Overcome Health Anxiety with Online Therapy

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.

RIGHT NOW: Free therapy due to the coronavirus pandemic

We want to help as many people as possible during these extraordinary times.
Therefore we are offering parts of our online therapy platform for free.

The free access includes our online therapy program with 8 easy-to-follow sections and 25 worksheets, yoga and meditation videos, activity plan, journal, and tests (communicating with a personal therapist is not included).

GET HELP NOW

Reviews

Our online therapy services have received 754 reviews and the average rating is 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Awesome my therapist is amazing!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Interesting approach. I’ve been able to identify issues I never touched in before in traditional therapy."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I've done face to face and video therapy before but this is completely different. Having the ability to work at my own pace made it so easy for me to communicate when I was ready to. And writing out my answers was so much easier than trying to talk about them. The worksheets truly did help me to see how negative my thinking was. My therapist was so great. During the weekly live chats, it was so easy to talk to her, since she had been replying to all my messages on the worksheets. She really got to know me more than I ever thought she would. I feel so much more confident now about what I need to do on a daily basis in order to feel happier."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"At first, I thought this seemed sketchy because its called "online-therapy.com". I was skeptical of it, especially since they were offering it free. However, it is amazing. I have learned so much and have learned how to retrain my thoughts of anxiety. I use the journal almost every day. I highly recommend."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"This online therapy program was so helpful to me! The worksheets were challenging, but they really helped me pinpoint my negative thought patterns and helped me change them to more positive ones. My therapist was great and walked me through every step of the way. I truly valued her input."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"My therapist is very quick to respond and always has a new point of view that helps me see things in a different light.
The platform is easy to use and I like that I can choose video or transcript."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Very Helpful."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I feel the online therapy has helped me to look at myself from another perspective"

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Rating: [4 out of 5 stars!]

"I haven't signed up for live chat sessions yet, so I can't fully review the site, but I love the worksheets and the feedback. It's very helpful."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"This program provided very good information and guidance to restructuring your thought process. My therapist, Raj, provided excellent feedback and gave me a new way of seeing some situations."

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