Overcome Health Anxiety with Online Therapy

Category: Health Anxiety Online Therapy | Last updated: September 20th, 2025 | 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 4028 reviews and the average rating is 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"All good so far but I don’t feel particularly motivated to test the resources of the rest of the website despite now taking sessions for weeks"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Good"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"this web is really helpful, and also my therapist is great!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Helpful and easy"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"This is an excellent utility that provides quick, quality support and service in a confidential and highly professional setting. Everything is a very customizable so you drive the course of care and discussion, making it easy to fit into your busy schedule. A truly invaluable service that I'm grateful to have found."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Great!"

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Therapy with my current counsellor has helped me so drastically with navigating my mind and internal world, where I now feel I have more tools to notice negative thought patterns and change my mind, therefore changing my life course. Everyone should have therapy as this has been so helpful and healing which is something we can all benefit from."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Dr. Selvaggio is great. I have faith in my self in going forward and trust in her help."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I’ve always said that I wanted to go to therapy but never did because it was too expensive. However, after some research I found online-therapy.com! Progress is slow when you’re working through hard things, but starting therapy at such an affordable price has significantly improved my mental health. I used to be so incredibly depressed, but my therapist has talked me through my challenges and I view some things entirely differently. If you’re thinking about starting - just do it. Take the chance on yourself."

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Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"It's so easy to get started, you can do the therapy from the comfort of your home, easily before work or on your lunch break, and it's amazing always having access to a therapist when you have a comment or question outside of regular therapy hours. Definitely recommend, whether it's something big or small that you're dealing with!"

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