5 Ways to Cope With Health Anxiety

Whether you’re trying to manage your stress, optimize your sleep or decide when to visit the doctor for an injury or illness, navigating your whole health — body, mind and spirit — is a lifelong journey. And because your health impacts your everyday life, staying in tune with your body is a great habit to form.

But for some, continuously monitoring their physical health can feel like a heavy weight to carry, that over time, can turn into health anxiety.

Keep reading to learn more about health anxiety, including symptoms, causes and five ways to cope.

What Is Health Anxiety?

While health anxiety can take many forms, it’s generally defined as anxiety that occurs when you fixate on the possibility that you have — or will develop — a serious or chronic illness, even if medical tests show no signs of a health risk. Over time, this anxiety can begin to overwhelm your thoughts and actions to the point where you’re in a constant state of alertness and always think that something is wrong with your health.

Causes of Health Anxiety

The truth about health anxiety is that it can be caused by several different factors, including:

• Anxiety disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Childhood trauma or abuse
• Information overload
• Past medical trauma
• Stress and personality factors

It’s also common for those living with chronic pain or lifelong illnesses to develop health anxiety because of the mind-body connection, or the close-knit relationship between your mental and physical health. Experiencing anxiety and constant stress can cause your body to have physical reactions, like high blood pressure, highlighting the interconnectivity between the mind and body.

Common Health Anxiety Symptoms

Symptoms of health anxiety can show up differently in every person, but common symptoms include:

• A frequent fear of becoming chronically ill
• Assuming slight symptoms indicate chronic illnesses (thinking a cough is caused by lung cancer)
• Avoiding people or places for fear of getting sick
• Avoiding or overusing medical care
• Constantly researching symptoms and illnesses online
• Constantly seeking health reassurance from others
• Frequently checking your body for new signs and symptoms of illness
• Obsession with bodily functions, like your heart rate

Whether you identify with some or all of these health anxiety symptoms, we’re here to help by providing you with coping strategies to ease your mind and lift your spirit.

Overcoming Health Anxiety: 5 Ways to Cope

Living with health anxiety can feel overwhelming, but you have what it takes to overcome your worry and reclaim your life. Use these five practical tips to help you cope.

1. Limit Time Online Researching Symptoms

Constantly researching symptoms online can lead to increased health anxiety by reinforcing the fear that something is wrong. Not to mention, there may be false or exaggerated claims from nonmedical professionals telling you what might be wrong. It’s best to set healthy limits for yourself. Try looking up symptoms only once a day, or only when you’ve been experiencing the same symptom for more than two days.

2. Practice Relaxation Techniques

Sometimes, you may need a mental timeout; a time to let go of your anxiety and focus on something other than your health. There are many relaxation techniques that you can try to calm your mind, including:

• Breathwork
• Gentle exercise
• Meditation
• Spending time in prayer
• Yoga

Relaxation techniques like these help to calm the mind, reduce the body’s stress response and ease racing thoughts, breaking the cycle of worrying.

3. Focus on What You Can Control

While illness or injury isn’t fully preventable, many aspects of your health are within your control. Try shifting your focus to things that you can change, like getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water and practicing gentle exercise. Focusing on what’s in your control helps alleviate the anxiety that something is wrong or could go wrong and helps you stay focused on healthy habits.

4. Challenge Your Thoughts

Often, especially when it comes to their health, many people automatically assume the worst-case scenario will come to pass. But in reality, it isn’t likely. The next time you notice yourself struggling with an anxious thought, try challenging it with past experiences.

Ask yourself:

• How many times have I experienced health anxiety and everything turned out OK?
• Is there another possible explanation?
• What would I say to a friend if they were thinking this?

Doing this refocuses your mind and breaks the cycle of catastrophic thinking.

5. Seek Professional Help

Sometimes, you may need professional help with your health anxiety, and that’s OK. Seeking help is brave and nothing to be embarrassed about. You can feel confident knowing that our board-certified psychiatrists and mental health counselors are here to provide the compassionate care you need to break free from your anxiety. Together, we can write a new story for your journey to wholeness.

Easing Your Mind and Lifting Your Spirit

You deserve to feel your best, inside and out. If you’re struggling with health anxiety, know that you aren’t alone. At AdventHealth, our compassionate care teams are here to care for your body, mind and spirit. Learn more about our behavioral health services and how we can help you move forward in confidence.