Therapy for Health Anxiety

When you’ve had chronic pain or another chronic health condition for a long time, it is not uncommon to begin to worry frequently about sensations or symptoms that you experience in your body. There may be a lot of fear that the symptoms mean you are developing a serious illness that needs attention. The level of worry and preoccupation can be so high that it interferes with your life, even though many of these symptoms may turn out to be harmless. Signs of health anxiety may include:

• Repeatedly monitoring bodily sensations

• Scanning your body for signs that something is wrong

• Worrying about what symptoms mean

• Repeatedly seeking reassurance

• Difficulty tolerating uncertainty

• Frequently researching symptoms online

• Fearing that a familiar symptom signals something new or dangerous

• Difficulty trusting your body

I help patients learn to more accurately assess what is happening in their bodies, when symptoms may be signs of danger and when they may not, and how to respond to symptoms in healthy ways and achieve peace of mind.