in today's video we're going to be talking about health anxiety
also referred to as hypochondriasis i'll be talking about some of the
symptoms of health anxiety and the various problems it can cause in a person's life
hi everyone anxiety and worries about health are some of the most common concerns that people have
this tends to be associated with fear of sickness pain disability or even death in today's video
we're going to be talking about some of the symptoms of health anxiety what it looks like
and the problems it can cause 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 there are a variety of different terms
that are used for health anxiety the most common of which is hypochondriasis more recently
it's been referred to in the the actual diagnostic term has been changed to illness anxiety disorder
but regardless of what it's called at the core of it health anxiety is associated with
a preoccupation around having or developing a serious undiagnosed medical illness or disease
illness anxiety disorder is not the anxiety that a person might have if they were actually
diagnosed with a serious medical condition like cancer it's the anxiety associated with the
fear of potentially developing cancer or fear of having cancer that hasn't yet been diagnosed
in health anxiety physical symptoms of an illness are typically not present
or if there are any physical symptoms present they tend to be very mild in intensity so for
example i might be experiencing headaches and fear that the headaches are a sign of a brain tumor
but the headaches tend to come and go they're not associated with any other problematic symptoms
that might indicate some underlying neurological condition and the headaches only seem to come
up when i'm under stress or when i haven't drank enough water that day
so it's very transient or mild symptoms but one of the key points in health anxiety is that
the person's distress and anxiety isn't related to the physical complaints themselves
but rather the anxiety relates to the meaning or the significance or the interpretation
of those physical complaints so it's not so much that i'm anxious or worried about
the occasional headaches themselves but more so my anxiety is about my perception or my belief
that the headaches are a sign of some more serious neurological condition or some type of brain tumor
and associated with the health anxiety tends to be a preoccupation with my health condition
or the perceived underlying disease that i believe i might have so i might start researching
symptoms of the condition online or or um go down the anxiety provoking rabbit hole of information
gathering about all of the horrific symptoms and outcomes that may happen to me because i have this
undiagnosed brain condition this this undiagnosed health condition
it might become i might become easily alarmed or
scared by hearing about someone else having developed the condition that i'm worrying about
or reading health-related news stories about that condition
the interesting thing about hypochondriasis or health anxiety
is that the concerns and anxiety about the undiagnosed disease
don't really seem to respond to evidence that there's nothing serious at play so for example
medical reassurance from a doctor or negative diagnostic test results or having mild or you
know passing symptoms don't tend to result in any lasting relief or reduction in my health anxiety
a person with health anxiety may seek out medical advice or assessment from their doctor
but then the doctor's attempts to reassure the person actually serve the opposite person
the medical attempts to reassure the person actually serve the opposite purpose often
making the anxiety and the preoccupation about the symptoms or the fear of the disease worse
the anxiety about health becomes the primary focus of the person's life affecting their day-to-day
activities and becoming almost like a almost like becoming a part of the person's identity
and self-image for people with health anxiety they focus excessively on the perceived health
condition and it becomes a frequent topic in their social interactions with others as they
frequently seek reassurance from family and friends but as you might imagine this can
contribute to problems in these relationships because the worry about the health
becomes such a constant focus in all of their social interactions
the person's incessant worrying can become a source of frustration for
friends and family and can cause considerable strain in these close relationships
people with health anxiety will also engage in excessive health-related behaviors like repeatedly
checking their body for signs of illness so for example if i'm concerned about having throat
cancer i might repeatedly look at my throat in the mirror touch it or probe it to check for signs of
pain over my i may engage in repeated swallowing to see if i notice any changes in my swallowing
now the thing is i ironically these behaviors can often lead to increased symptoms which can then
make my anxiety or worry about my health much worse if i keep probing and touching my throat
chances are it's going to feel more sensitive and tender over time if i keep swallowing repeatedly
this results in greater difficulty swallowing
which then might fuel my anxiety about why am i having difficulty swallowing now
in some cases the health anxiety can lead to maladaptive or unhelpful avoidance of certain
situations for example if i'm worried about my health i actually might avoid visiting a
family member or friend in hospital because just being in the hospital might be too triggering or
anxiety provoking for me and this sort of thing can be difficult for family members to understand
and they might come across these behaviors might come across as uncaring
the health anxiety can also lead to avoidance of activities that might actually be beneficial to
my health so for example if i'm concerned about having a heart attack or a stroke
i might avoid exercise for fear of potentially triggering
a heart attack or stroke whereas that exercise is actually preventative and
protective for me but because i'm avoiding the exercise it actually puts me at increased risk
um it's not uncommon for people with health anxiety to seek out medical
care more often than other people most people with health anxiety have a history of extensive
medical care and medical visits but are often dissatisfied with the medical care
they've received or they're dissatisfied with the answers that the doctors are giving them
people with health anxiety or hypochondriasis often consult multiple physicians for the same
problem and pursue repeated diagnostic tests even if the diagnostic tests are coming back negative
for any disease so they're constantly seeking these second opinions or second diagnostic tests
now occasionally a negative diagnostic test
can give the person the negative diagnostic test result can give a person a brief period of relief
but then the person begins to worry that maybe the diagnostic test wasn't done properly or or
maybe it missed something and then they feel that they need to repeat the test
just in case and sometimes this excessive medical attention seeking can lead to a paradoxical
worsening of anxiety as the medical attention seeking becomes a safety behavior
which just serves to make the anxiety worse and if you're interested in learning more about
how safety behaviors make anxiety worse i've done a number of videos about this
and i'd encourage you to take a look at those if you're interested in learning more about the role
of safety behaviors in anxiety not just in health anxiety but other anxiety conditions as well
additionally though back to medical attention seeking the excessive medical attention seeking
can lead to new symptoms or medical problems and these are sometimes referred to as iatrogenic
complications so for example i may have some concerns about some gastrointestinal symptoms
that i've been having and this might result in me getting a colonoscopy and colonoscopies can be
very it can be a very invasive procedure with side effects being things like belly pain
bleeding bloating or infection and these symptoms can then serve as a further source of anxiety
further symptoms for me to now worry about that were actually caused by the colonoscopy
and finally people with illness anxiety disorder tend to be generally unhappy with the medical
care they receive and they find it unhelpful or invalidating they can often feel that they're
not being taken seriously by their doctor and at times these concerns may actually be justified
sometimes physicians dealing with individuals with health anxiety can become dismissive assuming that
every complaint the patient presents with is due to their anxiety and they may not
investigate the complaints or the concerns fully additionally this can also lead to challenges in
the doctor-patient relationship as the doctor can become increasingly frustrated with the repeated
reassurance seeking of the patient leading to the person with health anxiety perceiving
that their doctor might not be treating them adequately and therefore they need
to seek advice from other doctors and this results in something we call doctor shopping
so those are some of the characteristics of health anxiety and hypochondriasis i i hope
that gives you a better sense of some of the features and complexities of health anxiety
um it can be an incredibly debilitating condition that affects a person's functioning in all areas
including their interpersonal relationships their work functioning and their participation in
recreational or enjoyable activities now i'm going to be posting future videos on
approaches and tools to manage health anxiety so i hope you'll keep an eye out for those videos
when they come out um i'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas or questions about this so
please leave me some comments in the comments section down below if you've been enjoying my
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thank you for making it all the way to the end of this video and i will see you in the next one