What health anxiety really is
People often assume health anxiety is about illness, from where I sit, it usually isn't. It's about uncertainty, your brain wants certainty that you're healthy, but the difficulty is, certainty doesn't really exist. None of us can prove, with complete certainty, that we'll never become ill, most people's brains can live with that uncertainty. A brain with health anxiety struggles to, it keeps searching for more evidence, more reassurance, more certainty. The problem is that certainty always fades.
Imagine filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom, no matter how much water you pour in, it gradually leaks away. Reassurance works in a similar way, it feels convincing in the moment. Then your brain asks another question.
"But what about this symptom?"
"What if this time is different?"
So you search again, or ask again, or check again. The behaviour itself isn't the problem, it's your brain's attempt to feel safe. The difficulty is that every time you search for certainty, your brain accidentally learns something.
It learns: "This must have been dangerous enough to check." That's why reassurance never seems to last.
Why health anxiety feels so real
One of the hardest parts of health anxiety is that it doesn't feel like anxiety, it feels like common sense. If your chest hurts, surely you should think about your heart, if you feel dizzy, surely you should wonder why, if you notice something different about your body, surely you should look into it. That's exactly why health anxiety can become so convincing, but our thoughts feel responsible. The difficulty is that your brain starts treating every sensation as though it's equally important.
Most people experience hundreds of physical sensations every day without paying much attention to them. A brain that's become worried about health does something different. It notices them, it analyses them, it monitors whether they're changing. The more attention your brain gives a sensation, the more noticeable it becomes. The more noticeable it becomes, the more important your brain believes it is, that's how the cycle grows.
Why your body seems full of symptoms
People often ask me:
"Can health anxiety really cause all these physical symptoms?"
It 100% can, because anxiety changes the way your body responds. A faster heartbeat, chest tightness, dizziness, tingling, breathlessness, feeling faint, nausea, headaches, blurred vision. Even tinnitus can become much more noticeable when your brain is constantly monitoring your body, none of these symptoms are random. They all make sense when you understand that your nervous system is working much harder than it needs to.
The habits that quietly keep health anxiety going
Health anxiety rarely stays in your thoughts, it usually becomes a series of habits your brain believes are keeping you safe. You might recognise some of them.
- Checking your pulse.
- Looking at your skin.
- Feeling for lumps.
- Comparing one side of your body with the other.
- Googling symptoms.
- Reading medical forums.
- Repeatedly asking family members what they think.
- Going back to the same part of your body throughout the day.
- Returning to your GP because you need just a little more certainty.
None of these habits develop because you're doing something wrong. Your brain has simply learned:
"When we're uncertain, this is what we do."
The difficulty is that every time you check, your brain concludes there must have been a good reason to check. That's why the habit becomes stronger.
Questions people ask me every week
If you've landed on this page because you're searching for answers, you may find these helpful.
I've also written separate articles explaining common physical symptoms associated with health anxiety, including:
- Can health anxiety cause dizziness?
- Can health anxiety cause chest pain?
- Can health anxiety cause heart palpitations?
- Can health anxiety cause shortness of breath?
- Can health anxiety cause tingling or numbness?
- Can health anxiety make you feel faint?
- Can health anxiety cause nausea?
- Can health anxiety cause headaches?
- Can health anxiety cause blurred vision?
- Can health anxiety cause tinnitus?
Each article looks at one question in more detail, helping you understand why your brain reacts the way it does.
How I work
By the time people come to see me, they're often exhausted, because they've spent months or years trying to answer a question their brain won't let go of.
"What if something's been missed?"
My job isn't to convince you that you're healthy, because if reassurance were enough, you probably wouldn't still be struggling. Instead, we look at why your brain has learned that certainty about your health feels so important in the first place. Because once your brain learns that it no longer needs to treat every sensation as a potential threat, those patterns can begin to change.
That's the difference, we're not trying to argue with your anxiety, we're helping your brain learn that it no longer needs it.
Take the next step
If you've recognised yourself on this page, I'd encourage you to explore the articles above, understanding why your brain keeps worrying about your health is often the first step towards changing it and if you'd like my help applying those ideas to your own situation, I'd be happy to help.
