HEALTH ANXIETY
Health Anxiety is characterized by excessive worry about physical well-being. Are you preoccupied with having or contracting an illness? Do you worry that any bodily symptom is a sign of a serious disease? For example, if you have a headache, does your mind jump to, “Maybe it’s a brain tumor.”? Do you frequently search the internet for explanations of your symptoms and then convince yourself that you have a fatal condition? Do you frequently seek reassurance from loved ones, or check your body for signs that something might be wrong? Perhaps you end up seeing lots of doctors and having lots of medical tests as you try to get definitive answers to your symptoms. On the other hand, you may avoid doctors (or medical tests) for fear of what might be discovered. If you are prescribed a medication, do you immediately Google it then worry that you are experiencing a dangerous side effect?
AT ATCA, we understand that people with health anxiety tend to overestimate the risk of getting a serious illness, tend to be hypervigilant to any triggers in their body or their environment, and tend to cope with those fears through behaviors (such as checking and reassurance seeking) that ultimately reinforce the anxiety and make it worse. And we set out to interrupt the vicious cycle that perpetuates your health anxiety! We use individually tailored hands-on creative strategies to help you choose long-term freedom over short-term comfort and ultimately overcome your health anxiety.
The cornerstone of our work at ATCA is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a therapy approach that capitalizes on understanding how your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and bodily sensations interact and contribute to your anxiety. Within CBT, we incorporate Cognitive Restructuring (identifying and changing unhelpful thinking patterns), Exposure Therapy (gradually facing avoided or feared situations), Response Prevention (reducing and eliminating counterproductive coping strategies), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (accepting uncomfortable thoughts and feelings while focusing on valued activities).