in today's video we're going to be talking about
what causes hypochondriasis and where health anxiety comes from
hi everyone health anxiety is unfortunately a relatively common condition that can be
significantly interfering in a person's life it's known by a lot of different names like
hypochondriasis or illness anxiety disorder but regardless of what you call it worries
about your health can be extremely upsetting and impairing in today's video we're going to
be talking about some of the causes and factors that play a role in the development of health
anxiety you might find that a lot of these factors make a lot of sense but you may have
never thought about how they work together to contribute to your health anxiety but before I
get into that just a couple of disclaimers to go over I'm a registered psychologist in the province
of British Columbia Canada and this video is for informational purposes only it is not intended as
a substitute or replacement for advice from your doctor or mental health professional
now with those things out of the way let's start talking about health anxiety
now I've done a couple of videos already on the topic of health anxiety and the ways in which
health anxiety can interfere or cause problems in a person's life if you haven't already I'd
encourage you to take a look at those videos as they give a deeper explanation about the
nature and consequences of health anxiety now at the core of it health anxiety is excessive
disproportionate concern or worry about your health that contributes to high levels of
anxiety and sometimes feeling that fight or flight panicky type response so where does it come from
why do some people develop health anxiety and others don't worry about their health at all
well the first set of factors relates to negative experiences that people may have had with regards
to illnesses or their health these negative Health experiences can include things like
developing or experiencing a medical problem yourself people will sometimes think that
health anxiety involves a person just making up or imagining that there's something wrong
with their body but sometimes health anxiety can occur because the person is actually experiencing
a medical condition which then gets magnified to be something to be something much more dangerous
or frightening than it actually is medical problems can contribute to us paying more
attention or being more in tune with what's going on with our body we become more aware
of changes or different bodily Sensations that trigger us to the possibility of other medical
issues that could potentially lead to Serious disease or even death so for example I might go
see my doctor about a mole on my arm and I'm told that it's a non-malignant form of cancer and that
it's nothing to worry about and that it should be easily treated but hearing that I have cancer
triggers me to be hyper aware of other signs of potential cancer that are completely unrelated
to the non-malignant mold on my arm so I pay hyper attention to any physical Sensations
in my body and start to wonder whether or not they might be signs that I have cancer
additionally when doctors initially explain a new diagnosis to a patient what they typically
would do is review all of the potential risks and complications of the diagnosis that's appropriate
but this can lead to all sorts of anxiety as the person now becomes aware of information
about risks and complications that they've never known before so now this isn't to say that doctors
shouldn't tell patients about potential risks and complications but for someone who was prone
to being anxious about their health this type of information pours fuel on the anxiety fire
usually in some cases having the medical conditions such as a non-malignant mole
can potentially increase the likelihood of a person developing more such moles in the future
if I'm alerted to that fact now how I'm going to be even more hyper aware of the
risk of developing new moles so what ends up happening is I start to focus on all of the
potential risks and complications and the possibility of recurrence of the condition
and if I focus on it I think about all of the ways it can turn out badly
I think about all of the different ways it might affect me in the future
what do you think that's going to do to how I feel well it's probably going to
make me pretty anxious about my health and the possibility that something bad is going to happen
another example of negative Health experiences is having a family member or someone close
to you experience a serious illness this is especially notable for children or adolescents
um so for example for a young child or teenager to see someone they
care about go through a serious illness potentially experiencing pain or suffering
this can have a significant impact on how they view health and illness more generally
if we care about someone who we watched deteriorate with a progressive illness
that can contribute to feelings of helplessness and a sense of there's nothing I can do if I'm
ever in that situation this can lead to a belief or a perception that an illness means that there's
nothing that can be done and that all illnesses or health conditions are going to lead to these
catastrophic negative outcomes and taking this one step further the death of a loved one or a
family member from a particular illness can be a significant negative Health experience that
can lead to high levels of health anxiety look we're all going to die that's a certainty but
for most of us we tolerate the uncertainty of not knowing exactly when or how that's going to happen
but if we witness a loved one or someone close to us dying it can contribute to thoughts about
our own mortality and what our death is going to be like when we get to that time
and this can be extremely scary for people this is particularly the case if your loved one has
suffered from a prolonged disease or illness such as long-standing cancer or Alzheimer's
dementia and you watch them deteriorate and potentially suffer as they got closer to death
this can lead us to relate illness with suffering uh illness was suffering with
death and can lead to tremendous feelings of helplessness and vulnerability
now another potential factor that can contribute to health anxiety is having a family member with
health anxiety again particularly in childhood if you have a parent or caregiver with health anxiety
they can Model A lot of health anxiety promoting behaviors and if that's all you
know you may feel that those health anxiety types of behaviors are normal or adaptive
things like seeing your parent or caregiver constantly worry about their health noticing
them frequently checking for signs of illness making repeated appointments to see their doctor
seeking all sorts of reassurance from other people about their health
if we grow up witnessing these types of behaviors it's natural that we might
learn that these are things we should do if we're anxious about our health
and finally the last example of negative Health experiences involves us coming
across negative information about health via media and the internet
look the internet so the internet is a wonderful thing it's wonderful to have access to all sorts
of information if not for the internet uh you wouldn't be watching this video
or hearing me talk about these factors that can contribute to health anxiety
but the internet can also be a tremendous source of information about health health
related stories articles about promoting health but also information about illness and disease
oftentimes health information on the internet focuses on very rare diseases incurable health
conditions or the most Sensational awful types of diseases if I'm looking up information about
a toenail fungus I'm likely to find all sorts of Articles videos and pictures of the most extreme
and nasty toenail fungus is I could ever imagine and that information is also going
to lead me down the rabbit hole of all sorts of other types of skin conditions and diseases
so what may have started out as a little bit of a search about a relatively benign toenail
issue leads to me being hyper anxious about developing all sorts of awful skin diseases
so all of these are examples of negative Health experiences that can contribute to a person
being more aware of all of the potential negative health conditions they may have
more in tune with potential signs and symptoms that they might have a negative health condition
they may perceive health conditions to be more dangerous or catastrophic than they might
actually be and feel a sense of helplessness and hopelessness to do anything about it
and the result of all of this is that it increases my sense of vulnerability related to my health
if I witness someone I care about experience a painful disease or illness
if I had a parent constantly worrying and seeking reassurance about their health if I know all of
the potential symptoms and outcomes of various diagnoses if I have if I've had health conditions
that I perceived lead me to be at increased risk of experiencing even worse health conditions in
the future if all of these things are going on what do you think that does to how I view my
health and well-being I'm likely to view myself as extremely vulnerable as I lose my perspective
on the actual probabilities or severity of these health conditions and what I focus on is the high
likelihood that I'm going to experience this awful illness that could potentially lead to my death
as a result of this vulnerability it just becomes natural that I focus my attention on my health
and all of the possible Body Sensations and health problems that I might be at risk of
whereas someone who doesn't have all of these vulnerabilities may
just simply ignore that random physical Sensation that just goes away by itself
so I like to think of this as kind of a first step in understanding why health
anxiety happens and where it comes from now knowing this information isn't going to
directly make you feel better or eliminate health anxiety but this is the start of a
model for developing a new understanding of health anxiety because these factors that I'm
talking about are part of what contributes to maintaining high levels of anxiety about health
and if you've experienced a lot of health anxiety what I encourage you to do uh what I'd encourage
you to think about is what are some of the experiences that you've had in your life that may
have increased your concerns or your fear about your health did you experience a medical condition
in the past that may have led to increased anxiety or a sense of vulnerability around your health
do you have a family member or a loved one who suffered a disease or illness and who may have
passed away from that condition were your parents or people you looked up to in your childhood
anxious about their health they demonstrate a lot of health anxiety behaviors have you pursued
information on the internet that's contributed to high levels of anxiety and worry about your health
I'd encourage you to think about some of these things as it can help you develop a
better understanding of where the health anxiety came from typically doesn't just come out of the
blue and if you look for it you'll probably be able to recognize some of these negative Health
experiences that have led to you feeling anxious and vulnerable about your health
and so in future videos I'm going to be talking about the next step in this model which focuses
on ways in which we try to protect ourselves through developing various rules and assumptions
about our health so I'd encourage you to to take a look and keep an eye out for that video
um so I hope that makes sense I'd love to hear any comments or thoughts that you have
about this about experiences that might lead to the development of health anxiety and feeling
of vulnerability so please leave me some comments in the comments section down below
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so that's all for today's video as always thank you for making it all
the way to the end of this video and I will see you in the next one