HEALTH ANXIETY

Are you excessively anxious about your health, to the point that it makes you feel exhausted, depressed or panicked? Is it affecting your quality of life? If so, you are not alone.

With the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, I began to see numerous clients who complained of health anxiety. The pandemic has certainly heightened the health anxiety of people who tend to be worriers, anyway. This is especially true if they have known people who have passed away, or have struggled with life and death illnesses apart from the pandemic. Virtually all of those clients had a friend or relative who passed away, or whose life was radically changed due to a serious illness. One client recently shared that many of his relatives have died of cancer, his best friend now has a dire prognosis and these days, the moment he feels an unusual pain or strange feeling, his mind goes straight to the worst case scenario. The only times he does not worry about his health is when he is asleep or under the influence.

How are you coping with the knowledge that you may be vulnerable to serious illness? Are you on high alert? Does any ache or pain send you spiraling into thoughts of suffering and dying? Are you taking extreme and/or inappropriate measures to calm your anxious mind? When you hear about a scary event, do you automatically apply the fear to yourself? Is your ego so active that everything has to be about you? If you are doing any of these things, you are only complicating the situation and creating more problems.

Fortunately, help is available. Go to the home page of my website, and at the right side under RECENT PUBLICATIONS, click on my article, “Stress and the Need for Control”. In it you will learn something about the importance of letting go, after you have done all you can do, in situations when you have little influence over your circumstances.

If you have health anxiety, stop wondering if there’s something ‘wrong’ with you. Health anxiety can happen to anyone. As a cancer survivor, I can attest to that. And, having learned something about letting go, I very much want to share this with others. If you wish to learn how to help yourself, please do not hesitate to reach out. The phone number is (219) 309-3928. I would be honored to be of service.

For additional information, click here Conflict # 29 – Letting Go.

Thanks for reading!