Health Anxiety
Health anxiety, also known as illness anxiety disorder, is an anxiety disorder where an individual experiences excessive, persistent, and distressing worry about their physical health. This anxiety can persist despite repeated reassurance from healthcare providers that no medical condition or evidence supports their concerns.
A person with health anxiety, also known as illness anxiety disorder, has excessive, ongoing, and distressing worry about their medical well-being. Despite several assurances from medical professionals that there is no physical ailment or supporting data for their worries, this fear may nevertheless exist.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for health anxiety, as it aims to help individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviours that contribute to their anxiety. Typically, this type of therapy includes the following elements.
Education: The therapist provides psychoeducation to the individual about the nature of health anxiety and how it develops, the role of thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours in perpetuating anxiety, and how CBT can help manage the condition.
Cognitive restructuring: CBT helps individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns or cognitive distortions contributing to their anxiety. This includes teaching individuals to reframe and replace negative thoughts with more balanced and rational thoughts. For example, instead of thinking, "I have a headache; it must be a brain tumour," they can be taught to think, "I have a headache, but it's more likely due to stress or lack of sleep."
Exposure therapy involves gradually exposing individuals to situations or objects that trigger their health anxiety in a safe and controlled environment. This helps individuals confront their fears and anxieties and teaches them to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity.
Behavioral experiments involve testing beliefs and assumptions about health through structured and controlled experiments. This helps individuals learn to challenge and modify their beliefs about illness and health.
Relaxation techniques: Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery can help reduce physical symptoms of anxiety and stress.
CBT is an evidence-based treatment for health anxiety that effectively reduces anxiety, improves the quality of life, and reduces unnecessary healthcare utilisation. Through education, cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, behavioural experiments, and relaxation techniques, individuals can learn to manage their health anxiety and improve their overall mental health.
