Health Anxiety: Googling Symptoms Only Increases Anxiety
Taking care of your health means doing normal daily activities—physical activity, regular meals, and enjoyable activities that support mental well-being. While assessing symptoms is completely reasonable, it turns into health anxiety when worrying and checking bodily sensations interferes with daily functioning, productivity, or relationships.
“A person with health anxiety is preoccupied with worry, Googling symptoms, scheduling tests, and reading news about health and illnesses—all of which only increases anxiety,” explains clinical psychologist Piret Annus-Reinberg from Studio Tasapisitasakaal.
While the goal of taking care of your health should be good well-being and maintaining quality of life, the health-anxious person turns it into obsessive monitoring. “This is illusory, because the person believes they can control something that ultimately cannot be fully controlled—we cannot manage all bodily processes or guarantee we won’t get sick; we can only reduce risks.”
Anxiety is further reinforced by access to “Dr. Google,” which allows people to cobble together diagnoses from symptoms. Annus-Reinberg notes that Googling symptoms is always a factor that maintains anxiety.
“The more you do it, the more conflicting information you find, and anxiety rises rather than decreases. When Googling, the health-anxious person’s attention becomes biased—they find endless confirmation of their fears online and ignore the fact that the same sensation may have many possible causes,” she explains.
In this way, the brain only notices statements that support its disease hypothesis and draws fast but arbitrary conclusions. “Simply Googling information will never replace a professional who has spent years studying the science-based functioning of the human body,” stresses the psychologist.
If anxiety and constant worry interfere with daily life, therapy is strongly recommended. “With health anxiety, the issue isn’t the illness itself but the anxious thought patterns. Therapy teaches techniques to better direct attention, recognize thinking errors, and manage anxious thoughts,” concludes Piret Annus-Reinberg.
Read more (in estonian):
Piret Annus-Reinberg: sümptomite guugeldamine tekitab ärevust ainult juurde – Tervisegeenius
Although taking comprehensive care of one’s health should be a priority in life, various symptoms and worries often lead to anxious thoughts that interfere with everyday life—a condition known as health anxiety. Where is the line between health care and excessive worrying? Clinical psychologist Piret Annus-Reinberg from the North Estonia Medical Centre explains. According to Annus-Reinberg, health anxiety interferes with daily functioning. Health care means engaging in normal activities […]