Health Anxiety Counselling

When worrying about your health starts to take over your life

It is completely natural to worry about your health from time to time. But for some people, health worries can become persistent, overwhelming and difficult to switch off.

You may notice a change in your body and immediately worry that something serious is wrong. A headache might lead you to fear a brain tumour. A pain or unusual sensation might make you think about cancer. You may constantly monitor your body, search symptoms online or repeatedly seek reassurance from other people or healthcare professionals.

Even when you're told that everything is okay, the reassurance may only provide relief for a short time.

Then the worry returns.

“But what if they've missed something?”

This cycle can become exhausting and can begin to affect your relationships, work, sleep and everyday life.

What can health anxiety feel like?

Health anxiety can affect both your thoughts and your body.

You may:

• Constantly worry that you are seriously ill

• Frequently check your body for symptoms or changes

• Search symptoms online or read medical information repeatedly

• Check your heart rate, blood pressure or other bodily sensations

• Seek repeated reassurance from family, friends or healthcare professionals

• Make frequent GP or medical appointments because of worry

• Avoid doctors or medical appointments because you're frightened of what they might find

• Become highly aware of normal bodily sensations

• Interpret minor symptoms as signs of serious illness

• Find it difficult to think about anything else

• Feel anxious when you hear about someone else's illness

• Repeatedly replay conversations with healthcare professionals

• Struggle to trust reassurance that you've received

Sometimes the anxiety itself can create physical sensations such as a racing heart, dizziness, muscle tension, nausea or shortness of breath.

This can then create another layer of worry:

“I'm feeling this sensation, so something must be wrong.”

The cycle of health anxiety

Health anxiety can become a cycle that is difficult to escape.

You notice a sensation or symptom.

↓

You become frightened that it could mean something serious.

↓

You check your body, search online or seek reassurance.

↓

You feel temporarily calmer.

↓

The doubt returns.

↓

You check or seek reassurance again.

The problem is that reassurance can sometimes provide only temporary relief. Your brain learns that checking or reassurance is needed whenever uncertainty appears.

This can leave you constantly looking for the next piece of evidence that you're okay.

When reassurance never feels enough

One of the most difficult aspects of health anxiety is that you may understand logically that your fears aren't necessarily realistic, while still feeling completely convinced that something is wrong.

You may think:

“I know the doctor said I'm okay, but what if they've missed something?”

“What if this symptom is different?”

“What if I don't get it checked and something happens?”

This can make it incredibly difficult to relax.

You may find yourself repeatedly asking other people whether they think you're okay, searching Google for symptoms or checking your body for signs that something has changed.

Counselling can help you understand why this cycle develops and begin responding to health worries differently.

How counselling can help

I provide a supportive and non-judgemental space where we can explore your experience of health anxiety and the impact it is having on your life.

Using a person-centred approach alongside mindful cognitive therapies, we can explore the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that may be keeping the anxiety going.

We can look at:

• Catastrophic thinking and worst-case scenarios

• Body checking

• Online symptom searching

• Reassurance seeking

• Avoidance

• Difficulty tolerating uncertainty

• Fear of serious illness

• The physical sensations created by anxiety

• How anxiety affects your everyday life

The aim isn't to give you endless reassurance that you're healthy.

Instead, we can work towards helping you feel more comfortable with uncertainty and less controlled by the need to constantly check or seek reassurance.

Health anxiety and OCD

For some people, health anxiety can form part of an OCD cycle.

You may experience intrusive fears about becoming ill or having caused harm to your health, followed by compulsive checking, researching, reassurance-seeking or mental reviewing.

When this happens, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) can be helpful.

ERP involves gradually facing anxiety-provoking situations while reducing the compulsive behaviours that normally provide temporary relief.

We can develop a personalised approach and, where appropriate, create a fear hierarchy to gradually work through situations that currently feel difficult.

The aim is to help you learn that you can experience uncertainty without needing to respond to every fear.

You are not alone in this

Health anxiety can be incredibly isolating.

Other people may tell you to “stop worrying” or “just ignore it”, but when you're experiencing health anxiety, it isn't that simple.

The fear can feel completely real.

You may be exhausted from constantly monitoring your body and trying to work out whether every sensation means something.

You deserve to be taken seriously and supported without judgement.

Taking back control

Health anxiety doesn't have to dictate what you do, where you go or how you spend your time.

Counselling can help you understand your anxiety, recognise the patterns that keep it going and develop healthier ways of responding to uncertainty.

You don't need to spend your life checking, searching and seeking reassurance.

You can learn to live your life without health anxiety being in control.

If health anxiety is affecting your everyday life, relationships or wellbeing, get in touch to arrange an initial conversation.