Health anxiety is something we as solution focused therapists are seeing more and more.
Is there a reason? Is it something we can resolve?
Have you ever had a weird twinge in your side and thought, “It’s probably nothing… but what if it’s actually a rare, undiagnosed condition that only affects 0.0001% of the population?” 🪦
Or spent hours on Google convincing yourself that your mild indigestion is, in fact, a medical emergency?🆘
Anxiety about our health 🩺 has grown exponentially. There should be some comfort in this, you’re not the odd one out, strange or crazy, many of us are suffering with this.
Here’s why! We’ve recently been through what was called a pandemic. When Covid was first recognised the fear was that it would be as deadly as Spanish flu back in 1918. During that pandemic 500 million people were infected and 50 million people died – that’s one death for every ten people infected. For the recent Covid outbreak, around 700 million people 🌍 were infected and approximately 6 to 7 million died (1 in every 100 infected). Whilst that’s still a large loss it’s considerably less deadly than we first thought and we can begin to see why we now have a problem.
Suddenly the world closed down. Cinemas, restaurants, theatres 🎭 gyms 🏋️, non essential shops and businesses closed and locked up. We were allowed to go to the supermarket and chemist, an hours exercise outside and that was really it. No meeting up with family or friends and no visiting people in hospital or homes. No visits to the hairdresser (I became brunette again 😱) no lash appointments, tweakments, nail salons 💅🏽. We’ve never looked so natural 🦍
But there was a real sense of fear. Sure we demonstrated bravado, ‘I won’t get it!’ – I did! ‘I’m not worried!’ – I was. The truth was we didn’t know how we would be if we did catch it. Some people were unaware that they were even infected, some had minor symptoms, some really suffered and some died, it doesn’t get scarier than that. The media was obsessed with how many people were infected and a daily count of how many had died. There were definitely more vulnerable parts of the population, the elderly, people with pre-existing health conditions and strangely people from certain countries, even though they were fit, young and healthy.
In all honesty, I loved it at the start! Escaping central London for the countryside, we had beautiful weather 🌤️, long sunny walks. I didn’t once make banana bread 🍌(why is it called bread when it’s cake?) we had a shortage of pasta, yeast and loo paper even though we had no shortage of bread. Anyone who knows me knows I always have an abundance of loo paper🧻, covid notwithstanding. I buy too much, who wants to run out though and why is every manufacturer currently obsessed with making it quilted?
Any sniffle or catch in the throat and we were sticking cotton bud testers up our noses or back our throats, testing to check if we’d caught the dreaded lurgy. 😷The world became obsessed with symptoms and our hippocampi became hard wired to pattern match the slightest ailment. What was the latest variant? What new symptoms had been recorded? Gradually lockdown eased, masks were no longer necessary (thank goodness) but our brains 🧠 were now on high alert for what might be wrong with us. A year and a half to two years of full blown health anxiety and now we expect to go back to normal, not worry at all. It’s just not that easy.
To be fair some of us have always had vivid imaginations 💭. I used to volunteer at Battersea’s dogs 🐕 and cats 🐈⬛ home and was due to show some visitors around the buildings explaining how the home began. I remember I had a swelling in my mouth and having googled it, was anxious that google suspected I may have mouth cancer. I put on a brave face, told the visitors all the interesting stories and an hour later my mouth was fine 🫣Who hasn’t worried when their headache got worse or they think they’ve found a lump or something amiss. Having not read medicine at university we then search the internet but we’re not using our intellectual brains 🧠 we’re using our primitive toddler brain and it always sees things from the worst possible perspective ⛔️
We all know people or know of people, especially in the media, who’ve ignored a symptom and then been seriously ill or even died. I had a friend who repeatedly when to her GP with terrible symptoms only to be turned away, she was treated as a time waster when in reality she had bowel cancer and it was caught too late. We don’t want to miss the signs, we’re encouraged to get numerous health checks, with brave souls demonstrating said health checks on live tv. 📺 For many it’s been tricky getting a GP appointment and even when you do you’re only allowed to discuss one ailment. How is that good healthcare? Your numerous symptoms might be connected, surely a more holistic approach would be better and how crazy having to make several separate appointments rather than one, but I digress.
The solution! The vast majority of health anxiety has little to do with ill health. We’re just super stressed. Our stress levels are too high, we’re looking for reasons to worry and finding them even when they’re not there. To reduce our stress we need to ensure we get better sleep 💤 it really should be a high priority. We also need to do the three Ps –
1️⃣ positive interaction – see our friends and family and ensure an enjoyable social life.
2️⃣ positive action – exercise, can be gentle like walking 🚶🏽 swimming 🏊 or fun like dancing 💃 or Zumba – some people like it!
3️⃣ positive thoughts. Positive thinking is critical; start thinking about one or two things a day that have gone well, the sun was shining ☀️ something you ate was delicious 🍨 maybe write them in a journal. As a bonus, the fourth P
4️⃣ positive focus. If you’re feeling a little down or overwhelmed, do something you really enjoy. It may seem frivolous but it can be life changing. Paint 🎨 draw ✍️ bake 🧁 read 📕 walk 🚶🏽 listen to music 🎶 – whatever you really enjoy 😊 once your mind is thinking, enjoying and doing something positive, you’ll start to see positive things around you and it really is important to help you feel better ❤️🩹
The reality is that most of us are struggling with numerous stressful situations and many of us are not sleeping well. Combine these two factors for long enough and we start to feel overwhelmed. Given that we have focused on health and especially covid, it’s no wonder that health becomes our primary focus. In addition we are bombarded with information about what we should and shouldn’t be eating and drinking with often conflicting opinions.
If you are really concerned and want help to resolve your anxiety then book a free call to see if solution focused hypnotherapy is a good fit for you.