Hypnosis for Health Anxiety
Hypnosis for health anxiety
Around 1-2% of people struggle with health anxiety and the number is rising*. This could be seen to correlate with internet usage. The internet can be a scary place when we’re struggling with health anxiety, as our often benign symptoms are incorrectly reported to be related to a number of more serious illnesses in inaccurate articles and unofficial forums. It’s normal to be concerned about the signs and symptoms of an illness; unusual pain is our body’s way of indicating there is something wrong, however, if you feel like your health worries are affecting your everyday life, it’s time to seek help.
Coronavirus aka Covid 19 pandemic
The current covid 19 pandemic is not only causing our government to take unprecendented action to protect us, it’s also having an adverse affect on people with pre-existing anxiety issues and disorders. If we are already concerened about virus’, bacterial infections and our health in general, this extreme situation can cause our inner anxious voice to be validated and therefore gain more power over our day to day actions. If you are experiencing anxiety as an effect of the coronavirus pandemic, please get in touch for support.
What is health anxiety?
Health anxiety is sometimes known as Hypochondria. As sufferers of this, we can experience overwhelming anxiety regarding health. We are likely to self-diagnose without seeking accurate and professional information and even if we do, we don’t trust the doctor unless they are confirming our worst fears. Health anxiety can take over our day to day lives and is perpetuated by the physical symptoms of anxiety which include chest pain, shortness of breath, headaches, fast heart rate and cold sweats. We may experience these symptoms because we’re stressed and mistake them for a physical illness, adding to the issue.
What is CYBERCHONDRIA?
Cyberchondria, sometimes known as ‘compucondria, relates specifically to hypochondria which is exacerbated through internet searches. This describes the escalated anxiety that can occur once we ‘validate’ our health anxiety by checking our symptoms online and self-diagnosing, more often than not, inaccurately.
Symptoms of health anxiety
Checking your body regularly for signs of illness including unusual lumps, pains or other sensations
Worrying on a daily basis about your health even though you are not unwell
Feeling perpetually frightened of dying
Scanning your body or checking particular areas that worry you throughout the day
The inability to not act on the compulsion to check the affected area
You may check your symptoms online and keep reading until you’ve found the worst possible scenario
If any common virus, infection or epidemic is reported on the news, you become obsessed with checking the latest updates
You need constant reassurance from the doctor, nurse, your family or friends. At it’s worst, even the medical professional’s reassurance isn’t enough to stop you feeling anxious
You avoid medical tv programmes
You avoid certain activities as if you are ill, e.g. physical activity
What causes health anxiety?
Triggers of health anxiety are different for everyone, here are three of the most common causes below:
Experiencing a serious illness during childhood
A family member who worries excessively about their own health
A family member who worries excessively about your health and safety
Treatment for health anxiety
Hypnotherapist Sue Jeffery explains this in her article, ‘Exhausted by anxiety?’; “Our fear is exaggerated. Our thinking distorted. We see everything through the filter of possible danger. Fear becomes the lens through which we see the world.” There are several approaches to help with health anxiety, including cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming. These are effective techniques because they change the way we interpret and react to fear. Because of the nature of the trigger being so unavoidable in day to day life, health anxiety may never go away completely. We are unlikely to live a life free of any health issues affecting us or our loved ones, but we can work together to create a toolkit of coping skills to manage the anxiety when we encounter a health issue.
Hypnosis for health anxiety
Hypnotherapy aims to change your perspective. Your therapist will work collaboratively with you to remove the feeling of fear you are experiencing, whether it relates to pain, illness or even death and replace this with a different, more positive suggestion. Generally, hypnotherapy is also really helpful to teach you effective relaxation techniques, which enable you to soothe yourself and calm your mind when your anxiety starts to take over. Your therapist will teach you some self-help techniques such as breathing to relieve anxiety, relaxation and grounding techniques and self-hypnosis.
Hypnoanalysis, also known as analytical hypnotherapy is helpful for discovering the root cause of the anxiety and resolving it. This is particularly helpful for more complex forms of anxiety developed from a root cause that may be currently unknown.
*Professor Peter Tyrer quoted for the Guardian.