Health Anxiety: When Worry About Your Health Takes Over
Health anxiety is persistent, distressing worry that you have or will develop a serious illness, which continues even after medical tests or reassurance suggest you're well. It's driven by a cycle of noticing body sensations, interpreting them as signs of illness, and then checking or seeking reassurance to feel better. CBT is the most researched treatment, and it works by breaking that cycle.
What health anxiety looks like
Most people worry about their health occasionally, especially after a scare or when someone close becomes unwell. Health anxiety is different because the worry is frequent, hard to shift and takes up a lot of time. Common signs include:
regularly checking your body for lumps, changes or symptoms
googling symptoms, often late at night, and landing on the worst possibilities
frequent GP visits or requests for tests, or the opposite: avoiding doctors because of what they might find
feeling relieved after a clear test result, then the worry returning within days
asking family repeatedly whether a symptom looks normal
avoiding health news, TV shows or conversations about illness
interpreting normal sensations (a headache, a twinge, a skipped heartbeat) as signs of something serious
The current clinical term in the DSM-5 is illness anxiety disorder, or somatic symptom disorder when physical symptoms are prominent. In everyday use, "health anxiety" covers both.
The reassurance-seeking cycle
Reassurance is the main thing that keeps health anxiety going, which surprises most people because it seems like the sensible response.
Trigger: you notice a sensation, such as a headache.
Threatening interpretation: "What if it's a brain tumour?"
Anxiety rises, and anxiety itself produces physical symptoms (tension, tingling, a racing heart), which add fuel.
Checking or reassurance: googling, examining yourself, asking a partner, booking a GP visit.
Short-term relief.
Doubt returns: "But what if the doctor missed something?" The next sensation starts the cycle again.
Each round of reassurance brings relief for a shorter time. Your brain learns that you can only feel safe after checking, so the need to check grows. Body-checking also makes things worse in a more physical way: prodding a lump repeatedly can make it sore, and focusing on your heartbeat makes you notice every irregularity.
Why it develops
Health anxiety often follows:
a personal health scare or a period of serious illness
the illness or death of someone close, especially at a young age
growing up in a family where illness was a frequent focus or source of fear
periods of high stress, including pregnancy and early parenthood
general anxiety or a tendency toward intolerance of uncertainty
The last one matters. At its core, health anxiety is often about uncertainty. No test can guarantee you'll never be ill, and the demand for that guarantee is what keeps the worry alive.
How CBT treats health anxiety
CBT for health anxiety is well supported by research and usually includes these elements.
Understanding the cycle. Mapping out your own triggers, interpretations and responses so you can see how the pattern works for you.
Reducing checking and reassurance. This is gradual and planned. You might set limits on googling, agree with your GP on a schedule of regular appointments instead of symptom-driven visits, and ask family to respond to reassurance requests in an agreed way rather than simply answering them.
Testing interpretations. Looking at the evidence for and against threatening explanations of sensations, and running experiments such as noticing how focusing on a body part changes what you feel there.
Building tolerance of uncertainty. Learning to live with "probably fine" rather than needing "definitely fine". This is often the hardest and most valuable part.
Exposure. For people who avoid illness-related content or medical settings, gradually approaching those things.
ACT can also help, particularly by building willingness to have uncertain thoughts without responding to them, and by reconnecting people with parts of life that health worry has crowded out.
A note on genuine medical concerns
Having health anxiety doesn't mean every symptom is "just anxiety". Part of good treatment is working out a sensible relationship with medical care: a regular GP you trust, reasonable follow-up of new or persistent symptoms, and a plan that doesn't depend on repeated testing for reassurance. Your psychologist and GP can work together on this.
When to seek help
Consider seeing a psychologist if health worries take up a lot of your day, if reassurance only helps briefly, if checking or googling has become a habit you can't stop, or if the worry is affecting your sleep, work or relationships.
Getting support
Our psychologists use CBT and ACT to help people step out of the health anxiety cycle, via telehealth anywhere in Australia or in person on the Gold Coast. Book a session, or read our anxiety treatment guide for an overview of anxiety types, treatment and Medicare rebates.
This article is general information and isn't a substitute for medical or psychological advice. If you have new or worrying symptoms, see your GP.