Health Anxiety vs. Being Anxious About Your Health

After being a therapist for a few years now, one of the common things I've seen when it comes to physical and mental health is that many people struggle to tell the difference between the two. We are all worried about our health at some point, that's normal. However, when that worry reaches a breaking point and starts to interfere with your daily life, it's no longer just worrying about health. It's health anxiety. Clinically known as illness anxiety disorder, health anxiety is the persistent, excessive fear that you are seriously ill or about to become seriously ill, even when there's little or no medical evidence to support it. The anxiety itself, not the physical symptom, is what ends up disrupting your life.

So what does it actually feel like to live with health anxiety, versus simply being health-conscious? Author Caroline Crampton, who developed health anxiety after being treated for cancer as a teenager, has spoken about how Googling symptoms can spiral into full conviction that you're seriously unwell, a pattern nicknamed "cyberchondria." Lena Dunham has similarly described her health anxiety to Rolling Stone as an all-consuming fear touching nearly every illness imaginable, extending even to fearing the medications meant to treat her anxiety. Both accounts capture the daily reality for people with health anxiety: constant body-checking, repeated doctor visits (or the opposite, avoiding doctors out of fear of a diagnosis), and an inability to feel reassured even after a clean bill of health. That's the key difference, someone anxious about their health can be soothed by a normal test result. Someone with health anxiety often can't.

How do you know which one applies to you? Ask yourself:

1. Does my worry about my health persist even after a doctor tells me I'm fine?

2. Am I checking my body, symptoms, or medical websites multiple times a day?

3. Is this worry stopping me from working, socializing, or enjoying things I used to enjoy?

4. Have I been avoiding medical care, or overusing it, because of fear?

5. Has this worry lasted six months or longer?

If you answered yes to most of these, it may be worth looking closer at patterns like avoidance, reassurance-seeking, or catastrophic thinking about symptoms. A good next step is reaching out to a professional counselor or professional therapist, your primary care doctor, or, if physical symptoms are tangled up with diet or lifestyle worries, a nutritionist who can rule out physical causes alongside your mental health support.

On the practical side, a few habits genuinely help: setting a limit on symptom-Googling, practicing grounding or mindfulness techniques when the worry spikes, gradually reducing reassurance-seeking behaviors (like repeated appointments), staying physically active, and working with a therapist on cognitive behavioral techniques designed specifically for health anxiety.

If any of this sounds familiar, please know this: health anxiety doesn't mean it's the end all. With the right support and consistent work, it won't interfere with your life the way it may be doing right now. Healing isn't about eliminating every worry, it's about getting your life back from the worry that's taken over.

References 

Mayo Clinic, "Illness Anxiety Disorder"

NPR, interview with Caroline Crampton on "A Body Made of Glass"

Rolling Stone interview with Lena Dunham (2013), as referenced via Yahoo News

Disclaimer: This blog post is meant for awareness/entertainment purposes only. It is not medical advice and one must refrain from self-diagnosing. It is in no way a substitute for therapy with a mental health professional and it is not meant to be clinical. To consult with a psychotherapist on our team, you can contact us on fettle.counselling@gmail.com.