Ask a therapist: how can I deal with anxiety about my health?

By Sian Barnard

What is Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety is classed as an obsessive and irrational worry that you’re suffering from a serious illness. It can affect anyone at any time, however with the current Coronavirus pandemic it can become harder to differentiate between a rational (and necessary) level of concern for one’s health, and an excessive and unnecessary level of anxiety surrounding your health and wellbeing. If you’re constantly pre-occupied with a particular symptom or part of the body, whether COVID-19 related or not, then it’s possible you’re suffering from health anxiety.

How to recognise that you’re struggling with Health Anxiety

There are many indicators that your health anxiety is more than just a regular worry about something. Constant thinking about getting ill, or already being ill is the most important and initial red flag. Feeling panicky and catastrophising about the worst possible outcomes without any initial cause for concern is also a big indicator that health anxiety is prevalent.

For example, if you find a new mole the rational thinking is “I should make a doctor’s appointment to confirm this isn’t anything serious” then putting it out of your mind until your appointment. Those struggling with health anxiety, however, will make the appointment then relentlessly worry about the mole being an indicator of something serious, such as cancer, until they’re convinced that it can only be cancer and there’s a chance they might die. This is an extreme example, but it demonstrates the differences in thinking.

Another symptom of health anxiety is constantly checking the internet for confirmation that your illness is serious and asking people for reassurance. Prodding or picking at the body part is another sign of health anxiety taking over your mind. If your worries and thoughts surrounding your physical health begin to take over your everyday life, it’s time to do something about it.

How to manage health anxiety during the Coronavirus outbreak

Whether your health anxiety pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic, or it’s something you’re newly struggling with thanks to the outbreak, these are unprecedented times for all of us. The best way to manage illness-based anxiety during something as severe as this is to try to accept the statistics. The vast majority of people will be fine during the outbreak, and the statistics are good for those who do catch it.

If you’re considered ‘vulnerable’ during the pandemic, for example, if you’re older or have a compromised immune system, it’s about learning to manage the worry in a proactive way, particularly as worry triggers a cortisol release, which can actually compromise your immune system. Learning to relax and manage your stress whilst learning to accept what’s in your control, and what’s out of it, will be key to coping.

Serious health anxiety does require CBT interventions to prevent it from worsening, and I provide mindfulness and hypnotherapy sessions to help the mind stay in the present moment, rather than spiralling into what-ifs and worst-case scenarios.

It’s important to try and remember that worry is a completely non-productive feeling, and it doesn’t actually change anything. Catastrophising about worst-case scenarios of hypothetical futures can cause our minds to make the body think that it’s under threat. Instead, practice high standards of hygiene, and learn to meditate, which can counteract the fight or flight instinct, and instead puts our bodies in the rest and digest phase.