Health anxiety: Identifying the endless cycle of worries

Health anxiety is not a new term. While it's typical to worry about your health now and then, this worry has especially become prominent post the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been extra careful and considerate of our health, but for some of us, it is not mere consideration but rather excessive fear.

Health anxiety is an excessive fear of health problems that you may experience. It generally begins with a sign and then spirals into worries and avoidance behaviors.

Some fail to recognize the severity of their condition, as they believe that their concerns are real and valid. Health anxiety lies on a continuum, and if not regulated, can turn into illness anxiety disorder.

What is health anxiety?

The pandemic has been a gamechanger in how we perceive our health. (Image via Getty)

Medical anxiety is linked to extreme preoccupation with the thoughts of being diagnosed with a serious medical condition.

Every sign serves as a potential signal that they may have a life-threatening illness. Due to this preoccupation, people may spend most of their time thinking about the worst case outcomes, which typically makes them anxious.

This anxiety is pervasive and can push people to seek medical help. Again, this is not a typical level of worry and can impact everyday life. However, there are times when you can experience this response due to a perceived or anticipated threat. For instance, seeing a symptom and feeling the worst is about to happen.

Anxiety around health, therefore, refers to the experience of thinking that there may be a threat to your health, which consequently becomes anxiety triggers. Think about the following questions to assess if you have excessive preoccupation with your health symptoms:

Are you preoccupied with having or developing a serious illness in the past six months?
Have you sought repeated reassurance from your GP, other health professional and/or your family?
Are you feeling distressed by thinking about your health/that you may have a serious illness?
Do you repeatedly check physical symptoms on the internet or in books?
Do you examine you body physically or for sensations?
Do you avoid anything such as watching medical programs?

Effects of anxiety on the body

Excessive anxiety keeps you occupied and can have a severe impact on the body. (Image via Getty)

Mental health anxiety is a common response of the body. Depending on the context, individuals may experience varying levels and intensity of anxiety.

Some of us may experience health anxiety, while others may experience social anxiety, and yet others have specific phobias. However, there's one common feature shared by all of these, and this is their effect on the body.

Anxiety takes us away from the present and forces us to make negative predictions. This is not just any typical response, but from an evolutionary perspective, a very important one. It can be helpful in real life threatening situations.

For instance, if you are driving and suddenly see a car coming towards you, it's helpful for your brain to recognise the threat and tell your body to react (apply the brake, steer away from the incoming car, sound your horn).

Basically, the body becomes ready for the fight or flight response, which merely takes a couple of seconds.

Treatment of health anxiety

Your perception affects your thoughts, emotions and behaviors. (Image via Getty/)

Perhaps the primary modality of treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, as it aims to replace irrational thoughts and behaviors around anxiety with more rational ones.

Certain thoughts linked to health anxiety may sound like "If I sneeze sometimes, it may be because I have COVID", "I am going to die, if I don't seek professional help", "what if?" or "the doctors missed my symptoms".

The emotions you are likely to feel are anxiety, panic, sadness and frustration at not receiving a diagnosis. That also translates into significant reassurance-seeking behavior, you become a google patient (the one who keeps googling their symptoms), or you constantly scan for symptoms.

If you find that these thoughts and related emotions and behaviors are interfering with your ability to function, it could be the right time to seek professional help. The earlier you can recognize the signs, the earlier you will be able to act before your anxiety spins out of control.

There are situations when something bad may or may not happen, but what's important to recognize is that health anxiety eventually comes down to your set of beliefs.

It can be tough, even for clinicians to recognize it as problematic. You don't deserve to be stuck in a constant fight or flight response, though. Physical health is important but so is your mental health.

Janvi Kapur is a counselor with a Master's degree in applied psychology with a specialization in clinical psychology.

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