You can also experience health anxiety alongside genuine physical symptoms or a long-term health condition.
Why does health anxiety keep going?
Health anxiety can develop into a cycle that is difficult to break.
You might notice a physical sensation, such as a headache, change in your heart rate or stomach discomfort. Your attention may then become focused on the sensation and you might interpret it as evidence of a serious illness.
This can increase your anxiety, which can make you more aware of physical sensations. You may then feel an urge to check your body, search for information online or ask someone for reassurance.
These behaviours can provide relief temporarily. However, because the relief comes from checking or reassurance, you may feel the need to do it again the next time you notice a sensation or have a worrying thought.
Over time, this can make you increasingly alert to your body and less able to tolerate uncertainty about your health.
How can CBT help?
CBT helps you understand the patterns that maintain health anxiety and gradually change how you respond to health-related worries.
Together, we will explore your individual health anxiety cycle, including the thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours involved.
Therapy may involve:
-
Understanding how your health anxiety developed and what is maintaining it
-
Exploring how you interpret physical sensations and health-related information
-
Identifying patterns of catastrophic or threatening interpretations
-
Looking at checking, reassurance-seeking and online searching
-
Understanding how these behaviours may maintain anxiety
-
Developing different ways of responding to health-related thoughts
-
Gradually reducing unhelpful checking and reassurance behaviours
-
Learning to tolerate uncertainty without feeling compelled to resolve it
-
Reducing avoidance where this is maintaining your fears
-
Refocusing your attention on activities and areas of life that are important to you
The aim is not to provide reassurance that you are healthy or to eliminate every worry about illness.
Instead, therapy focuses on helping you become less preoccupied with health concerns and more able to respond to uncertainty without anxiety taking over your life.
Therapy is collaborative and we will agree on strategies that are relevant to your difficulties and goals.
What if I have a genuine health condition?
Health anxiety can occur in people who have no diagnosed physical health condition, but it can also occur alongside genuine health problems or long-term health conditions.
Health anxiety can occur when worries about your health are becoming disproportionate or difficult to manage.
CBT can help you explore the psychological patterns around your health concerns while continuing to appropriately manage your physical health.
Therapy does not replace medical assessment or treatment. If you have new, worsening or concerning physical symptoms, you should seek appropriate medical advice.
What if I keep seeking reassurance?
Reassurance-seeking can feel like the most natural response when you are worried about your health. You may feel that if you could just receive the right answer, you would finally be able to relax.
However, reassurance often provides only temporary relief. When the worry returns, you may find yourself needing reassurance again.
CBT can help you understand this cycle and gradually develop greater confidence in managing uncertainty without repeatedly checking or seeking reassurance.
What can I expect from therapy with you?
We'll start by developing an understanding of your health anxiety and the patterns that may be keeping it going. Together, we'll explore how you respond to physical sensations, health-related thoughts, uncertainty and the urge to seek reassurance.
Depending on your needs, therapy may involve gradually reducing checking, reassurance-seeking or online searching, changing how you respond to worrying thoughts and learning to tolerate uncertainty about your health.
We'll agree on manageable steps to practise between sessions and regularly review your progress together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is health anxiety the same as hypochondria?
"Hypochondria" is an older term that is no longer commonly used as a clinical diagnosis. Health anxiety is generally used to describe persistent and excessive worry about having or developing a serious illness.
Can CBT help if I have already had a lot of medical tests?
Yes. Some people seek repeated medical reassurance and investigations but continue to worry that something has been missed. CBT can focus on the cycle of worry, checking and reassurance that may be maintaining your anxiety.
This does not mean that physical symptoms should be ignored and appropriate medical assessment remains important.
What if I can't stop Googling my symptoms?
Searching for health information online can provide a temporary sense of certainty or reassurance but it can also increase anxiety and lead to further searching.
CBT can help you understand what drives the urge to search and gradually develop different ways of responding to it.
Will CBT tell me that my symptoms are caused by anxiety?
No. The purpose of CBT is not to determine the medical cause of physical symptoms. If you have physical symptoms that concern you, these should be appropriately assessed by a healthcare professional.
CBT focuses on how you respond to health-related uncertainty, thoughts and worries.
Can health anxiety occur if I have a long-term health condition?
Yes. Living with a health condition can understandably increase concerns about your health. CBT can help if health-related worry, checking or reassurance-seeking is becoming difficult to manage.
Take the first step
If worries about your health are taking up a significant amount of your time or stopping you from enjoying your everyday life, therapy can help you develop new ways of responding to health-related worries and uncertainty.
If you'd like to find out whether therapy with me could be helpful, you can book a free 15-minute initial consultation.
