Overcome Health Anxiety with Online Therapy

Category: Health anxiety | Last updated: October 18th, 2018 | 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 573 reviews and the average rating is 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Rating: [4 out of 5 stars!]

"It was helpful"

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Rating: [4 out of 5 stars!]

"My experience has only gotten better over time, as my therapist and I have gotten to know each other better my comfort with the system and her ability to help me has greatly increased."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Well this is helping me to be a better person because I talk what happened few months ago whit me and is a great help because I can understand that live is hard and people what is to be what they want and the most important thing I control my self better."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I would like to sincerely thank my personal therapist Jacob and Online Therapy for helping me through a very rough time in my life. The therapy exceeded my expectations and has made me see things in a much better frame of mind."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Good service"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"So far i have noticed a huge improvement."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"This has been helpful to just providing me with an outlet. I've very much so needed it & didn't realize how much. My therapist has been helpful with providing me with tools to practice & holding me accountable."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Going through the worksheets and videos have helped me see the underlying reasons for my distress. Maggie has been great to help me see things in a different way. I'm still new into the therapy so I'm interested to see my progress going forward!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Iv only been doing it for a couple of weeks but have noticed two major break threw in my thoughts and feelings ... looking forward to learning new information to help make life little easier"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I have really been both surprised and impressed with how much this Online Therapy has helped me. I didn't know what to expect and only enrolled because of the advise of others that I take therapy to show and prove to others that I have changed and am in a new place.
Having said that, I have instead learned so much about myself and have really indeed changed. I have become so much more conscious of my feelings and reactions to stress anger and am much happier for it.
I have also truly enjoyed having discussions with my personal online therapist Jacob and have been extremely impressed with both his knowledge and advise. He made me think about things like I did not before. IN a strange way, although we have never met, I feel like I know him and that he is both a great therapist and friend."

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