How to Break Free from the Cycle of Health Anxiety

Shannon Jackson
Apr 27
3 min read

Health anxiety can feel overwhelming; constantly scanning your body for symptoms, seeking reassurance from doctors and loved ones, and endlessly researching online. In this episode of A Healthy Push, I sat down with licensed therapist Britney to talk about what really fuels health anxiety, the harmful cycles it creates, and how you can start breaking free.

Why Health Anxiety Feels So Hard to Manage

As Britney shares, it’s completely understandable why health anxiety develops. Our behaviors, like checking, researching, and seeking reassurance, are all attempts to feel safe. But the problem is, no amount of reassurance ever feels like "enough."

In fact, research shows that the internet and social media, especially after COVID, have made health anxiety much worse. The more access we have to information (and misinformation), the more opportunities we have to fuel our fears.

Even if you've had a real medical scare or trauma, which can understandably heighten your fears, the cycle of health anxiety tends to look like this:

Beliefs: You fear serious illness.
Behaviors: You check your body, seek reassurance, Google symptoms, or over-prepare "just in case."
Temporary Relief: You feel better for a moment, but doubts soon creep back in.
More Anxiety: Over time, these behaviors actually reinforce the belief that you're unsafe.

Without realizing it, many people fall into this cycle, even those who initially don't think they're engaging in safety behaviors!

Three Categories of Health Anxiety Behaviors

Britney explains that researchers group health anxiety behaviors into three main categories:

Reassurance-Seeking: Constantly asking others or medical professionals if you're okay, Googling symptoms, and repeatedly checking for validation.
Excessive Body Checking: Frequently checking your vitals, inspecting parts of your body for signs of illness, or using devices like blood pressure monitors multiple times a day.
Preventive Safety Behaviors: Over-preparing for medical emergencies by locating hospitals everywhere you go, reading excessively about disease prevention, and taking numerous supplements out of fear rather than for general wellness.

Why These Behaviors Make Anxiety Worse

While these behaviors seem protective, they actually worsen anxiety over time. As Britney explains, they feed the fear and make the belief that “I am unsafe” even stronger. Plus, they prevent you from learning that you can tolerate uncertainty, and that not every symptom is a crisis.

After seeking reassurance or getting a test result, you might feel a temporary sense of safety. But soon after, doubts resurface:

What if the doctor missed something?
What if something new is developing?

This keeps the anxiety alive and thriving.

How to Start Healing from Health Anxiety

Recovery takes time, but it’s absolutely possible. Here are a few key strategies Britney recommends:

1. Challenge Catastrophic Thinking

Start questioning the automatic assumption that every symptom is a worst-case scenario.

Ask yourself:

Are there other, more likely explanations?
Have I had similar symptoms before that turned out to be harmless?
Am I catastrophizing or engaging in emotional reasoning?

Even beginning to explore alternative explanations is a huge step forward.

2. Delay Reassurance-Seeking and Checking

Instead of immediately Googling or body checking when you notice a symptom, try to wait three days. Britney calls this the "wait and see" method. Most symptoms either resolve on their own or clearly become something that needs attention, without immediate intervention.

Delaying your response retrains your brain to see that you are capable of handling uncertainty without constant checking.

3. Develop Awareness of Your Safety Behaviors

Often, people don't even realize how much they're engaging in safety behaviors. Britney and I both see this all the time with clients. Building awareness is the first step to change. Notice when you're scanning your body, seeking reassurance, or planning excessively around health fears.

4. Understand It’s a Process

Healing from health anxiety doesn't happen overnight, especially if it's been a long-standing struggle. As Britney shares from her own journey, you might always be a little more prone to health worries during stressful times, but you can absolutely get to a place where you're not ruled by them anymore.

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and exposure therapy are considered the gold standard treatments for health anxiety. Working with a skilled therapist, or using self-help resources if therapy isn’t accessible, can make a huge difference.

Final Thoughts

You can absolutely overcome health anxiety and stop living in fear of every symptom. It takes intentional, consistent work to change your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors, but the freedom and peace that come with it are so worth it.

As Britney says, the goal isn't to eliminate anxiety altogether, it's to stop letting it control your life.

How to Connect With Dr. Britney Chesworth