4 Ways to Deal with Health Anxiety

From carefully reading the ingredients on a food label to ensuring you get enough steps per day, it’s completely normal to make health-conscious decisions every day.

However, health anxiety is when these concerns start to overwhelm people’s lives, as they constantly think about developing a serious medical illness. This type of anxiety is more common than we think affecting approximately 1 in 20 people.

In this article, we’ll explain what health anxiety is and how to recognise its symptoms, as well as how you can cope with health anxiety.

What is health anxiety?

Sometimes referred to as hypochondria, health anxiety is a mental health condition where people fixate and excessively worry about having or developing a serious medical illness. This condition can become very disruptive, with thoughts and feelings of health anxiety taking over day-to-day life.

Often, people with health anxiety will misinterpret harmless or minor physical symptoms, believing they are the result of a severe underlying condition. In fact, as this is a type of anxiety it is quite common for physical symptoms of anxiety itself, such as dizziness or an irregular heartbeat, to be mistaken for a different serious medical condition.

Healthy anxiety can have a minor, moderate, or severe effect on people’s daily lives.

For instance, some people might be more vigilant about daily germs and viruses, which could include excessive handwashing, frequently disinfecting surfaces, and washing clothes after only one use. However, more severe cases can leave a person in constant turmoil over more serious conditions such as cancer.

For example, someone with health anxiety may convince themselves that a recurring headache is a sign of a brain tumour. They’ll be consumed by this belief, spending countless hours researching the condition, disrupting their sleep routine, and constantly seeking assurances from loved ones. Even if a doctor rules out a brain tumour, a person with health anxiety may still be unconvinced, continuing to fixate on the medical condition.

In this particular example, while there’s no medical evidence to support the belief that they have a brain tumour, the fixation still causes significant stress and anxiety to the person, impacting their overall wellbeing. In these situations, it’s important to recognise and get help to overcome health anxiety when it becomes a problem.

What causes health anxiety?

Often linked to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), the exact cause of health anxiety is not always clear. However, there are risk factors that can contribute to health anxiety, including:

• A family history of health anxiety: A study on illness anxiety disorder found that if parents were disproportionately worried about health issues, and frequently voiced those concerns, it increased the risk of children developing health anxiety.

• Previous experience of a serious illness: The same study also found that a person was at a higher risk of developing health anxiety if they experienced a serious illness in their childhood. This experience can make them more aware of potential harmful symptoms and increase the anxiety about such a condition resurfacing.

• Excessive use of the internet to self-diagnose: A 2022 UK-based study suggested that ‘cyberchondria’ could be to blame. Cyberchondria relates to the seemingly endless information available on the internet offering unparalleled access to medical information. This can lead people with health anxiety to fully believe that minor or harmless symptoms are an indicator of a serious medical condition.

What are the symptoms of health anxiety?

It’s completely normal to worry about potential medical conditions from time-to-time. In many cases, being vigilant and honing on what you know about your body can be a real life-saver. However, it becomes health anxiety when this concern manifests itself in anxious ways.

For example, mild health anxiety may crop up by way of needing constant reassurance that you are okay. Severe health anxiety can leave you needing further validation, even going as far as to challenge professionals and seek second or even third opinions.

To help you better understand whether you might need help with health anxiety, take a look at the most common symptoms:

• Constantly worrying about your physical health.
• Obsessively researching diseases or medical conditions and their symptoms.
• Repeatedly checking for signs of illness (e.g. taking blood pressure or checking for lumps).
• Avoiding people or situations for fear of catching an illness.
• Persistently asking for reassurance on physical health from loved ones.
• Believing doctors or medical tests missed something.

If you or a loved one are showing signs of health anxiety – and it’s stopping you from leading a normal life, the NHS recommends that you speak to a GP. They’ll discuss how you can deal with health anxiety, as well as talk through potential therapy treatments.

How can I deal with health anxiety at home?

While a GP may recommend talking therapies or offer anxiety medication to help stop health anxiety symptoms, there’re many self-help methods that can minimise its impact too. Here are some ways that may help you cope with health anxiety:

1. Keep a diary of your health anxiety

The first step to overcoming health anxiety is to recognise when and why those unhelpful thoughts occur. As such, keeping a diary can be an invaluable tool for better understanding your anxieties.

By recording when and where your health anxiety spikes, you can start to identify any patterns or common triggers. For example, you may realise that your anxiety regularly appears after watching certain TV programmes or reading medical articles. These would be your triggers, so then you might cope with health anxiety by turning away from these forms of entertainment.

Keeping a diary can also help you see that health anxiety is more linked to mental health than any physical condition, with symptoms flaring up when you feel particularly stressed or anxious.

2. Challenge your health anxiety

Another benefit of keeping a record of your health anxiety is that it can help you challenge that negative line of thinking.

Essentially, you want to write down your anxious thought and then pull together two lists: one that ‘justifies’ your health anxiety, and one that ‘disagrees’ with it. For example, in the first list you may write, ‘I’m really worried about my headaches’, and then in the second list you might put, ‘headaches can just be a symptom of stress’.

It’s a simple exercise, but one that lets you look at your anxious thoughts in a more objective light. This can help reframe your thinking and better deal with health anxiety symptoms.

3. Distract yourself from your health anxiety

While it’s much easier said than done, it’s important to find effective ways to distract yourself to stop health anxiety symptoms from occurring.

If you feel the urge to start checking your blood pressure, for example, then it may be a symptom of boredom. In which case, try going for a walk to keep your mind occupied. Or, should you catch yourself Googling symptoms and feeling worse for it, step away from the screen and give a loved one a call. It doesn’t particularly matter how you do so, as long as you find that distraction to stop health anxiety.

For those already keeping a health anxiety diary, this step should be easier to manage. You’ll already have a better idea of your patterns and triggers, so you can start distracting yourself before those feelings flare up.

4. Try relaxation techniques

You can also help to stop health anxiety symptoms from impacting your day-to-day life by practising certain relaxation techniques. These exercises work to calm your body and mind, with studies showing them to be very effective for treating psychological tension and anxiety.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to commit to yoga classes or master meditation (although both of these techniques can help). In fact, the NHS recommends a simple breathing exercise to deal with health anxiety that can be done anywhere:

• First, get comfortable sitting down or standing up – as long as both your feet are flat on the floor, roughly hip-width apart.
• Breathe in slowly through your nose, letting your breath flow as deep into your belly as you can comfortably manage.
• Breathe out gently through your mouth.
• Continue to repeat this exercise for at least 5 minutes. If you’re struggling with the rhythm, try to count steadily from 1 to 5 when both breathing in and out.

How can Benenden Health help with health anxiety?

If you’re struggling to overcome health anxiety, and self-help techniques are not working, you should make an appointment to see your GP as soon as possible.

If you’re a Benenden Health member, you can access our 24/7 Mental Health Helpline, where you can speak to a counsellor at any time of day or night. They can provide more information and talk about your health anxiety while you wait for a face-to-face general practice appointment.

Benenden Health provides affordable private healthcare for everyone, giving you access to services such as our 24/7 GP Helpline and 24/7 Mental Health Helpline straight away. Once you’ve been a member for six months you can request access to diagnostic consultations and tests. You'll also have access to a wealth of health and wellbeing articles, videos and advice on a range of health issues.

Medically reviewed by Cheryl Lythgoe in September 2024.