Have you ever struggled with health anxiety?

Do you take it to the extreme in your mind thinking that you might be dying?

Do you feel that you need to carry out constant self-examination and self-diagnosis?

Are you often overthinking which in turn creates even more health anxiety?

Health anxiety and the associated symptoms can be exceptionally frustrating to face, which can sometimes cause great distress. However, knowing how to get over your health anxiety symptoms can seem tricky. That’s why I am here to help you find out a little more about health anxiety and how to get treatment!

What is Health Anxiety?

First of all, we need to consider what health anxiety actually is. As expressed by the NHS, health anxiety occurs when worrying about becoming ill begins to dominate your thoughts and lifestyle.

Naturally, most of us tend to take precautions to prevent us from becoming sick. However, health anxiety can leave you feeling trapped, scared, and constantly on edge. As a result, it’s common for people with health anxiety to struggle with enjoying regular activities due to worries about falling ill.

Health anxiety, otherwise known as hypochondria, is considered a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It’s entirely possible to overcome this condition with help, support, and care from your loved ones, though; and so, if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by your health anxiety, there are options out there to help!

What are the symptoms of health anxiety?

One of the main symptoms of health anxiety is that the individual may scan their body for signs that they are developing a physical illness.

One example of it would be a person experiencing health anxiety who may interpret their headache as a brain tumour.

Some people affected by this disorder may also link non-physical problems to having a serious illness. An example of this is maybe someone who forgets where they have put their phone or their house keys believing that this means that they have Alzheimer’s disease.

Some individuals who experience this type of anxiety disorder are so convinced that they have a certain physical illness, that all of their focus will be placed on obtaining a diagnosis. They will go to as many doctors as they can and if they do not receive confirmation of a diagnosis, they may continue to seek second, third and fourth opinions from other doctors.

What are the other Health Anxiety Symptoms?

There are numerous symptoms of health anxiety. Keeping these in mind could help you work out whether you might be struggling with health anxiety too.

• Spending a huge amount of time worrying about your health
• Avoiding activities that have a very small chance of causing illness
• Checking for symptoms of illnesses continually (even without feeling unwell)
• Questioning or not trusting healthcare professionals about a diagnosis
• Feeling ill without having an active infection or sickness
• Feeling upset or potentially even depressed over fears about getting ill

Think you’ve been having difficulties with health anxiety? No problem – I’m here to help you recover from your anxiety symptoms.

As a qualified counsellor, hypnotherapist, and EMDR therapist in Leeds, I’m proud to be able to help my clients recover and find their own happiness and optimism in life. If this is something you think may help, I’m here for you whenever you need me!

How to Get Treatment for Health Anxiety?

If you have been struggling with health anxiety symptoms, there are several possible treatment options that could help.

Recognising Symptoms

One of the first steps in recovering from health anxiety is to recognise your symptoms. In many cases, it can be easy to overlook the signs. As such, keeping a record or diary of common habits, such as checking your body for symptoms. This may help make recognizing when your health anxiety is causing an issue easier.

Cutting Frequency

Once you have recognized how often you engage in habitual behaviours, you can look at cutting back on the prevalence. Staying conscious of your health anxiety may help make it easier to avoid checking your body and the like. This, in turn, could help you avoid repeating these behaviours as often.

Integrating Distractions

Many people with health anxiety begin thinking about this most often when they have free, idle time. As such, if you have been struggling with health anxiety symptoms, trying to integrate more distractions to take your mind off things may help.

Of course, integrating distractions is only half of the battle. Nevertheless, if you can do so, you may find that preventing symptoms from controlling your life becomes easier.

Getting Support

In addition, if you have been struggling to overcome your health anxiety symptoms, getting support from other people can also be a massive help! With this in mind, there are several places you could go for help.

For example, your friends and family can often help with this. Letting them know your common struggles can help them look out for you going forwards. This is a simple way to reduce the chance of accidentally continuing with learned habits due to health anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for health anxiety

During Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) the therapist will work with the client to identify the main factors such as thoughts,  feelings, internal limiting beliefs and physical symptoms associated with the problem and develop a tailored to the client’s needs approach.

A number of techniques will be employed to test the client aimed at identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, possible thinking errors and misinterpretations. These may then be challenged through a combination of Socratic questioning and behavioural experiments.

EMDR therapy for health anxiety.

In addition, getting support from a caring local therapist may also be helpful. Your therapist may be able to help you learn how to process your health anxiety symptoms. Moreover, with specialist techniques – such as EMDR therapy – you should be able to overcome any struggles you may have faced more easily.

EMDR processing can be applied to target your worst episodes of health anxiety, life events related to health anxiety and the root cause where this health anxiety comes from. You would also work on current triggers related to health anxiety, your negative thoughts related to it and your limiting beliefs  https://www.junabrookes.co.uk/limiting-beliefs-and-how-to-overcome-them/

which keeps you from experiencing health anxiety. Using EMDR we would work towards the elimination of health anxiety and all symptoms related to it, and return you to normal daily functioning.

I would highly recommend this type of therapy in combination with CBT.

Though reaching out for help is one of the hardest parts of the healing process, it doesn’t have to be impossible. With help from a friendly local therapist and EMDR processes, you’ll be on the right path to healing!

Final Thoughts

Health anxiety is a complex issue to face, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way. Luckily, there’s support available that can help you overcome your health anxiety symptoms; hopefully, this will allow you to move on and live a happy, healthy life.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with me today to see how I can help!