Health anxiety affects up to 10 percent of Canadians, psychologist says

VANCOUVER · Health anxiety, an intense and ongoing worry about having a serious medical condition, affects an estimated 3 to 10 percent of the general population in Canada, according to the Canadian Psychological Association. Up to 30 percent experience a milder form of the anxiety, which can dictate a person's life and interfere with daily activities. The condition involves misinterpreting normal body sensations as signs of acute illness, frequently checking for disease, and constantly seeking reassurance from medical providers or online sources. It can also manifest as excessive worry about an existing, diagnosed condition.

"For the clients I see in therapy for health anxiety, their anxiety is often dictating their lives," said Jennifer Caspari, a registered psychologist in British Columbia. "They feel consumed by worry and are propelled to spend more and more time engaged in anxious behaviours, such as looking up medical information, while spending less and less time socializing or engaging in activities they typically enjoy." Caspari, who works at Tall Tree Integrated Health in Vancouver, said health anxiety is fuelled by misinterpreting minor symptoms, like a headache, as something serious, such as a brain tumour. This leads to a cycle of body scanning and internet searching that only briefly alleviates worry.

Caspari offers six strategies to help manage health anxiety. The first is to track and gradually reduce compulsive behaviours over a week, such as cutting down daily online medical research from two hours to 30 minutes. The second is to schedule a short, specific worry time of five to 15 minutes each day to contain anxious thoughts. "During this time, write down your concerns and when you are done, tell yourself, ‘My worries are on the paper, and I don’t need to hold them in my mind right now,’" she advised.

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The third strategy is to recognize that thoughts are not facts. Practising saying "I am having the thought that" before an anxious thought can lessen its impact. Fourth, observe physical sensations non-judgmentally, noting how they change and reminding yourself that discomfort does not equal danger. Fifth, use relaxation exercises like slow breathing with a lengthened exhale, or progressive muscle relaxation, to calm the body's stress response. The final strategy is to deliberately shift focus from an anxious behaviour, like checking skin for cancer, to a helpful one, like going for a walk, and to resume activities avoided due to health anxiety.

Caspari emphasized that being concerned about health is natural, but health anxiety is excessive and disruptive. The proliferation of online health advice and artificial intelligence has made compulsive research easier, she noted. The cycle often includes physical sensations caused by anxiety itself, such as dizziness or chest pain, which are then misinterpreted as signs of disease. "You may briefly feel better if sensations stop or you read reassuring information, but the anxiety soon starts up again with the same or different focus," Caspari said.

With files from The Globe and Mail