How to deal with health anxiety

It can feel unsettling when you notice yourself constantly scanning your body for signs of illness, checking symptoms, or imagining the worst-case scenario. Even when everything seems fine, a small ache or twinge can set your mind spinning, convincing you that something must be wrong.

You know, logically, that you’re generally healthy, yet the fear persists. If nothing is wrong now, surely something will happen soon? Your thoughts keep circling back, and it feels impossible to switch off from the constant worry.

You acknowledge that despite continually checking yourself for symptoms, you seem to be healthier than ever. Not that you believe it, you do not ever go a whole year without getting ill. There must be something wrong; if there isn't anything wrong now, there definitely will be soon.

There is an area of neuroscience called neuroplasticity, which refers to the way the brain changes in relation to experiences. Your brain can move functions away from damaged areas of the brain to undamaged areas and change its physical structure as you learn different things. Your brain is malleable, like plastic. The more you practise something, the stronger the pathways in your brain become and the easier it becomes to perform that action.

The NHS website gives a symptom list for health anxiety as follows:

• Constantly worrying about your health.
• Frequently checking your body for signs of illness.
• Always asking people for reassurance that you're not ill.
• Worrying that a doctor or medical tests may have missed something.
• Obsessively looking at health information on the internet or in the media.
• Avoiding anything to do with serious illness, such as medical TV programmes.
• Acting as if you were ill (for example, avoiding physical activities).

If you’re struggling with health anxiety, it’s likely you’re practising these symptoms and getting really good at them. Checking, imagining, and worrying may feel automatic now, which makes it especially challenging to simply drop the habits you worked hard to build.

One of the first steps to breaking this cycle is to step back from constant health-related searching and break up with Dr Google. This feels like the scariest thing when you know the checking is what keeps you safe. Except it does not keep you safe, it creates a hyper focus on illness and becomes the only thing you can think about. In addition, your brain does not differentiate between reality and imagination. When you imagine something, your brain reacts as if that thing is happening. As you read stories, your brain reacts as if they are your stories. Your belief in illness increases as does your anxiety.

As well as the constant overthinking and worrying, anxiety shows up physically. You might experience breathing difficulties, a pounding heart, shaking, sweating, even aches and pains. The physical symptoms increase the fear of illness, and the vicious cycle begins again. Mindfulness techniques can bring your attention back to the present moment. When your mind takes you on a catastrophic journey, use thought-stopping techniques (you can learn through some hypnotherapy sessions) to stop practising the health anxiety.

Simplifying everything – you have been practising anxiety as if you wish to get an A* in an exam, you now need to do whatever you would do to fail the exam! It is certainly easier said than done. An option you have is to practise the opposite. Positive affirmations will strengthen the positive pathways in your brain. I recommend writing positive affirmations that are relevant to you on post-it notes and sticking them around your house in places you will see them. Light switches and inside regularly used cupboards are good places to choose. Say the positive affirmation out loud to yourself five times every time you see the post-it note. Sometimes this doesn’t feel authentic – you don’t really believe the positive phrase. An alternative is to simply stop the negative rumination. This is easier said than done. The following two exercises will help you bring yourself back to the present moment by guiding your attention away from anxious thoughts and into what’s happening right now

1. The 5 senses exercise

Instructions:

• Begin with your sense of sight: Look around and identify five things you can see. Try to notice details you hadn’t noticed before.
• Move to your sense of hearing: Listen carefully and identify four sounds around you. These can be distant sounds or those close by.
• Next, focus on touch: Notice three things you can feel. It might be the texture of your clothing, the chair you’re sitting on, or the temperature of the air.
• Then, identify two smells: Focus on what you can smell in the environment. If you can’t detect a strong smell, try to inhale deeply to bring attention to subtle aromas.
• Finally, notice one taste: If there’s nothing to taste in your mouth, simply notice the sensation of taste, or take a sip of water or tea to engage the taste buds.
• Take a deep breath and allow yourself to feel grounded in the present moment.

2. The alphabet game

Instructions:

• Find a comfortable space where you can sit and focus.
• Start with the letter "A": Think of something you can see or experience in your environment that begins with "A". It can be something obvious or something small, like "apple" or "air" (you can also choose to think of a food / a town / a country etc).
• Move through the alphabet: Continue through the letters, one at a time. For each letter, find a word or object around you that corresponds to that letter. It could be something you’re looking at or something you notice in your thoughts.
• Stay present: As you move through the letters, try to focus entirely on the current letter and object. If you get stuck or distracted, gently bring your attention back to the game.
• Finish with "Z", feeling grounded and focused.

When you remind yourself that you are in control of your own destructive thoughts, it is easier to stop them and create a happier life for yourself.