How to Overcome Health Anxiety

Virtually everyone has occasional health-related worries. But for some people, concern about their well-being crosses the line into an obsession. This obsession and the maladaptive behaviors that it causes can have a disruptive effect on every part of their life. Thankfully, with the right help people can learn how to overcome health anxiety.

At Time Wellness Tennessee, our team is committed to providing comprehensive, personalized care for adults with health anxiety and other mental health concerns.

Learn more about treatment for anxiety disorders in Tennessee or verify your insurance now.

What is Health Anxiety?

To learn how to overcome health anxiety, you first need to understand what it is and what can cause it.

Health anxiety refers to excessive worry or disproportionate fear about your physical or mental well-being, to the point that it disrupts your ability to function or lowers your quality of life.

In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the two conditions that are most closely related to health anxiety are somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. It can also be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as that condition often involves a deep fear of becoming contaminated or infected.

However, having health anxiety doesn’t mean that you have a diagnosable mental health disorder. 

Other potential causes of health anxiety include:

• Having previously endured a serious illness
• Exposure to overwhelming stress or pressure
• Losing a loved one due to illness
• Growing up with parents who exhibited health anxiety
• History of abuse or neglect during your childhood

Symptoms

Symptoms of health anxiety can include:

• Assuming that even minor symptoms are signs of a serious health condition
• Being preoccupied with the thought that you have or are likely to develop a serious disease
• Changing your behaviors to avoid everyday situations that you fear could expose you to disease-causing pathogens or other contaminants
• Frequently scheduling doctor’s appointments for concerns that turn out to have been unfounded
• Spending significant amounts of time checking yourself for health problems or researching health-related topics online.

Effects

If you can’t overcome health anxiety, the potential effects include:

• Conflicts with friends and family members
• Excessive absenteeism from school or work
• Delayed academic progress
• Job loss and unemployment
• Financial difficulties
• Missed opportunities for travel or other social activities
• Withdrawal and isolation
• Onset or worsening of other mental health concerns
• Diminished overall quality of life

How to Overcome Health Anxiety

There’s no single tip for how to overcome health anxiety that works for every person. And even if you find a technique that works for you, it may not be applicable in every situation. 

A good approach is to explore your options and practice different ways of managing difficult emotions. When you have a variety of tools at your disposal, you can select whichever one is right for your current circumstances. 

To get started, below are five options for dealing with health anxiety.

Stay Active

When you’re doing something that you enjoy, or that demands your full attention, you’ll be less likely to allow health anxiety to dominate your thoughts. Physical activity is also a great way to cope with stress and built resilience, but that doesn’t mean you have to train like an Olympian to get results.

Activities that can ease health anxiety include:

• Going for a walk or a bike ride
• Jogging or running
• Working in your garden
• Swimming
• Weight training
• Playing tennis or basketball
• Yoga or tai chi

Non-exercise activities that can help include:

• Having coffee with a friend
• Joining a book club
• Learning a language or new skill
• Spending time with pets
• Volunteering with an organization that aligns with your values
• Getting a massage or having a spa day
• Doing crossword puzzles
• Taking a day trip

What’s most important is finding activities that you enjoy, so you’ll be more likely to stick with them.

Step Away From the Screen

Another benefit of staying active is that it keeps you away from your phone, tablet, and other devices. Though “touch grass” has become somewhat of an online insult, minimizing your screen time can be valuable for both your physical health and your mental well-being.

When you’re struggling with health anxiety, researching your concerns online can quickly send you down a rabbit hole and into an emotional spiral. While information can be empowering, having the wrong information or not being able to put accurate info into proper context can have the opposite effect. 

Spending hours on health-related deep dives isn’t the only way that too much online time can be harmful. 

Other negative effects of excessive screen time can include:

• Disrupted sleep
• Eye strain
• Headaches
• Muscle tension
• Neck and back pain
• Diminished self-esteem 
• Exposure to harassment and bullying

Also, a November 2023 article in the Journal of Education and Health Promotion reported that excessive screen time has been linked with lowered attention span, decreased creativity, increased risk of depression and other mood disorders, and social isolation.

Keep a Journal

Journaling can be a safe and beneficial way to process your experiences and express difficult emotions.

When you write in your journal, you need to look at your activities and feelings from a slightly different perspective. This can help you develop new insights into your health anxiety and other challenges.

Journaling can also help you identify patterns or triggers that you may have been unaware of. When your health anxiety intensifies, it can be difficult to identify potential causes. But if you journal on a regular basis, you may start to notice similarities in where you were or what you were doing when you felt increased anxiety or other troubling emotions. 

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present in the moment, focusing your attention on where you are and what you are doing, and experiencing your emotions and observations without judgment or reflexive reaction. 

This practice reminds us that emotions such as anxiety are temporary, and they do not control or define us. Regardless of what you are seeing or experiencing in the moment, you can feel the emotions that arise without automatically reacting to them. When you do choose to respond, you can do so thoughtfully and intentionally.

Mindfulness is often associated with meditation, but it is a practice that you can institute in all aspects of your life. 

Learn to Self-Soothe

In moments when health anxiety threatens to become overwhelming, there are several steps you can take to bring yourself back to a calmer, more grounded mindset.

Examples of self-soothing techniques:

• 5-4-3-2-1 technique: Name five things you can see, four objects you can touch or feel, three sounds you can hear, two scents you can smell, and one thing you can taste. 
• 4-7-8 technique: Inhale through your nose while silently counting to four. Then hold your breath and silently count to seven. Finally, exhale forcefully (to the point that your breath makes a “whoosh” sound) while counting to eight. Take a moment, then repeat the process three more times.
• Box breathing: Inhale through your nose as you silently count to four. Hold your breath for another four count. Exhale while counting to four. Hold your breath again for a four count. Complete this entire process four times.
• Visualizations: Sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in your favorite place in the world. Focus on the details. What can you see, hear, smell, and feel? If you are eating food, what does it taste like? Who are you with? 
• Mental exercises: Count backwards by three from 100 to 0 (100, 97, 94, 91, 88, etc.). Try to remember every teacher you had from kindergarten through high school. Run through the multiplication tables in your head. Think of a common task, like making coffee or driving to work, and list every single step as if you were teaching someone to do it for the first time.

If you’re not able to find ways to manage your health anxiety through self-care alone, it may be time to talk to a therapist or counselor. A qualified mental health professional can help you understand the root causes of your health anxiety, then develop a customized plan to ease your distress and improve your quality of life.

Find Help for Health Anxiety in Tennessee

Time Wellness Tennessee offers a full continuum of care for adults whose lives have been disrupted by health anxiety, other mental health concerns, and co-occurring addictions. 

Treatment options at our centers in Taft and Chattanooga, TN, include residential care, partial hospitalization program (PHP), intensive outpatient program (IOP), outpatient program (OP), and virtual (online) rehab. 

At both locations and in all programs, you can expect to receive personalized care and comprehensive support in a safe and respectful environment.

Call 423-413-6195 today to learn more or verify your insurance now.