Taking care of your health means doing normal daily activities\u2014physical 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person with health anxiety is preoccupied with worry, Googling symptoms, scheduling tests, and reading news about health and illnesses\u2014all of which only increases anxiety,\u201d explains clinical psychologist Piret Annus-Reinberg from Studio Tasapisitasakaal.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cThis is illusory, because the person believes they can control something that ultimately cannot be fully controlled\u2014we cannot manage all bodily processes or guarantee we won\u2019t get sick; we can only reduce risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2014they find endless confirmation of their fears online and ignore the fact that the same sensation may have many possible causes,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
In this way, the brain only notices statements that support its disease hypothesis and draws fast but arbitrary conclusions. \u201cSimply Googling information will never replace a professional who has spent years studying the science-based functioning of the human body,\u201d stresses the psychologist.<\/p>\n
If anxiety and constant worry interfere with daily life, therapy is strongly recommended. \u201cWith health anxiety, the issue isn\u2019t the illness itself but the anxious thought patterns. Therapy teaches techniques to better direct attention, recognize thinking errors, and manage anxious thoughts,\u201d concludes Piret Annus-Reinberg.<\/p>\n