What is Health Anxiety OCD?
What is Health Anxiety OCD?
Health Anxiety is the presence of excessive fear and distressing thoughts related to your health, developing an illness, illness prevention, or catastrophic responses to often everyday health issues, and the act of hyperfocusing on your body to assess for signs of illness. As with other OCD subtypes, what pushes this kind of obsessive, persistent thinking into OCD territory are the time-consuming responses to these thoughts, which are often the physical or mental compulsive behaviors of OCD that serve to find relief from your thoughts and soothe any resulting anxiety.
To better understand Health Anxiety OCD, it may be valuable to look at a few underlying principles of OCD and beliefs that fuel this obsessive worry about developing a serious health issue, finding any new or “abnormal” bodily sensations, and taking preventative measures to avoid the possibility of developing an illness.
Why do I have Health Anxiety OCD?
In general, OCD is characterized by the insatiable belief and need for certainty that whatever the feared outcome is, it is not true and will never happen. Still, as we know, this is impossible!
As it relates to Health Anxiety OCD, a suffering individual may need 100% certainty that they are 100% healthy to “stop worrying,” however, in these compulsive attempts to seek certainty, one can often become less and less certain, instead strengthening and loudening the obsessive worries. Although a doctor may reassure you that your stomach ache is nothing serious, the OCD mind will question this certainty with thoughts like “What if they misunderstood me?” or “What if they missed something and I need a second opinion?” placing you back in the cyclical need for certainty with these often unanswerable questions.
Another belief that may fuel Health Anxiety OCD relates to the often catastrophic thinking that comes with any kind of OCD: any unknown about your health always indicates something serious. For example, the sign of any new somatic sensation or symptom that can resemble various health concerns, the worst-case scenario may be activated, noticing a new freckle may instantly catastrophize into evidence of a cancerous mole or the tightness in your throat that won’t go away (often a resulting somatic sensation of your body anxiously being on high-alert!) is evidence of a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Magical Thinking OCD and Health Anxiety
The cognitive distortion of magical thinking also fuels Health Anxiety OCD. Individuals with Health Anxiety OCD may fear that hearing about a disease, reading about a health concern, or spending time around someone who is ill means they will now develop this disease or health concern themselves, often looking for evidence of symptoms following this exposure. The resulting anxiety from this cognitive distortion is often self-soothed by the compulsive behavior of avoiding any triggering information about an individual's unique health-related fears.
This kind of cognitive distortion also ties into the effects of hyper-focusing as it relates to Health Anxiety OCD; if we look for something, we will often find it. If we notice something, we will likely keep noticing it, and with more intensity. A dull ache in your leg becomes the sole focus of your mind, making it more prominent and simultaneously alerting your mind that it is something to worry about. It is important to remember that with all obsessive thinking, the awareness or loudness of thoughts does not always mean they are important, accurate, or dangerous.
Health Anxiety OCD often instills a sense of responsibility to prevent core, feared outcomes behind the mind of OCD, such as being robbed of time, being out of control, experiencing suffering, living an unfulfilling life, making the wrong decisions, or harming others. Therefore, other common obsessions or feared consequences experienced in Health Anxiety OCD include the fear of living with an undetected illness, the fear of not being vigilant enough or missing a symptom of a severe health concern, the fear of misdiagnosis as a result of yourself or others, and the fear of putting yourself or others at risk for illness.
What are compulsions in Health Anxiety OCD?
Asking friends, family, and medical professionals for reassurance about a symptom or sensation or assessing for signs of any illness
Frequent visits to doctors and/or often repeated requests for tests by professionals
Repeatedly and consistently searching online for reassurance about health concerns.
Excessive body checking or scanning for new “symptoms” or changes in existing “symptoms.”
Mentally reviewing that you took the “right” preventative measures, checked a symptom the “right” way, described something correctly to a doctor, or the reassuring responses you heard from others/professionals.
Providing self-reassurance by reviewing reasons that you are not sick
Trying to “figure out” if you are sick or not through mental rumination, or trying to “figure out” if something is a “real” concern or not
Avoidance of places where you see sickness, individuals with health issues, watching movies/TV shows about illnesses, reading about diseases, things that might “cause” illness, i.e., chemicals
Neutralizing distressing thoughts about sickness with “healthy” thoughts or rituals such as checking your pulse
Treatment for Health Anxiety OCD
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is at the forefront of successful, evidence-based treatment options for any subtype of OCD. Finding a healthcare professional specialized in ERP is the key to ensuring effective and appropriate treatment for OCD subtypes like Health Anxiety OCD. ERP involves working closely with a therapist to gradually expose yourself to the situations that trigger your obsessive thinking, fears, and anxiety while ensuring response prevention or that you do not engage in your compulsive or avoidance behaviors that mitigate fear.
When all of this is combined with professional care and graduality, the desired end goal of ERP is to reduce the power of obsessive thinking and fear, allowing you to engage with these thoughts better. In turn, this healthier engagement helps break the OCD cycle by lessening the grip these distressing thoughts have, increasing your distress tolerance, and practicing coping skills specific to OCD.
ERP treatment for Health Anxiety OCD
Through the lens of Health Anxiety OCD, Exposure and Response Prevention and treatment might look like gradually increasing exposures to fears relating to one’s health, mindfully resisting compulsions, and strengthening one’s ability to tolerate these thoughts without responding to them. This act of “retraining your brain” allows thoughts to exist through non-engagement, with uncertainty (OCD’s least favorite) and the art of not attaching meaning to the tens of thousands of thoughts we think per day.
What does ERP for Health Anxiety OCD look like?
Reading an autobiography about someone with an illness
Watching movies (fictional and nonfiction) about being diagnosed with an illness
Writing scripts about becoming ill, not detecting an illness on time, and the way this impacts your life
Practicing mindful awareness of a bodily sensation
Spending time with someone you know who is sick, maybe even in a hospital
Your therapist will guide you throughout this process of how to prevent compulsive responses. However, these acts of non-engagement might look like utilizing “may or may not” statements to embrace uncertainty (i.e., This may or may not be a sign of something serious) about your health when intrusive thoughts arise, sitting with sensations and thoughts without searching the internet or seeking reassurance by mindfully breathing through these moments, or even working to playfully agree with your distressing thoughts (Maybe I am sick! Oh well!) and moving on with your doing something of value to you. These more productive ways of non-engagement may feel hard to do at first, and that’s okay! That means you’re on the right track to getting your life back.
Most importantly self-compassion should remain at the forefront of treatment for OCD; you are genuinely doing your best. It is no easy existence being fueled by fear and crippling doubt of any kind. However, there is always the chance to change this narrative and learn to engage better with the challenging parts of your mind. Although it may currently feel like an overwhelming part of you, there is always hope to come home to the many other parts of yourself.
San Diego OCD therapists trained in treating Health anxiety
As OCD therapists we teach people how to work with all different types of OCD including Health anxiety OCD. There is so much freedom in this! If you are looking for help for your OCD we are here to help. We have helped many overcome the grip that OCD has on their lives. Contact us today!
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Disclaimer : The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional and or medical advice, diagnosis, and or treatment. It is important to always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a mental health and/or medical condition. Never disregard any professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the Resilience Counseling website. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 or local emergency number immediately.
