What If Something’s Really Wrong?

You notice a twinge, a flutter, a pulse - something that seems off. Instantly, your mind races: “Is this something serious?” You try to brush it off, but you can’t stop scanning your body or checking your symptoms online. One search leads to another, and before you know it, you're deep into worst-case scenarios. You might find short-lived reassurance, but the worry always comes back.

You’re not doing this for attention. You’re not imagining it. And no, you’re not “just being dramatic.”

This is health anxiety, and it’s real.

What Is Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety is a condition marked by persistent, catastrophic fears about having or developing a serious illness. It often involves compulsive checking, reassurance seeking, avoidance of medical content, and endless online research. These patterns mirror the obsessive-compulsive cycle and often co-occur with OCD.

This condition was once referred to as hypochondriasis, a label that often felt dismissive or stigmatizing. Today, mental health professionals more commonly use the terms health anxiety, illness anxiety disorder, or somatic symptom disorder, depending on how the symptoms present. While the terminology has evolved, the internal experience remains the same: relentless fear, constant monitoring, and a sense that something terrible is being overlooked.

For some, the fear is centered entirely on their own body. For others, health anxiety can be focused on loved ones - fearing a partner has cancer, a child will suddenly develop a neurological condition, or a parent will suffer a heart attack. Whether directed inward or outward, the distress can feel unbearable.

Why So Many Are Struggling Now

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how we think about health and safety. Constant exposure to illness-related headlines, shifting public health guidance, and heightened awareness of bodily symptoms has contributed to a rise in health anxiety. For many, COVID became the gateway to a deeper spiral where the line between caution and obsession blurred.

If your fears began or worsened during the pandemic, you're not alone.

What the Health Anxiety Cycle Looks Like

Like OCD, health anxiety follows a predictable process:

• A trigger: bodily sensation, headline, medical term, or health-related conversation

• An intrusive fear: “What if something is wrong?”

• First fear: a wave of anxiety, dread, or urgency

• Second fear: “What if I can’t stop worrying about this?” or “What if they missed something?”

• A compulsion: checking, Googling, searching on Reddit, reassurance seeking, body scanning, avoidance

The relief these behaviors bring is temporary and often reinforces the cycle. Over time, this pattern leads to more fear, more checking, and less trust in your body or in medical professionals.

For many people with health anxiety, triggers quickly lead to catastrophic conclusions. Even minor sensations or neutral medical information can prompt the fear that something severe has been missed. These feared conditions are often serious, rare, or difficult to rule out entirely, which makes them especially sticky for the anxious brain. Some of the most common fears include:

• Neurological conditions: brain tumor, stroke, aneurysm, multiple sclerosis (MS), ALS, Parkinson’s disease

• Cardiovascular emergencies: heart attack, blood clots, pulmonary embolism

• Infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease, COVID-19

• Cancer: especially types perceived as hard to detect or fast-moving

• Autoimmune or chronic illness: including fears of misdiagnosed or rare disorders

Even after receiving reassurance or negative test results, the brain often insists, “What if it’s just too early to tell?” or “What if they missed something?” The goal of treatment is not to convince you nothing is wrong. The goal is to help you stop relying on reassurance and start building confidence in your ability to tolerate uncertainty and respond differently.

Effective Therapy for Health Anxiety

I provide structured, evidence-based therapy for adults in Michigan through secure video sessions. Treatment is grounded in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold standard for anxiety and OCD-related disorders. Together, we will:

• Identify your specific triggers, compulsions, and fear themes

• Learn how the anxiety cycle works and why reassurance fuels it

• Gradually reduce checking, Googling, and avoidance behaviors

• Build distress tolerance and trust in your ability to handle discomfort

In addition to ERP, I draw from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) to support deeper psychological flexibility. ACT helps you shift your relationship to anxious thoughts and take values-based action, even in the presence of fear. I-CBT helps you understand the cognitive distortions that can lead you to place more trust in imagined danger than in your lived experience. These tools enhance the core ERP process while providing additional strategies to navigate doubt, fear, and uncertainty.

A Respectful and Understanding Approach

Health anxiety is often misunderstood - not just by the public, but sometimes by healthcare providers and even loved ones. Many people with health anxiety feel like a burden, a bother, or even a joke. When fears resurface despite reassurance, it's common to feel ashamed, dismissed, or stuck in silence.

In this space, your concerns are taken seriously - not because we’ll chase certainty, but because the suffering is real and the work of recovery deserves clarity, consistency, and care.

You’re not weak. You’re not broken. And you’re not alone.

Take the First Step Toward Relief

If you’ve been stuck in a cycle of symptom checking, Googling, and fear, it’s time for something different. I offer free consultations to help you decide if this approach is right for you.