If you’ve ever thought, “Health anxiety is ruining my life,” you’re not alone—and you’re not powerless.
Taming health anxiety and breaking free from the constant worry requires actionable strategies that focus on shifting behavior and thought patterns. To stop the worry spiral, it’s essential to challenge anxious thoughts, reduce symptom-checking, and resist the urge to seek constant reassurance. Incorporating mindfulness techniques, delaying compulsive online searches, and refocusing attention on meaningful activities can also help lower anxiety levels. With a combination of these practical approaches, you can regain control and start living with more peace of mind.
Did You Know? Health anxiety, or hypochondria, has doubled in prevalence over the last decade, largely due to “cyberchondria”—the habit of using the internet to search for symptoms. This increased access to information can fuel unnecessary worry about illnesses. [R]
What is Health Anxiety?
If you are already suffering from health anxiety, it’s unlikely that you need a definition—you live with these battles daily. However, if you are concerned about a loved one, understanding the condition is important in supporting them.
Health anxiety, also known as hypochondria, involves a persistent and often overwhelming worry about having a serious illness, even when medical reassurance has been given. This fear can drive compulsive behaviors such as excessive symptom-checking, frequent internet searches (cyberchondria), or constantly seeking reassurance from doctors and loved ones. Recognising these patterns is crucial, as it marks the first step toward breaking the cycle of worry and reclaiming peace of mind.
Recognising the Cycle of Health Anxiety
Health anxiety often follows a predictable cycle that can be difficult to break. Understanding the stages can help you recognise when you’re caught in the loop and how to take steps to interrupt it.
Here’s how the cycle typically works:
#1 The Initial Trigger
It usually starts with something small—a normal bodily sensation, like a headache or an article about an illness. This sets off the initial worry and leads to thoughts of, “What if something is seriously wrong?”
#2 Perception and Misinterpretation
Next, these sensations are misinterpreted or blown out of proportion. What might be a simple muscle ache or fatigue suddenly feels like a symptom of a major illness. Your mind begins to catastrophise, assuming the worst.
#3 Increasing Worry
The more you focus on these sensations, the more your anxiety builds. You start thinking about potential illnesses, reading into every small change in your body, and convincing yourself that something is wrong.
#4 Heightened Anxiety
As worry grows, anxiety starts to affect your body. You may experience actual physical symptoms—like a racing heart, dizziness, or nausea—which only confirm your fears and make you believe your imagined illness is real.
#5 Reassurance Behaviors
In an effort to ease the anxiety, you might turn to Google, visit the doctor, or seek reassurance from loved ones. While this may provide temporary relief, it ultimately keeps the cycle alive. The more reassurance you seek, the more dependent you become on it, never fully trusting the answers you’re given.
How to Overcome Health Anxiety
To effectively break the cycle of health anxiety, it’s important to adopt targeted behavioural changes. Here are 4 ways on how to take control:
1. Challenge Misinterpretations of Bodily Sensations
Recognise that many bodily sensations—like fatigue or minor aches—are completely normal and not necessarily a sign of serious illness. When you catch yourself catastrophizing, consciously pause and question your thoughts: “Is there a more logical or less alarming explanation for this?” By actively reframing your thoughts, you’ll gradually retrain your mind to stop leaping to worst-case scenarios.
2. Delay the Urge to Check Symptoms Online
Instead of impulsively searching for health information, implement a rule to wait. Set a timer for 24 hours before allowing yourself to look anything up. During that time, focus on other tasks, knowing that many health anxieties resolve on their own when not fed by excessive internet searches. Over time, you’ll notice that your anxiety diminishes without the need for constant verification.
3. Stop Seeking Reassurance
Each time you feel the need to ask for reassurance—whether from a doctor, friend, or online source—challenge yourself to wait it out. Resist the urge to immediately seek validation. Remind yourself that uncertainty is part of life, and it’s okay not to have immediate answers. By practicing this consistently, you’ll begin to feel more empowered in managing anxiety without depending on outside confirmation.
4. Reduce Symptom-Checking
Set firm limits on how often you check your body for symptoms. If you normally check multiple times a day, reduce this to once in the morning and once in the evening. In between, shift your focus onto something engaging, such as work, hobbies, or exercise. Every time you successfully redirect your attention, you’re training your brain to deprioritise health worries, which will gradually decrease the intensity of your anxiety.
Mind-Body Techniques: Get Rid of Health Anxiety
It’s easy to give advice like “Just stop checking the internet” or “Challenge your thoughts,” but when you’re in the midst of health anxiety, these strategies can feel difficult to apply. This is where mind-body techniques—such as hypnotherapy, mindfulness and relaxation—can serve as powerful allies. These practices help create the calm and mental clarity necessary to successfully implement the cognitive and behavioural changes that break the anxiety cycle.
Hypnotherapy
Have you ever tried to break a habit and failed repeatedly, only to one day find yourself able to stop effortlessly? This often happens because of deeply ingrained belief systems in our subconscious mind. By accessing this part of the mind, hypnotherapy for health anxiety, can reframe your response to anxiety triggers, making it easier to change thought patterns and behaviors. It strengthens your ability to resist compulsive urges that fuel the anxiety cycle, providing a deeper layer of mental support.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness helps you develop an awareness of your thoughts and sensations without judgment. It allows you to recognise anxious patterns and distance yourself from the urge to catastrophise. By training your mind to focus on the present, mindfulness makes it easier to pause and apply more rational thinking, like questioning whether there’s a less alarming explanation for your symptoms.
Technique to Try: The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Exercise
1. Notice 5 things you can see
Look around and name five things in your environment.
2. Notice 4 things you can feel
Focus on sensations, like the texture of your clothes or the ground beneath your feet.
3. Notice 3 things you can hear
Listen for sounds around you, whether it’s birds chirping, distant chatter, or a fan whirring.
4. Notice 2 things you can smell
Pay attention to scents, whether it’s fresh air or the smell of coffee or food.
5. Notice 1 thing you can taste
Be aware of the current taste in your mouth, or take a sip of water and focus on that.
Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation exercises—like deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation—calm the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart or tense muscles. When your body is more relaxed, your mind is better equipped to resist compulsive behaviors, like excessive symptom-checking or internet searching. This physical relaxation supports your mental resilience in breaking those habits.
Technique to Try: Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
1. Find a quiet, comfortable space
Sit or lie down in a relaxed position.
2. Start with your feet
Focus on your toes. Slowly tense the muscles in your feet, curling your toes tightly. Hold the tension for about 5 seconds, then release, noticing the difference between tension and relaxation.
3. Move upwards
Gradually work your way up your body, tensing and relaxing each muscle group. For example, tighten your calf muscles, then your thighs, stomach, chest, arms, hands, and so on. Hold each for 5 seconds before releasing.
4. Breathe deeply
As you release each muscle group, take a deep breath in and exhale slowly, allowing yourself to sink deeper into relaxation with each breath.
5. End with your face and jaw
Pay special attention to areas where you hold tension, like your jaw or forehead. Tense and release those areas as you did with the rest of your body.
Rediscover Hobbies and Interests
Breaking the health anxiety cycle reduces your focus on health-related worries, giving you a greater chance to reconnect with your true self and rediscover hobbies and interests that bring fulfillment. Shifting your focus away from health concerns and engaging in joyful activities significantly increases the likelihood of finding balance and fulfillment.
Engaging in hobbies can effectively distract from health anxiety because the brain has a limited capacity for focused attention. Studies show that the human mind can only concentrate on one demanding task at a time, a concept known as “cognitive load theory.” When you fully engage in an activity that requires your attention, your brain becomes less capable of simultaneously focusing on anxious thoughts.
Research suggests that attention and focus are finite resources—meaning when you’re deeply absorbed in a task, especially one that brings joy or challenge, there’s less cognitive space for anxiety to occupy.
Seeking Professional Help
When health anxiety becomes overwhelming and starts to disrupt your daily routine, seeking professional help is crucial. If you’re constantly fixated on health concerns, unable to concentrate, or caught in repetitive behaviors like symptom checking, it’s a sign that support is needed. This can feel especially difficult when you’re facing it alone, with no one around to offer help or guidance, making professional support even more important.
If you’re seeking support for health anxiety, here are some professional options:
- Hypnotherapists: Use guided relaxation and focused attention to reprogram subconscious triggers of health anxiety. For example, clinical hypnotherapy helps you break the cycle of obsessive symptom-checking and replace fear with calm.
- Psychologists: Specialise in therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help manage and reduce anxiety.
- Psychiatrists: Medical doctors who can diagnose and treat health anxiety, and prescribe medication if needed.
- Licensed Therapists/Counselors: Provide talk therapy to help you develop coping strategies for anxiety.
- General Practitioners (GPs): Can assess physical symptoms and refer you to mental health professionals.
- Clinical Social Workers: Offer therapy and help navigate treatment options.
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners: Provide mental health support, including therapy and medication, often under a psychiatrist’s supervision.
Remember: You don’t have to manage this alone. If you feel trapped in an anxiety spiral or notice a loved one struggling, encourage them to seek counseling or therapy. Professional intervention offers the guidance, support, and long-term strategies needed to navigate health anxiety and restore peace of mind.
Health Anxiety FAQs
Q1. What is CBT for health anxiety?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for health anxiety focuses on breaking the cycle of catastrophic thinking and compulsive behaviors like symptom-checking. It teaches you to challenge irrational fears (e.g., “This headache means cancer”) and replace them with evidence-based thoughts. CBT also includes behavioural strategies, such as delaying Google searches or doctor visits, to reduce dependency on reassurance.
Why Hypnotherapy Works:
Hypnotherapy targets the root subconscious triggers of health anxiety, such as past trauma or ingrained fear patterns, that often resist logic-based therapies. By rewiring these deep-seated beliefs, hypnotherapy can reduce the urge to catastrophise or seek reassurance, often delivering faster relief for chronic anxiety
Q2. Can health anxiety cause fake symptoms?
This loop explains why symptoms feel undeniable. While tests confirm no illness, anxiety keeps the cycle alive. Techniques like grounding exercises or hypnotherapy can disrupt this pattern by calming the mind-body response.
Q3. How to help someone with health anxiety?
Encourage professional support, such as CBT or hypnotherapy, and offer to help research options. Set boundaries if demands become overwhelming.