Health Anxiety

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What is health anxiety?

Health anxiety is a type of anxiety that can cause you to worry excessively about your health or to fear that you have a serious physical illness – often when there is no reason to think this. This excessive worrying can cause a great deal of distress and affect your everyday life.

 

Some people with health anxiety have a medical condition which they worry about excessively while others have medically unexplained symptoms. Others may just be persistently worried about their future health.

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Health anxiety symptoms

Some of the symptoms of health anxiety are:

 

  • Unexplained physical symptoms and frequent visits to your GP
  • Intense fear of getting sick
  • Residual fears around the reoccurrence of a disease or illness
  • Fear about the catastrophic outcome of contracting a particular illness
  • Fear of heightened vulnerability or susceptibility to illness
  • Behaviours like: consulting multiple doctors, undergoing diagnostic procedures, endless symptom-searching, frequent hand-washing – and other safety behaviours

Frequently asked questions

You should seek help for health anxiety if you find yourself getting preoccupied about your health when there are no obvious reasons for concern. Likewise, we would also recommend that you seek support if you find yourself spending a lot of time symptom searching or carrying out medical tests to get reassurance.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Schema Therapy and mindfulness-based interventions are all effective treatments for health anxiety.

Health anxiety can happen for a number of different reasons. It can sometimes be a consequence of experiencing high levels of anxiety in other areas of your life. It’s also possible that you may have been modelled this way of relating to the world by a parent who was anxious about their own health. Or you may have grown up over protected which meant that you didn’t develop a sense of your own resilience. It can also be a result of the reverse experience – not growing up with an adequate feeling of safety in your environment.

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Marina Hilleary

December 9, 2024 No Comments

Dr Marina Hilleary is a Clinical Psychologist working in the NHS and private practice. She completed her BSc in Psychology at the University of Exeter, graduating with first-class honours and was subsequently awarded an MSc in Mental Health Studies and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London.

Dr Hilleary has 9 years of clinical experience in various NHS mental health settings, her current position being on a Specialist Adolescent Team at a Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). She has a specialist interest in working with children, young people and their families and has worked with young people presenting with a wide range of difficulties including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety (specific phobias, GAD, social anxiety, separation anxiety, panic and OCD), PTSD, behaviours that challenge and additional neurodevelopmental needs.

Dr Hilleary is experienced in carrying out comprehensive psychological assessments (including cognitive assessments) and recognises the importance of working towards a shared understanding of the presenting difficulties to enable a positive therapeutic outcome. She draws on a range of evidence-based psychological therapies and models, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based approaches. In addition, Dr Hilleary utilises systemic family approaches when working with young people and their families.

Dr Hilleary adopts an integrative, compassionate and person-centred approach to engage young people, building their motivation to participate in decisions around their care plan and achieve their therapeutic goals. She works creatively with her clients and, where appropriate, alongside any of their important support systems.