Overcome Health Anxiety

Are you feeling overwhelmed with worry about your health or the health of family members?

Maybe fears and phobias about health are destroying your peace of mind?

Are these fears ruining your sleep, concentration or focus?

Do you find yourself consumed with compulsive cleaning, checking and cleanliness as worries over the Coronavirus pandemic escalate?

As a Therapist, I understand how distressing fears, phobias and worries about health can be to the quality of your life. Left untreated they can have a devastating effect on all areas of life - career, relationships, social life and hobbies - as well as peace of mind.

During the last 15 years, I have developed and successfully treated many hundreds of clients with my 1-to-1 science-based, proven health anxiety program, either at my Chester Hypnotherapy practice or via my Online Hypnotherapy Clinic in the comfort of your own home.

Most of us worry about our health from time to time, but for some people, health worries become overwhelming and a problem in itself. Never has this been more prevalent than it is today. Health anxiety is excessive worrying about one's health, to the point where it causes great distress and affects the quality of everyday life. As a specialist in helping people with health anxiety, I offer a unique approach, combining the best of hypnotherapy, CBT, rapid transformational and other cutting-edge psycho-sensory therapies that offer real freedom from this incredibly exhausting condition.

Some people with health anxiety have a medical condition that they worry about excessively. Others have medically unexplained symptoms, such as headaches or chest pain, which they are concerned may be a sign of a serious illness, despite the doctor's reassurance. Others may be permanently anxious about their future health, worrying about things like: "What if I get cancer or dementia?"

Sometimes, health anxiety can be a symptom of a mental health condition, such as depression or anxiety disorder, which needs recognised and treated in its own right.

People with health anxiety can find themselves behaving in the following ways:

• Constantly seeking information and reassurance – for example, obsessively researching illnesses from the internet, booking frequent GP appointments or seeking numerous second opinions.

• Avoidant behaviour – avoiding medical TV programmes, GP appointments and anything else that might trigger the anxiety.

The Vicious Cycle of Health Anxiety

If you constantly check your body for signs of illness, such as a rash or bump, you will eventually find something. It often won't be anything serious – it could be a natural body change, or you could be misinterpreting signs of anxiety (such as increased heart rate and sweating) as signs of a serious condition. However, the discovery tends to cause great anxiety and make you self-check even more.

You may find yourself needing more reassurance from doctors, friends and family. The comfort you get from this reassurance may be short-lived, or you may stop believing it, which only means you need more of it to feel better.

When physical symptoms are triggered or made worse by worrying, it causes even more anxiety, which just worsens the symptoms. Excessive worrying can also lead to fatigue, depression or even panic attacks.

Have you got health anxiety? Answer these questions below

During the past six months:

• Have you been preoccupied with having a serious illness because of body symptoms, which have lasted several months?

• Have you felt the need to carry out repeated self-examination and self-diagnosis?

• Have you experienced disbelief over a diagnosis from a doctor, or felt you are unconvinced by your doctor's reassurances that you are fine?

• Do you constantly seek reassurance from doctors, family and friends that you are fine, even though you don't believe what you are being told?

• Have you felt distressed due to this preoccupation?

• Have you found that this preoccupation impacts negatively on all areas of life, including family life, social life and work?

If you answered "yes" to most of the following questions, you are likely affected by health anxiety.