Why health anxiety is a vicious circle Conditions such as low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome and eczema are known to be triggered or made worse by psychological problems such as stress or anxiety. When physical symptoms are triggered or made worse by worrying, it causes even more anxiety, which just worsens the symptoms. Excessive worrying can also lead to panic attacks or even depression. Health anxiety is a vicious circle in other ways, too. If you constantly check your body for signs of illness, such as a rash or bump, you will eventually find something. It often wont be anything serious – it could be a natural body change, or you could be misinterpreting signs of anxiety (such as increased heart rate and sweating) as signs of serious disease. However, the discovery tends to cause great anxiety and make you self-check even more. You may find yourself needing more and more reassurance from doctors, friends and family. The comfort you get from this reassurance may be short-lived, or you may stop believing it, which only means you need more and more of it to feel better. Seeking reassurance just keeps the symptoms in your head, and usually makes you feel worse. People with health anxiety can fall into one of two extremes: constantly seeking information and reassurance – for example, obsessively researching illnesses from the internet and booking frequent GP appointments, or avoidant behaviour – avoiding medical TV programmes, GP appointments and anything else that might trigger the anxiety, and avoiding activities such as exercise that are perceived to make the condition worse (when it fact many people find that exercise helps – for example, read about exercise for depression) Neither of these behaviours are healthy, and need addressing if you are to break the cycle of health anxiety.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:24:24 +0000