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Health Anxiety
Health anxiety, sometimes known as illness anxiety or hypochondria, involves excessive worry about having or developing a serious medical condition.
It can lead to constant checking of symptoms, frequent doctor visits, or persistent seeking of reassurance, yet the anxiety remains. Even after receiving clean bills of health, individuals with health anxiety often struggle to feel reassured.
At Sage Psychology, we offer therapy for health anxiety in Wimbledon and Epsom, helping individuals manage intrusive health worries, reduce compulsive behaviours, and restore confidence in their wellbeing.
Understanding Health Anxiety
Health anxiety is not about faking symptoms—rather, it stems from a genuine fear that something is seriously wrong, despite little or no medical evidence. These fears can significantly impact day-to-day functioning, relationships, and quality of life.
Common signs of health anxiety include:
Constantly monitoring your body for signs of illness
Googling symptoms repeatedly
Frequently seeking reassurance from doctors, friends, or family
Avoiding medical information or appointments out of fear
Difficulty accepting medical test results as accurate
Intrusive thoughts about worst-case health scenarios
Physical symptoms triggered by anxiety itself (e.g., headaches, stomach pain, rapid heartbeat)
Feeling a short-lived relief after reassurance, quickly replaced by new worries
The anxiety can become cyclical; worry leads to checking or avoidance, which temporarily soothes anxiety but reinforces it over time.
Strategies to Manage Health Anxiety
While health anxiety can feel consuming, there are effective strategies that can reduce its hold:
Limit symptom checking: Try to reduce how often you check your body or search symptoms online. This can gradually weaken the reassurance-seeking cycle.
Challenge unhelpful thoughts: Ask yourself whether your thoughts are facts or fears. Explore alternative explanations for your symptoms.
Practice tolerance of uncertainty: Accepting that we cannot have 100% certainty about health is key. Learning to sit with this uncertainty can help reduce anxiety over time.
Use scheduled worry time: Set aside a specific time to address your health worries, rather than letting them intrude constantly throughout the day.
Focus on values, not fear: Reconnect with activities and relationships that bring meaning to your life, instead of letting anxiety dictate your choices.
Seek professional support: Therapy can help break the health anxiety cycle, providing the tools to manage fear and reclaim peace of mind.
Health Anxiety Therapy in Wimbledon and Epsom
At Sage Psychology, we provide specialist therapy for health anxiety for individuals in Wimbledon, Epsom, and online. We offer a safe, collaborative space to explore your worries, understand the underlying thought patterns, and build healthier ways of responding to uncertainty.
Our psychologists use an integrative approach, drawing from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focused Therapy, and mindfulness techniques tailored to your experience.
Free 20-Minute Initial Consultations
We know that health anxiety can make reaching out feel difficult. That’s why we offer a free 20-minute online consultation with one of our experienced psychologists in Wimbledon or Epsom. This is a chance to explore your concerns and see if our approach feels like the right fit.
All sessions are conducted online, offering convenience, comfort, and privacy. If you're ready to take steps toward easing health anxiety, book your free consultation today or contact our team to learn more.
Finding the right therapist for your needs is so important. That’s why we offer a free online 20 minute consultation with one of our therapists for you to see what therapy with them would be like.