Health Anxiety

Most people worry about their health at some point in their life. It’s quite normal, for example, to have worries if you’ve been ill or injured. In these situations you might be worried about getting better, for example, or about how you’ll be affected by a particular health condition. But if your worries and fears about your health are constant and overwhelming, this can be very distressing and can get in the way of you being able to do the things you want to do. If this sounds familiar, it might be helpful to understand why we worry about our health, and to learn about some techniques you can use to manage these feelings.

Health Anxiety is associated with:

Dealing with Stress, Working with Your Worries

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Learn

Tell me more

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What is Generalised Anxiety?

This a self-help booklet designed to help you manage difficulties with worry by using strategies to manage the thoughts, behaviours and feelings associated with worry.

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What is Health Anxiety?

Most of us know what it’s like to worry about our health at some point in our life. But for some people, worries about being ill or becoming ill are overwhelming and begin to take over their life. This level of worry is called health anxiety.

Self-Assess

Tools for self-assessing

Do you worry too much about your health?

If you find that you’re preoccupied with your health and frequently thinking that you have an illness, then you may have something called health anxiety.

If so, you might recognise some of the common experiences described below:

How your body might feel

“Strange” sensations in your body
Fast or shallow breathing
More aware of how your body feels in certain places
Tension or tightness in your muscles
Headaches
Increased pain
Restless, unable to relax
Tingling, dizziness
Feeling exhausted or unwell

Thoughts you might have

“If I don’t get this checked, I’ll regret it/something bad will happen”
“I think I have a serious illness”
“My friend has an illness – I’m likely to get it too”
“I’m worried that the doctor has missed something”

Feelings you might have

Upset and sadness
Feeling keyed up or on edge
Overwhelmed
Anticipation and dread
Irritable

Things you might do

Ask people around you for reassurance
Google symptoms and research different conditions
Repeatedly check different parts of your body to detect symptoms
Make frequent visits to see your GP
Behave as you would do if you were ill e.g. avoid exercise, stay in bed

If these look very familiar to you, then you might find it useful to learn more about health anxiety in the ‘Learn’ section above. You’ll also find some helpful tips and advice on how to manage your anxieties in the ‘Manage’ section below.

Manage

Ways to manage

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Helping Health Anxiety

This course is based on strategies from cognitive behavioural therapy which are known to be helpful for people struggling with health anxiety. You can find information about how to shift your focus of attention from your physical sensations, how to re-evaluate your thoughts regarding health, and how to manage checking and reassurance-seeking behaviours.

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COVID-19 and Health Anxiety

A resource sheet about Covid-19 Health Anxiety produced by Care First.

Pain Concern – Relaxation

This leaflet is designed to help you understand what stress is, inform you as to why is it important to be able to relax when you have chronic pain and provide some relaxation exercises for you to try.

Tips on Managing Change in Our Lives

We all have to cope and manage with change in our lives for lots of reasons. Here are some tips and thoughts on navigating through a period of change.

Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – CBT – is a psychological therapy based on the relationships between what we think, what we do and how we feel. CBT teaches you how to recognise and tackle problems in the here and now, rather than in the past.

Support

Local support and resources

In time, you might find that your ability to manage your health anxiety improves on its own, with support from people in your life, or with tools to help you manage.

However, if things don’t improve or if you’re having difficulties with your mental health more generally, please make sure that you contact your GP to ask for support.

The organisations below may also be helpful:

iThrive (previously Edspace): an online space for mental health and wellbeing in Edinburgh. https://ithriveedinburgh.org.uk/
The Silverline: a free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice for older people. Phone: 0800 470 80 90 (free to call, open 24/7, 365 days per year). https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/
Breathing Space: free and confidential phone service if you are feeling low, anxious or depressed. Phone: 0800 83 85 87 (free to call, Mon-Thur 6pm-2am; Friday-Mon 6pm-6am) https://breathingspace.scot/
The Samaritans: emotional support for anyone in emotional distress. Phone: 116 123 (free to call, open 24/7, 365 days per year) https://www.samaritans.org/
SAMH: offers support and information about mental health problems. Phone: 0344 800 0550 https://www.samh.org.uk/
Managing loneliness: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/loneliness-in-older-people/

Domestic Abuse Support

National Domestic Abuse helpline: 0808 200 246 (free to call, open 24/7) https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
Scottish Woman’s Aid: Tel 0800 027 1234 https://womensaid.scot/
Abused Men In Scotland (AMIS): Tel 0808 800 0024 (free to call, open Mon-Fri 9am-4pm) https://amis.org.uk/

The Wellbeing Lothian website has been developed to provide information, self-help resources and links to help you manage your mental health and wellbeing.

We want to help you make changes in your own lives and point you in a direction to start doing so. This is Wellbeing Lothian’s aim.

Learn More about Wellbeing Lothian

This website is not intended in any way to replace the advice of a clinician. Specific advice should be sought in specific situations from a properly qualified health worker.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about our website or are having difficulty finding something in particular, please fill in a few details below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

OUR PARTNERS

Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership
Midlothian Health & Social Care Partnership
East Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership
West Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership

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