Obsessive and frequently irrational worry about developing serious medical conditions is referred to as health anxiety. The term hypochondriasis has been replaced more recently with the term illness anxiety.

An individual with health anxiety will become fixated on their health: from their normal body functions to contracting illnesses and diseases. They might frequently consult their doctor or invest a lot of time reading about their symptoms and potential illnesses.

Continue reading to discover more about each of these coping mechanisms and health anxiety treatment options.

What Exactly Is Health Anxiety?

There is nothing wrong with being concerned about your health, particularly in light of the current global pandemic and the looming Covid-19 virus outbreak. However, that is both normal and essential in order for people to be more watchful of certain things that might endanger their physical and mental well-being.

The distinction is that those who suffer from health anxiety are constantly preoccupied with even the smallest potential health issue. They may worry that they will have a heart attack if, for example, their heart rate rises.

According to medical professionals, this obsession with one’s health is also known as illness anxiety and can have an effect on a person. Such a person’s physical and mental health may be severely impacted by this medical condition.

Anxiety can be brought on by health anxiety symptoms, which make a person think they have a condition they don’t. As a result, treating this anxiety disorder requires finding the best solution possible.

What Signs And Symptoms Indicate Health Anxiety?

Knowing the signs of the anxiety cycle will help you spot them when you encounter them. The list of common symptoms for this medical condition is provided below.

• The person is concerned that common body aches and pains are signs of serious illnesses. A good illustration of this is when someone experiences breathlessness and believes they are having a heart attack.
• Nothing can dissuade you from your preoccupation with becoming ill or becoming sickly severely.
• Another symptom can be that you are easily alarmed and worried about your health
• If you stay away from crowded areas or simply try to keep your distance from everyone.
• You are not confident when test results are negative and indicate that you shouldn’t worry.
• If you frequently examine your body for indications of ailments and other symptoms.
• Constantly discussing a condition and even scheduling appointments with a doctor to be sure.

How To Break The Cycle Of Health Anxiety: 8 Helpful Tips

Change Your Focus Of Attention

A specific body part or function is frequently the focus of people who suffer from health anxiety. The more they concentrate on a specific area of their body, the more physical sensations they become aware of, which can lead to unsettling thoughts.

These initial ideas may result in anxiety, which in turn produces additional physical symptoms. The individual may now start to think that their anxiety response is additional proof of physical symptoms. You can see how this results in a vicious cycle of worry. Rumination is the term for this cycle.

It’s crucial to change your focus if you notice that one worry is taking up too much of your attention. Turning your attention to a task, like:

• Cleaning a room
• Gardening
• Doing a crossword puzzle
• Painting or drawing
• Going for a hike

Whatever you are doing, your main objective should be to focus entirely on it. Consider the sounds you hear while gardening as an example. When you push your spade into the ground, take note of how it feels. Feel its weight in your hands while hearing the watering can’s sloshing noises. We have the ability to direct our thoughts away from our anxious thoughts by giving something our full attention.

This approach, however, might not always be useful. For instance, you might find yourself trying to fall asleep while lying in bed but finding that you can’t stop thinking about a particular worry. In these circumstances, we can learn to engage in mindfulness practices that will free us from our ruminations.

Avoid Obsessive Self-checking

My thermometer was calling to me like a siren at the height of the lockdown, determined to sink me on the rocks of my own insecurities. However, I can attest from personal experience that one of health anxiety’s destructive habits is checking for symptoms constantly. It’s a typical example of “reassurance behavior,” similar to repeatedly making sure a light is turned off before leaving the house.

Men are notorious for ignoring symptoms, so being vigilant is important. However, it’s important to take care not to let self-checking turn into an obsession. When that happens, your anxiety will increase. (I once experienced a symptom that led me to believe I was ill because I felt my neck glands so frequently that they actually swelled in response to all the fiddling.) If you are genuinely worried you might be ill, seek proper medical advice – it’ll always be more reliable than Dr. You (and it’ll certainly be more reliable than Dr. Internet, which brings us to…)

Practice Mindfulness

The act of deliberately focusing our attention on our thoughts, our surroundings, and our actions is known as mindfulness. Although the technique has its roots in meditation, it is finding more and more applications in therapy.

In fact, studies have shown that people with health anxiety can significantly benefit from the application of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). What are some ways that you can apply mindfulness to your daily activities? You can try a variety of exercises.

Mindfulness 5-4-3-2-1 Exercise

Take a moment to survey your current environment and note:

• Five things you can see
• Four things you can touch
• Three things you can hear
• Two things you can smell
• One thing you can taste

You can become more rooted in the here and now by performing this exercise. Even though it’s straightforward, it can help you divert your attention from ruminative thoughts. It’s an exercise that can be performed anytime, anywhere.

Listen To Music

The key to this exercise, which might seem overly simple at first, is to listen carefully. What does that mean?

Avoid switching to “autopilot” while you’re listening.” Be sure to pay attention. If there are lyrics, concentrate on them. Make an effort to recognize each instrument. Create a mental image of the sounds or words. Your focus can be brought to the present moment with the aid of this exercise.

Practice Guided Meditations

We learn to let go of our thoughts and relax our bodies through guided meditations. Calming your body and mind can help reduce any current physical symptoms of health anxiety, which will lessen some of your worries about your health if you struggle with it.

There are numerous choices for guided meditations. On sites like YouTube, you can frequently find a lot of free options. Additionally, apps like Calm and Headspace are accessible. Find what works best for you and make an effort to meditate frequently. Start by setting a daily goal of 5 to 10 minutes.

Stage Your Own Intervention

Understanding the cycle of traditional health anxiety and how to break it is the key to releasing its control over you. Usually, a trigger (like something you heard, saw, or sniffled) sets it off. Your attention is drawn to your own body and its sensations as a result.

You start looking for symptoms online or by visiting a doctor because you become afraid that those feelings might be an illness. Perhaps you start avoiding specific “dangerous” circumstances. That makes you feel ill, which causes more fear and anxiety, which makes you feel even more fearful. The difficulty is evident.

Fortunately, once you comprehend the cycle, you can recognize what’s happening and stop it whenever you want. The simplest method is distraction. Take a stroll, tidy up your sock drawer, and make some pizza. Alternately, write your worries on one side of a piece of paper and confront them on the other with statements like “crossing the road is riskier” (instead of “I’m going to die of coronavirus”). It is the simplest method for exposing irrationality.   

Challenge Your Worrying Thoughts

A thought is not a fact. They are merely thoughts, so they are not required to be true or grounded in reality. But when we ruminate, we start to think that our thoughts are reality. People with health anxiety, for instance, might frequently worry about their hearts.

They might believe that something is wrong with their heart because they feel uncomfortable in their chest or their heartbeat.” This could develop into “I suffer from a serious heart condition.”” They might eventually even believe that they will pass away because of their heart condition.” The problem here is not that they are seriously ill, the problem is that they think they’re seriously ill.

When we ruminate, our thoughts may serve as a representation of the world as we see it. In other words, we regard what we think as true. Instead, we must practice a technique called cognitive defusion.

We learn to recognize and resist our unfavorable thoughts through cognitive defusion. Once a thought has been identified, such as “There’s something wrong with my heart,” you can challenge and reframe it. For instance, instead of saying, “I’m only telling myself there’s something wrong with my heart,”” It takes practice to identify and challenge. Having a close working relationship with a qualified therapist or psychiatrist is beneficial when creating coping mechanisms.

Be Wary Of Research Rabbit Holes

The internet is a wonderful invention. It’s great for learning why sweatshirts have a triangle on the neck (to save you the trouble of looking, it was originally designed to collect sweat and stop the collar from stretching); however, it’s not so great for accurately diagnosing a disease. However, who hasn’t looked up a symptom on Google or visited a health forum when they were feeling under the weather? But as one of the therapists who helped me with my anxiety pointed out, if you study your symptoms for long enough, you’ll inevitably come to death.

This writer has wasted entire days researching illness. Contrary to this author, do not. If the news sends you down an inappropriate rabbit hole, limit the health news in your apps, mute words on Twitter, and only get your information from reputable sources. You could also limit yourself to 10 minutes per day, as I do, to stay current on coronavirus news. I do this first thing, but never before bed (if I want nightmares, I’ll watch Hellraiser). The last thing you want to do is give a hungry beast like health-based anxiety an unlimited buffet, followed by pudding and coffee.

Replace Health Worries With Health Actions

During therapy, everyone experiences epiphanies. My awakening occurred when I understood that proactive measures can be taken to combat negative health concerns. I learned to change my focus from worrying about getting sick to focusing on staying healthy. I began taking yoga classes, changed my diet for the better, increased my exercise, cut back on alcohol because it is anxiety’s best enemy, and started going on 10-mile walks in the countryside (I now love my walking boots more than my Grensons, which is saying a lot).

The biggest single difference to my anxiety levels and my perspective on illness was caused by increasing my level of activity: the more The more I focused on staying healthy, the less I thought about getting sick. It really does work, so get out your running gear and give it a try. I promise there is no better antidote to unwelcome internal thoughts than proactive external activity.

Be Mindful To Live In The Now

When you constantly worry about getting sick, you essentially live in the future rather than the present. You constantly worry about potential outcomes, illnesses you might contract, and the potential consequences should you do so.

Living in the present deprives that fear of the energy it needs to develop, which is why practicing a little mindfulness (which can include anything from meditation to simply listening for birdsong while walking to work) can help allay your fears. If you are concerned that you will become ill, recognize that thought for what it is – just a thought about becoming ill, rather than a prediction – and then come back to the present moment.

Fragrance is a tool I frequently use to maintain awareness because I write about fashion and grooming for a living. Throughout lockdown, I smelled my favorite perfume every time I felt anxious. I wore it nonstop. A familiar, comforting smell is one of the few things that can instantly bring you back into the present moment and the room. Whatever method you choose, the most important thing is to stay present because if you spend all of your time worrying about dying, you’ll eventually stop experiencing life.

Conclusion

You can see that the anxiety cycle is not something you should take lightly and that you can find out if you have a problem by having a medical exam. A child anxiety specialist should examine the patient if they are a child in order to determine the best course of treatment.

Knowing the symptoms now will help you follow your doctor’s advice for a higher quality of life.