Health Anxiety in a Pandemic - My Top Tips for Managing COVID Anxiety
What is Health Anxiety?
What was commonly once known as hypochondria (an unhelpful and outdated term in my opinion), health anxiety is an overwhelming and consuming fear of becoming unwell or having an illness such as COVID-19.
It can mean constant checking, seeking out plenty of reassurance from friends and family or simply being preoccupied with and worried about any sensation in the body.
Isn’t it normal to worry about your health during a pandemic?
It is normal to think about your health or the health of those around you during a global pandemic. Especially if we have been close to or even experienced it ourselves.
This type of worry can even lead us to make positive changes to our lifestyle like being more active or cutting down on alcohol.
What is less common is if you find that these worries consume you to the point that it affects other parts of your life and you find yourself feeling more and more out of control.
What are the Signs of Health Anxiety?
You might find yourself avoiding trips to the shop, just in case. You might find yourself crossing the road or avoiding physical activity all together.
You might be overly concerned about something benign that you are experiencing physically like a common cold. You may also find yourself consuming more news and googling symptoms to read more about illness. Alternatively you might avoid any discussion or media about illness or health. You might find that the more you look for lumps and bumps, the more you notice your body.
During this pandemic, noticing someone cough or not wearing a mask indoors may be significant triggers for your health anxiety. You might fear leaving your house and also you might not want anyone close to you to do their normal activities because you worry about infection rates.
How You Feel
Anxious, Nervous or Worried
Feelings of Dread
Tense, Stressed, Up Tight and On edge
Unreal, Strange, Woozy or Detached
Panicky
Tired or Unwell
How You Think
Constant Worrying about Health
Imagining the Worst and Dwelling on the Situation
Thoughts About Illnesses such as Covid and the Symptoms
Concentrating on Parts of Your Body or Symptoms
Beliefs About Monitoring to Avoid Illness or Fate
Beliefs About Something Being Wrong but Avoiding It
Wanting To Check with the Doctor But Worried About Going
How Your Body Feels (typical anxiety sensations)
Chest tightening or pain
Shortness of breath or breathing changes
Tingling sensations in the arms, fingers or toes
Dizzy, lightheadedness
Sweating
Stomach churning, butterflies, diarrhoea or nausea
Tense muscles
Feeling jumpy or restless
What Causes Health Anxiety?
Anxieties around your health may have started with a big life event such as a close family member or friend becoming ill or passing away.
Perhaps someone close to you was worried about your health when you were younger or you are feeling particularly stressed about work or family life at the moment.
What keeps Health Anxiety going?
Your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations are interconnected and often it becomes a vicious cycle.
If you hold long-term beliefs about the potential threat of the world around you and your vulnerability to ill health, these may be both triggering and maintaining your health anxiety.
What Can You Do to Manage Your Health Anxiety?
Keep a thought diary - note your thoughts, feelings and sensations. When, where and what triggers these thoughts.
Write down some balanced thoughts to counteract your anxious thoughts.
Example
Anxious thought:
‘My family have had a lot of heart attacks, I’m just watching and waiting for when it happens to me.’
Balanced thought:
‘I have discussed this with my doctor and she tells me that I am fine. Constant worrying is stressful and I will try to relax.’
2. Avoid reading or watching medical media and cut down on your Covid new consumption.
3. Keep a record of how often you ask for reassurance and how worried you feel that day
4. Reintroduce slowly positive healthy activities such as walking
If you have avoided going out and shunned physical activity so that you avoid close contact with strangers, then this can impact your physical and mental health.
Try to slowly reintroduce activity such as a short daily walk, even if you need to wear a mask to make you feel more at ease at first.
I would suggest then aiming to remove the mask as soon as you have introduced yourself back into physical activity so that this doesn’t become a crutch or coping mechanism.
5. Remember What You Value in Life
Think about what kind of legacy you wish to leave at the end of your life. Do you want to look back and think about how much time you lost worrying about your health?
I say this with compassion to help you think about the bigger picture and to gain some perspective.
Ultimately we can’t control everything that happens to us in life and that’s ok.
Worrying about our health isn’t going to stop bad things happening in the world or to the people around us, so we may as well look to enjoy what we have now.
6. Accept What You Can and Can’t Change in Your Life
These thoughts, feelings, sensations and behaviours are all normal reactions to change.
Accept that you can’t change the global situation but you can change the way you cope and react.
Learning to live in the present and to let go of excessive worry will help you live a happier and healthier life.
There is no such thing as perfect health, we all have odd sensations now and again.
You can learn to allow these thoughts, feelings and behaviours to come and go, noticing them with curiosity and compassion.
If you would like to learn more about how you can manage your health anxiety, book your free initial consultation call today here or if you are ready to change then book your first session with me here.
Rachel x
P.S. Drop me an email if you want to talk about anything that you have read here.