Health Anxiety and Hypochondria

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Anxious people, with a tendency to worry, can easily become hypochondriacal about illness. They might interpret various body sensations as indications of serious medical conditions, or they may notice one symptom, become worried about it, and then self-generate a host of other symptoms simply by dwelling on the condition they fear. If you ever saw the movie "The 6th Sense", you'll remember the little boy saying "they see what they want to see". That's a good description of a person experiencing health anxiety. If you start to believe you have some sickness, you'll have no trouble finding more evidence to support the belief. Anxiety itself can cause a plethora of physical symptoms, such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, chest pain, and many others. If you, like many anxious people, have a tendency to imagine the worst case scenario, you might be thinking "it's heart disease, brain tumor, cancer, and so on."

Of course, if you think that you're developing a health problem, or if the symptoms persist, you should see a doctor. But otherwise, imagining such catastrophic circumstances is most likely just making you more aware of the symptoms and will only create a lot of unnecessary stress. Repeat the following:

• I take care of my health, but do not worry about my health.
• When fear of illness elevates, I perform Self Therapy "listening" with that fear
• I no longer let worry and stress ruin the life that I have available to me now.
• I can handle any inner sensation. If fear arises, I let myself feel it.
• If I develop an ailment, I will deal with that. Until then, worry is pointless.

NEXT PAGE: Recap on dealing with anxiety through thought adjustment