Navigating the Web of Health Anxiety

A strange new lump, an odd twinge of pain, or perhaps a mysterious itch. The all-too-familiar feeling of a new, unexplained symptom flaring up is a foolproof recipe for an anxiety-filled day. Whilst concerning, many people can deal with such events rationally, settling on a likely explanation or booking a doctor’s appointment. 

For someone with health anxiety, however, it is not this simple. The NHS website describes the condition as “spending so much time worrying you’re ill, or about getting ill, that it starts to take over your life.” Compulsions of health anxiety can include investigating symptoms online, excessively scheduling and avoiding doctor’s appointments, hyper-focusing on sensations, praying or making ‘deals’ for good health, and asking others for reassurance. Endless forums antagonise the anxious with catastrophic scenarios, rare and deadly diseases, and a sense of crushing despondence. They picture themselves hospitalised and helpless, and in extreme circumstances, even on death’s door.

As someone who suffers from health anxiety, I have spent endless hours Googling symptoms and scouring forums, finding the worst results possible and falling into deep misery and despair. It becomes an obsessive cycle, and results found on the internet rarely soothe the nerves. With the use of social media and the internet increasing exponentially in recent years, people with health anxiety have better accessibility to wild misconceptions and endless pages of irrelevant medical research to consume and obsess over. 

Breaking the cycle of needing answers is extremely difficult because no reassurance will ever be enough for someone with health anxiety. People struggling often seek reassurance about their symptoms, which further gives power to their irrational thoughts and feeds fear. Forums on sites such as Reddit or Facebook will often create echo chambers of hypochondria. Imagine that your anxiety is a creature, and every bit of information you find about your health is equivalent to a morsel of food. This creature will grow larger and stronger, ready to pounce and engulf any rational thought which enters your mind. Therefore, with each Google search, and with each forum you enter, your anxiety will become more difficult to get rid of. 

Yet despite social media’s ability to exacerbate this cycle, it can also help to break it. It was through Instagram pages that I managed to find solace. In the comments were thousands of people suffering – not with daunting, unknown illnesses – but with health anxiety. For family members struggling to understand a loved one’s health anxiety, Reddit and Facebook forums can be beneficial. My mum joined one that suggested how parents can reach out and support their children struggling with worries about their health. These posts gave me and my family much-needed clarity, helping me to understand my obsessive thought processes and constant yearning for reassurance. It can be such an isolating experience, so groups can also help to reduce feelings of alienation. 

It is vital to see a medical professional if you believe something is amiss. But when no amount of consolation will convince you that you are healthy, you should consider seeking help specifically for your health obsessions. Avoiding social media forums about illness and never googling symptoms is vital to the process of recovery from health anxiety. However, once you have recognised the issue, strictly supportive accounts can often be hugely helpful and offer lots of support and resources about health anxiety.

Here are some resources that might be helpful:

Reddit forums: 

• r/HealthAnxiety 
• [MEGATHREAD] Daily venting, worries, fixations & finding support. Month of November 2023 
• Daily Positivity & HA Journey Progress Updates [MEGATHREAD]. Month of November 2023.