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 835 reviews and the average rating is 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I have only been at this for a week but I am really liking online-therapy.com and my therapist. It's been great just getting my feelings out as well as learning a lot of new information about types of stress and what it can do to hold you back. The worksheets have been really great and have definitely helped me verbalize the thoughts that are usually spinning around in my head. By discussing my stressors and anxieties with my therapist it has really made me take a hard look in the mirror while also realizing the issues aren't really that bad. I'm really looking forward to furthering my discussions with my therapist."

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Very happy with the information. It’s helping me ID my problems, understand them, and work through them in a more positive way."

()

Rating: [4 out of 5 stars!]

"Love all the tools and my therapist. One thing to look at would be having phone consultations."

()

Rating: [4 out of 5 stars!]

"Its so good and really thanks to the one who invented and worked on such a thing ❤️ suggest you to do an app that will be much easier and organized And to do the journal visual daily journal to the year and with creative quotes and drawing in it I think this will be cool"

()

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."

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"this really works"

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Life changing!"

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"Overall a great experience"

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"It had been a good start"

()

Rating: [5 out of 5 stars!]

"I haven't done too much with this program but since they offered the free version, I really wanted help with my anger issues and improve my relationship. Even making the step to start the program has made me think about my actions and most importantly why. I can't really speak too much on the program itself but listening to the beginning videos has made me reflect on issues that I have on myself."

()

View all reviews »

Let us know what you think!

Have any questions?

Are you unsure of what program to choose or have any questions about our services? Check our FAQ to alleviate any concerns.