Health Anxiety

• A poor understanding of body sensations and/or diseases.
• You have a family member who worries/worried a lot about their or your health.
• You have had past experience with illness with you, your baby, or another loved one which makes you worry that something similar is happening again.

• Hypervigilance: When we focus a lot, for example, on a part of our body or on how a baby looks/breathes, we may start to notice things that we hadn’t noticed earlier. This could make us think that what we have noticed is unusual. It is possible that it is actually a normal thing, but because we just noticed it, we think it’s something to worry about. Being hyper-focused on things can maintain worry in people with health anxiety.
• Checking: People who have health anxiety tend to repeatedly want to check up on possible symptoms. Although they usually do this to make themselves feel better, getting their information from the wrong place can cause even more anxiety (for example: through the internet).
• Reassurance-seeking: People who have health anxiety tend to want reassurance regarding their or their baby’s health from others, such as their doctors or loved ones. Sometimes after getting the reassurance they need about one illness, they may feel the need to get reassurance about another illness that was not previously ruled out, making this a never-ending cycle.

It can be exhausting dealing with anxiety. The good news is that health anxiety is treatable!

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that changes the way people with health anxiety think about things. It can help them:

• Worry less
• Think about their body sensations or their baby’s presentation in ways that are more realistic.
• Learn how to cope better with anxiety in general.
• Identify unhelpful coping ways that people have been using in the past.
• Enable them to learn new, more effective coping strategies.

Sometimes our bodies can react to anxiety by feeling tense and sore. Your health care provider can teach you how to relax your body.

Sometimes our bodies can react to anxiety by feeling tense and sore. Your health care provider can teach you how to relax your body.