Self Help for Health Anxiety

Health Anxiety is a chronic psychological condition also known as hypochondria. It involves a persistent feeling of worry about one's health and the perceived experience of physical symptoms without an underlying physical cause. Hypochondria is classified as a psychosomatic disorder, meaning that it is a mental disorder with physical symptoms. People suffering from hypochondria experience physical symptoms that they believe are produced by a serious physical condition, and they obsessively worry about the imagined disease.

Professional treatment

• Traditional treatments for hypochondria include psychotherapy (especially of the cognitive-behavioral variety) to help patients understand their condition and cope with the anxiety, compulsiveness and erroneous beliefs involved with it. In some cases medication may be prescribed such antidepressants or an anti-anxiety drugs, although these only treat the symptoms of hypochondria and many come with side effects.

Self help

• In addition to professional treatment, there are many ways you can cope with hypochondria on your own. It can be helpful to learn about hypochondria. Understanding the condition can help give you a different perspective on your perceived symptoms. This can supplement the tendency in those with hypochondria to research specific diseases that they believe they may have. Reading about diseases only increases the anxiety and compulsiveness of the condition by creating more material to worry about.

  Having a supportive doctor with whom you have a good relationship with can be of benefit as well because it allows you to rule out any real physical condition and trust that the information received from the doctor is accurate.

  The common behavior of constantly monitoring health and symptoms can be a hard habit to break and may need to be countered with other activities such as exercise and other ways of promoting health. This shifts the focus from disease to health.

  In addition, it may be helpful to have the support of others. This may come in the form of family and friends or it may be a local or online support group. Support from others dealing with hypochondria can help put your experience in perspective and serve as a reminder that you are not alone.

Professional help

• Ultimately hypochondria is something that you must cope with, and there are many ways of working with it that can minimize feelings of anxiety and depression and decrease compulsive behavior. In many cases, however, supplementing self-help activities with the support of a qualified counselor or therapist is recommended especially if the symptoms of hypochondria become severe and difficult to manage.