Health Anxiety Therapist in Denver
Are you constantly worried about your health?
If constant worry about your health is interfering with your daily life, relationships, or work, you’re not alone. Health anxiety is an overwhelming fear of health conditions. Many people feel trapped in a cycle of checking symptoms, searching online for information, or frequently visiting doctors for reassurance—only for the anxiety to return even stronger.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Working with a therapist who specializes in treating Health Illness Anxiety Disorder can bring you the peace of mind you’re seeking.
WHAT IS HEALTH ANXIETY DISORDER ?
Health Anxiety Disorder – also known as illness anxiety disorder, is defined as a preoccupation or constant worrying about acquiring a serious illness. In contrast, people who suffer from hypochondriasis often report physical symptoms and can become debilitated. In both cases, if a medical condition is present or there is a high risk of developing one, the worry is often disproportionate to the actual risk.
Symptoms of Illness Anxiety Disorder
People with Illness Anxiety Disorder often experience:
- Constant Health Worries: Persistent fears that minor symptoms indicate a serious illness.
- Frequent Body Checking: Regularly scanning the body for signs of illness, such as lumps or rashes.
- Seeking Reassurance: Continually asking doctors or loved ones for reassurance but never feeling relieved.
- Avoidance: Avoiding situations or places out of fear of becoming ill.
- Obsessive Symptom Researching: Constantly researching symptoms online, which fuels more anxiety.
- Physical Anxiety Symptoms: Stress-related physical symptoms, such as a racing heart or dizziness, which intensify health fears.
- Life Interference: Health-related worries that disrupt work, relationships, and daily life.
- Dismissal of Medical Reassurance: Not trusting test results or medical opinions, believing something was missed.
- Shifting Fears: Jumping from worrying about one illness to another.
Types of Health Anxiety Disorders
There are two main types of health anxiety:
- Care-seeking type: The individual frequently seeks medical care to ease their anxiety.
- Care-avoidant type: The individual avoids medical care due to a fear of discovering a serious illness.
In both cases, working with an anxiety therapist, especially one trained in treating anxiety disorders can help individuals manage their symptoms and regain control of their lives.
What is a Health Anxiety Therapist?
A health anxiety therapist is a mental health professional specializing in treating individuals who experience excessive worry or fear about their health. These individuals often believe they are seriously ill, despite medical tests or medications showing no evidence to support these fears. If you struggle with hypochondria, working with a therapist can help in the following ways:
- Identify Root Causes: A health anxiety therapist can help identify psychological triggers, such as generalized anxiety or obsessive thoughts about health, which lead to excessive worry. These triggers often stem from a fear of illness or harm to the body.
- Teach Coping Skills: Therapists teach coping mechanisms to manage health-related anxieties. Techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can reduce the tendency to check symptoms excessively or seek unnecessary medical tests. CBT focuses on changing unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior.
- Provide Knowledge and Empowerment: A therapist can help you understand the connection between mind and body, showing how your thoughts and behaviors affect your overall well-being. This knowledge empowers you to feel more in control.
WHAT IS GOROG HEALTH’S APPROACH?
At Gorog Health, our approach to treating somatic symptoms, including Illness Anxiety Disorder, is based on compassion and scientific evidence. We prioritize understanding and resolving any concerns about your treatment plan.
Many patients we see either suffer or have suffered from an illness in the past, which may have triggered obsessive thoughts and fears about their health. The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused many to become distressed over symptoms like persistent coughing or headaches. Avoidance of routine medical check-ups can also be a sign that treatment is needed.
To address these challenges, we use a range of therapeutic methodologies to help you free your mind from obsessive health thoughts:
- Exposure-Response Prevention (ERP): Gradually exposes you to feared situations or thoughts while helping you refrain from avoidance or compulsive behaviors. Over time, this reduces anxiety naturally.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Helps individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors, guiding them toward healthier coping strategies.
- Somatic Therapy: Uses body-centered techniques to release physical tension and trauma, promoting both emotional and physical healing.
Who Gorog Health Helps
People Who’ve Seen Medical Doctors Without Much Help
People with health anxiety are often seen first in medical settings. Ideally, these patients would be promptly diagnosed with health illness anxiety and would be referred to psychologists for mental health treatment – but this is not always the case. Instead, both patients and healthcare providers frequently struggle to find a clear medical explanation for the patient’s symptoms, often prescribing medication unnecessarily.
As a health psychologist, we work closely with medical teams to provide psychological assessments and interventions, addressing the complex psychological and medical issues often seen in patients with Somatic Symptom and Illness Anxiety Disorder.
People Suffering From Anxiety from the Pandemic
In 2024, many individuals continue to experience lingering anxiety and health concerns related to COVID-19. Fears of contracting the virus persist, and some are dealing with the long-term effects of COVID long-hauler syndrome—ongoing symptoms that remain even after recovering from the initial infection. These lasting symptoms can contribute to anxiety, depression, and stress, making it difficult to manage day-to-day life.
If you’re struggling with COVID long-hauler symptoms or feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, depression, or insomnia due to COVID, it’s crucial to seek professional support. At Gorog Health, we specialize in helping individuals navigate both the psychological and somatic impacts of COVID. Whether you’re dealing with long-hauler symptoms or fear of illness, we offer personalized treatment plans designed to improve your quality of life.
Hypochondriac Family Members
Health Illness Anxiety Disorder doesn’t just affect the individual; it is also common within family dynamics. Children, a parent, or another family member may observe mood changes, excessive worry, and avoidance behaviors – which can strain relationships and disrupt daily life.
Normal bodily sensations, like mild aches, are often misinterpreted as signs of serious illness, leading to fear and panic. This can be especially challenging for a child if their parent is a hypochondriac or has a health anxiety disorder. Panic and fear around mild symptoms can cause paranoia within children and may start to exhibit symptoms of health illness disorder themselves as they age.
The Role of Professionals in Anxiety Treatment
When searching for solutions, it’s crucial to seek help from qualified professionals who can provide effective treatment for this particular anxiety disorder. Our team uses evidence-based approaches to provide effective health anxiety treatment for both individuals and families. Through therapy, we help you manage the constant search for reassurance and reduce the overwhelming fear that comes with every new sensation.
Get Help Relinquishing Your Fears Over Your Health With Gorog Health
At Gorog Health, we understand how overwhelming health-related anxiety can be and how it can interfere with your everyday life. Our compassionate team is here to help you break free from the cycle of fear and worry. If you suffer from health anxiety or you know a person who is suffering and would like to see them free from this disease – please reach out for help.
Together, we’ll help you let go of your fears and focus on living fully in the present moment. Reach out today by filling out the form below to start your journey to peace of mind with Gorog Health.
FAQ
Health anxiety keeps you stuck in a loop where reassurance fades fast. Therapy helps break that cycle by changing how you react to these fears, offering treatment for your disorder-specific worries.
Yes. Anxiety can trigger headaches, muscle pain, dizziness, and more. These sensations are real, but therapy helps you understand their connection to your anxiety and reduces their impact.
Therapy, including CBT and ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention), teaches you to resist these urges, helping you regain control and reduce the need to check or search for symptoms.
Therapy works at your pace to ease, not intensify, anxiety. The goal is to help you manage your fears, not make them worse. Through therapy behavioral techniques, you’ll gradually learn to feel less overwhelmed.
Yes. Therapy teaches you how to stop seeking constant reassurance and rebuild trust and connection with loved ones. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be especially effective in addressing how health anxiety impacts relationships.
Yes. Therapy teaches you how to stop seeking constant reassurance and rebuild trust and connection with loved ones. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be especially effective in addressing how health anxiety impacts relationships.
Absolutely. Having a medical condition doesn’t stop health anxiety. Therapy helps you manage both the condition and the anxiety around it by addressing both the physical and psychological aspects.
Health anxiety often stems from trauma. Therapy helps you process these experiences and move forward with less fear through specialized training in disorder-specific treatments.
You’ll spend less time worrying, checking, and Googling, and feel more in control of your thoughts. As you progress in therapy, especially CBT or therapy cognitive, you’ll notice fewer obsessive behaviors and improved well-being. Small wins add up!
If your child constantly worries about being sick, therapy can help both of you develop healthy coping strategies early on. By addressing these behaviors with a CBT therapist, you’ll help your child manage their health-related anxieties before they become more ingrained.
Hypochondria is an older term for excessive worry about having a serious illness. Health anxiety, now known as Illness Anxiety Disorder, refers specifically to individuals who have intense fear of illness despite little or no physical symptoms.
The main difference is that health anxiety focuses on the fear of being ill without significant physical complaints, while hypochondria was a broader term that included physical symptoms.
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