TREATMENT FOR HEALTH ANXIETY
Are you Worried or Anxious about your health? Does this stop you from doing things or enjoying life? We are experts in using Psychological Therapy to help you feel more confident in your health. Contact us on 0800 0614548 Today to arrange an appointment.
WHAT IS HEALTH ANXIETY?
You’ll probably notice that your body changes from moment to moment and that as time goes by you experience a range of different sensations. If you are finding that these worry you more than you think they should or that you mind is always thinking the worst about your health then understanding more about Health Anxiety is likely to be useful to you.
Health anxiety (also sometimes called Hypochondria) is a fairly common problem that can affect a range of people. There are usually particular incidents in your life that can link closely with you going on to experience Health Anxiety – for example if you have had a range of medical tests, false alarms, experienced a serious diagnosis in the past or seen any of these happen to a close family member or friend.
All of these things can contribute to you having an increased amount of worry about your health. In turn it is not uncommon for people to say that when they worry more about their health they begin to notice more changes in their body that perhaps they wouldn’t have in the past. This can lead them to checking their body more frequently (for example probing, picking, massaging or measuring things – such as bloody pressure) or seeking more medical advice or reassurance.
With Health Anxiety, this checking and reassurance seeking tends to be very short lived and you may find yourself once again experiencing high levels of anxiety about serious medical conditions occurring. Often people may also find themselves avoiding anything related to health in order to control worry or anxiety – and this can obviously have unwanted consequences too.
Perhaps you have noticed these types of things happening or have received feedback from a medical professional that Health Anxiety could be a problem. If so, take a look at the treatments we can offer to help you.
WHAT TREATMENTS HELP HEALTH ANXIETY?
With It is a good idea to have a talk with your GP or Doctor if you think that Health Anxiety may be a problem for you. This gives you the opportunity to gain some clear answers about your health and your body. This will make it much easier for you to explore psychological answers to concerns about your health or anxiety. It is also a good idea to wait for any medical test results to be completed before starting a psychological treatment for Health Anxiety.
Medications are not routinely prescribed for Health Anxiety, however in some situations they may be considered.
There is a good deal of research into the effectiveness of psychological therapies on reducing anxiety about health – and in particular Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has the largest amount of data showing positive results. In using a CBT approach your therapist will help you consider your relationship to your health and body in a wider context – this means that you will have the opportunity to look at how your thinking and reactions to your body can increase or decrease your anxiety levels. Very often successful treatments for health anxiety will explore your thinking styles and help you to explain any physical experiences you have in less threatening ways.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE OUR TREATMENTS FOR HEALTH ANXIETY?
We offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is Recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a highly effective treatment for a range of Anxiety problems. Our treatments are delivered by skilled health professionals with many years in practice – often in the NHS or in academic institutions.
As well as only delivering clinically recommended treatments, to the best of our knowledge we are the only independent psychological therapy provider to routinely collect, monitor and publish data on the effectiveness of therapy that our team offers. Why not take a look at how effective our treatments have been for clients so far?
