Do you feel excessive fear of having any physical or mental illness? This is health anxiety. This condition is also known as hypochondriasis or illness anxiety disorder. In this condition, individuals remain in a persistent phase of stress, fear, and obsessive thoughts about suffering from any serious medical conditions. They waste the precious time of their life just thinking that they are suffering from any illness or they can get ill anytime in the future. Their fear completely takes over their mind, and they start thinking that their physical or mental illness will destroy their life.
Health Anxiety or Illness Anxiety Disorder
The illness you fear might not be the illness you are dealing with in reality. In most cases, individuals are not diagnosed with any symptoms of any serious illness, but they have just fear and nothing else. For example, they keep thinking about any one organ or part of their body, or the racing thoughts appear in their mind regarding the news they heard or watched on TV or social media. Then, for seeking reassurance, they most frequently visit doctors or healthcare professionals. Even if experts say to them that they are fine but several questions start roaming in their mind.
Health anxiety is not just a simple anxiety; it’s a combination of fear of both physical and mental health issues. For example, in health anxiety, if a person has a fear of a heart attack or cardiac arrest, then at the same time, the fear of having anxiety or depression also exists. The fear of both physical and mental illness in health anxiety can directly interfere with normal life functioning as individuals remain stuck in the cycle of fear, exhibit avoidance behavior, and keep visiting healthcare professionals to ensure their optimal health.
Normal Body Sensations That Result in Fear
There are some normal body sensations that develop the sense of fear and worry, such as certain fluctuations in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, levels of saliva, muscle tone, and some alterations in visual acuity etc. These sensations are normal and do not pose any danger. However, in health anxiety, individuals feel that these bodily sensations are an indication of any serious health conditions. However, in reality, sensations are real, but not the beliefs associated with them.
Fear of physical illness
In health anxiety, the fear of getting any physical illness is common. Individuals think that they can get any serious physical illness, which then takes over their body. They usually misunderstand their normal body sensations and consider them a sign of any physical health issue. In most cases, even if they get the positive results, professionals also assure them they are safe and healthy, but they remain in that fear.
Fear of Mental Illness
Individuals also experience stress and fear about having any mental illness. Their fear of getting mentally ill or experiencing any mental breakdown negatively affects their mental stability and also their overall well-being. Fear of any mental illness, in health anxiety, is as distressing, damaging, and disabling as the fear suffered from any physical illness.
Cognitive distortions
Due to health anxiety, individuals feel that they are not capable of dealing with any stress or fear. They feel that they do not have the cognitive ability to battle with their troubling thoughts and fears, and even imagine the worst situations.
What are the common signs or symptoms of Health Anxiety?
The most common signs or symptoms of health anxiety include:
- Persistent stress about health
- Fear of the onset of symptoms of any illness
- The most frequent analysis of the body to find the symptoms of illness
- Misinterpretation of body sensations
- Obsessions to have a look at the news or information related to health
- Difficulty in focus or concentration
- Constant fear that reports of medical tests miss the authentic information
- Feel that they are physically ill
- Most often, irritable behavior
- Continuous seeking reassurance
- Avoiding health-related data or information
- Continuous avoidance of the triggers of anxiety or fear
What Are The Main Types of Health Anxiety?
Health anxiety is categorized into main types, which are as follows:
Somatic symptom disorder
In this type of health anxiety, individuals feel more fear of physical anxiety. Their focus on physical sensations is more than on mental health. However, they also take extra stress over their distressing one or more physical symptoms. They have to struggle a lot in different areas of their life. Moreover, they feel fatigue, body pain, and other related physical symptoms.
Illness anxiety disorder
The illness anxiety disorder usually includes few or no physical symptoms at all. They deal with high levels of anxiety and fear of having any illness or suffering in the future.
Why does Health Anxiety persist despite continuous reassurance from experts?
In health anxiety, fear is the main element that urges some individuals to visit the physician and get examined, while some avoid doing that due to their fear of discovering any serious or worst illness. Most people misinterpret their body sensations and repeatedly self-diagnose themselves. To get rid of their fear, they Google their symptoms and what they feel.
In addition, if they get to know about any worst illness through any social media platform or news, they keep thinking that they can also have that shortly. Due to this, their number of visits to physicians increased. Even after they clear all the medical tests and experts reassure them that there is no illness, they do not get over their anxiety and fear. Although they get some relief but that is temporary then immediately appear in their mind after some time due to any trigger, which could be any arising new symptom or alarming thought. This indicates that their cycle of worrisome thoughts and fear can start anytime.
The false alarm fact
Car alarms are built inside the cars to detect any criminal break or suspicious activity, but what if it starts ringing even if a walking person moves aside the car? Health anxiety is just like this alarm, as it starts developing fear in the mind by misinterpreting normal body sensations. They do not understand the fact that the human body is very noisy and gives many signals to the body that might be some discomfort or some unfortunate sensations, but it does not mean that they are dangerous.
The more they scan their body, the more obsessive thoughts appear in their mind. Their every single thought gives rise to an opportunity to create a negative story. Your negative thoughts are also linked with your symptoms. If you think the worst, then your mind also receives signals to develop the most common symptoms of anxiety, which include chest tightness, headache or body ache, tingling sensations, and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract. So your negative thoughts act as a fuel for negative symptoms in your body.
What are the treatment options for Health Anxiety?
Healthcare professionals can make a better evaluation of the person’s condition. Even if a mental illness is ruling you, experts conduct a physical evaluation to determine if there is any underlying physical illness.
Moreover, to treat each form of anxiety, experts employ the major treatment options, which include medications, psychotherapy, and mental health counseling.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy or talk therapy is mainly preferred by experts to help individuals in dealing with their anxious thoughts and associated negative behavior.
There are different types of psychotherapy, but among all, cognitive behavioral therapy is the most renowned and widely used by experts.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
In cognitive behavioral therapy, the main goal of experts is to reduce the stressful thoughts and fear and improve cognitive abilities. With the help of cognitive behavioral therapy, individuals learn ways to overcome their fear and anxious thoughts. By altering the negative thoughts to positive ones, they take control over their mind and associated behavior.
Mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy
This type of therapy involves the combined elements of cognitive and mindfulness and is considered highly useful for dealing with health anxiety.
What are the top ways to cope with Health Anxiety?
Just like every other form of anxiety, you can also deal with health anxiety and live a happier life. The following are the main tips or strategies that can work better for getting rid of health anxiety:
Change your focus of attention
In health anxiety, the center of attention of individuals is just one body part or organ. They feel that their body part, which might be the heart or the liver, is not functioning properly. The more they focus on a specific part of their body, the more they get stuck in the cycle of anxiety. Moreover, they also think their physical sensations are the major reason behind their anxiety. This, in turn, creates a cycle of worrying that keeps moving on and is known as rumination.
So the best way to deal with this is to divert the attention to the most useful, engaging, and healthy activities such as:
- Planting a tree in the garden
- Going out for a walk
- Painting
- Drawing
- Sketching
By engaging your mind in different activities and completely focusing on them, you can prevent the occurrence of negative thoughts in your mind.
Identify the fears
The first step to dealing with any mental illness is to identify which specific thoughts or beliefs act as a trigger of anxiety.
Challenging negative thoughts
We can not control our bodies, but we can have major control over our thoughts. What we think or what type of thoughts we have directly influences our physical and mental health. So, instead of getting overwhelmed with negative thoughts, each individual should first accept and then challenge the negative thoughts to take control over them. Because in health anxiety, the problem is not in the body, it is in the thoughts. Instead of accepting thoughts as facts, individuals should first find out the facts and then believe them.
Reframe your negative thoughts
Once you have identified and accepted or challenged your negative thoughts, the main thing that you should do is to reframe or restructure your negative thoughts. For example, if you are feeling a headache, then instead of thinking I might have a tumor in my brain, think that this is just a normal headache due to stress or workload.
Practice mindfulness techniques
If you regularly practice mindfulness techniques, then you can protect your mind from all worrisome thoughts. Instead of taking stress from the future, they stay in the present moment, acknowledge their thoughts, and transform their negative thoughts into positive ones. Moreover, individuals also focus on their surroundings to regain a sense of mental comfort.
The most common mindfulness techniques that help in managing anxiety include:
- Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1 Exercise
- Guided meditation
- Yoga
Breathing exercises
Deep breathing exercises also help in getting relief from anxiety as they relax the nerves and relieve the tense muscles to diminish the anxiety.
Keep a journal or diary
Over-analysis of the body is not appropriate. However, if you do this in a controlled manner, then by doing this, you can keep a healthier check on your body. Meanwhile, also consult the professional to get reassurance or authentic results regarding your physical and mental health.
Self-care
By prioritizing self-care, you can also deal with any form of anxiety. Make sure that you are following a routine of a healthy diet, sufficient and balanced sleep, and regular physical workouts, etc.
Socialize yourself
Instead of living alone, start your social interactions with others and also restart those things or activities that you have been avoiding. By doing this, you can easily overcome your fear of getting ill.
When to seek professional help for Health Anxiety
Stress at controlled levels is good until it does not exceed the normal levels, as it develops a sense of motivation and responsibility. But if your excessive worries are exerting a negative impact on your personal, professional, and social life, then it indicates that you need professional help. For health anxiety, if your visits to doctors or healthcare clinics are increasing and you spend more time researching the symptoms, or you constantly think that you will have to suffer from any serious mental illness, then you should never compromise on your health and, without any delay, find a professional.
Overcome your Anxiety with the Professional Help of Renewed
Renewed Mental Health Group is a premier platform that offers comprehensive psychiatric services for those individuals who are grappling with any mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, bipolar disorder, ADHD, perinatal depression, etc.
We have a team of trained and board-certified mental health experts who have expertise in diagnosis and mental health treatment. Considering the results of the evaluation, they develop personalized treatment plans that suit the mental health requirements of each individual. So if you want to take control of your mind by vanishing your anxiety, then Renewed should be your first and last choice.
Reach out to our mental health professionals, share or discuss your mental health issues with our experts, and treat your mental illness today!