What is Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety, also referred to as “Illness Anxiety Disorder” (IAD) in the DSM-5, is characterized by excessive worry about having or getting a serious illness. Oftentimes, these beliefs are based on very little or no physical symptoms. However, IAD can cause hyperawareness of the body, making subtle symptoms feel much more persistent, or even causing psychosomatic symptoms to appear. 

Health anxiety can manifest as:

• • Constant body scans to check for new symptoms
  • Obsessive researching of illnesses 
  • Seeking reassurance from friends/family
  • Frequent trips to the doctor or avoiding the doctor 
  • Not believing test results that come back clear
  • Avoidance of situations that are deemed dangerous to health

If you struggle with health anxiety, you are not alone. Below are some tips to help manage it:

• • Remember that anxiety can cause physical symptoms such as sweating, nausea, dizziness, tingling, gastrointestinal issues, a racing heart, and more.
  • Limit time spent on social media. The more time you spend on health-related content, the more that will show up on your feeds. It’s very easy to fall down a rabbit hole of finding new diseases and/or symptoms to obsess over. 
  • Try journaling about your worries. Often, writing out your anxieties and what proof you have for/against them can help you think about it more logically.

Illness Anxiety Disorder can be difficult to tackle on your own. One of the most common treatments for IAD is cognitive behavioural therapy (link?). This aims to weed out the common thinking patterns that lead to anxiety. Then, the goal is to challenge and redirect these thoughts to break the cycle of rumination. Other methods, such as exposure therapy and anti-anxiety medications, may also assist in easing health anxiety. 

Luckily, at Allegro Counselling, our therapists are well-versed in the struggles of IAD. If you’re struggling, book a session here.