Overcome Health Anxiety with Online Therapy

Category: Health Anxiety Online Therapy | Last updated: February 1st, 2022 | Reviewed and approved by:
Dr. Steven Gans, MD
Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD

Are You Health Conscious or Health Anxious?

Almost every one of us gets concerned about our health and well-being. And that concern can motivate us to try to optimize our eating, sleep and to lead a healthy lifestyle. Being health conscious can be great. It helps a lot in leading a healthy, happy, successful and meaningful life.

However, problems arise when this health consciousness gets transformed into “health anxiousness”. If you become too obsessed about your health and if you get too apprehensive that you are suffering from a severe illness (without the presence of such medical symptoms), then you may be experiencing health anxiety. In the past, psychologists referred to this as “hypochondria”. However, it is now called Illness Anxiety Disorder.

Illness Anxiety Disorder is a somatic symptom disorder in which the person suffering from it gets overly anxious or obsessed over his/her physical conditions. They see even a minor problem as an exaggerated severe illness. People suffering from Illness Anxiety Disorder often require continuous care, support and assurance from health service providers, family and acquaintances.

See if you recognize yourself in the symptoms of health anxiety:

Being preoccupied with having or developing a serious disease or health condition
Worrying that minor symptoms or body sensations mean you have a serious illness
Being easily alarmed about your health status
Finding little or no reassurance from doctor visits or negative test results
Worrying excessively about a specific medical condition or your risk of developing a medical condition because it runs in your family
Having so much distress about possible illnesses that it's hard for you to function
Repeatedly checking your body for signs of illness or disease
Frequently making medical appointments for reassurance — or avoiding medical care for fear of being diagnosed with a serious illness
Avoiding people, places or activities for fear of health risks
Constantly talking about your health and possible illnesses
Frequently searching the internet for causes of symptoms or possible illnesses

What’s more, people with Illness Anxiety Disorder can also experience additional mental health issues, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Clinical Depression, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

Treatment Procedures

The good news is that Illness Anxiety Disorder can be treated. Effective methods of treatment include Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Exposure Therapy and support. You can receive these types of treatment here at Online Therapy.

Reviews

Our online therapy services have received 3836 reviews and the average rating is 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I am very early into the process, but so far, there's an abundance of resources and supporting tools. I was also able to find a therapist, Sarah, who has a schedule that aligns with mine. Based on our first session today, I can see that she approaches her clients with openness and curiosity and she listens mindfully. She offers perceptive reflections and affirms the journey. I will continue the process and trust that all of the above will be helpful."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"It's awesome"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"i love how this platform is so easy to use! it's easy to message my therapist whenever i need them and i'm grateful i found someone who works for me !"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I really have enjoyed my therapy sessions so far with my current therapist, Bernadette. As someone who travels quite a lot, I especially prefer this website as I can be super flexible with my appointments and if anything gets in the way, I almost always have the opportunity to reschedule my appointment. I tend to be really busy before prioritizing my mental health, so this is a great outlet for me to work on myself while also still living my daily life!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"my therapist has been great. The platform is easy to use. Couldn’t be happier"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"having the validation i need in making small steps has helped me so much already"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Amazing service!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Signing up was very easy"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Very helpful self paced counselor supported therapy. So far giving insight and helpful tools for daily life."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"We started using online-therapy.com for the couples therapy and it's really great so far. I like that it contains a video course, that you can do by yourself with feedback from the therapist, additional to the sessions. We prefer the video sessions, compared to chat sessions. It's also quite helpful to be able to send messages in between session to your therapist. That way you can summarise before a meeting of what happened and use the time effectively.

A little downside seems to be so far, that you can only book one lesson per week, so if you had to reschedule due to an urgent thing, make sure you have one session per week. Otherwise you might lose out on that, it's not possible to do two sessions in one week, even if you didn't have one in the previous week!"

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