6 MYTHS That Maintain Your Health Anxiety | Dr. Rami Nader

Health anxiety often starts when we become worried about a specific physical symptom or sensation. Strangely enough, the more we focus on these sensations, the more intense they feel, fueling our anxiety and creating a vicious cycle. Breaking this cycle requires redirecting our attention away from these worries. However, there's a significant obstacle to this redirection: the deceptive beliefs fostered by health anxiety. These beliefs lead us to think that focusing on our feared physical sensations is crucial for our well-being. They convince us that closely scrutinizing our symptoms helps us assess their severity and potential danger. They make us believe that hyper-awareness of our body enables us to detect problems earlier, improving our chances of successful treatment and survival. They instill the fear that not paying close attention to physical symptoms is tempting fate, making us more vulnerable to serious illnesses. They even suggest that worrying about our health somehow protects us from disease and prepares us for any health challenges that may arise. This video explains how to critically evaluate the validity of these beliefs. By asking thought-provoking questions and examining the real consequences of excessive symptom focus, we can expose these deceptive beliefs and gain a clearer understanding. Through this process, we discover that concentrating on physical symptoms often intensifies them, amplifies anxiety, and impairs our ability to identify genuine health concerns.

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[loriwelch]

Constantly taking my pulse, blood pressure has caused so much anxiety for me! My husband finally hid my blood pressure monitor. That has helped to work through this health anxiety. Not saying it’s easy, but I am trying to!! I’m on blood pressure medication because of anxiety when I take my bp! My grandmother had a stroke at 59. That’s why I struggle with this. I exercise 5 days a week and my weight is 125-126. So I realize my high readings are because of my anxiety when I take my blood pressure. Uggg what a fight. But prayer and therapy is helping. Thank you for this video!!

[Greatxz]

It’s a problem for me too!
It’s very EXTREME!
Currently I think I have cancer & then I thought I had lost weight, & then I thought I had a Tumor, then it was meningitis…
It’s absolutely horrible & hope to go back here shortly & share my recovery process….

[OptimusRon]

Had left side chest pain for 13 years…. Got every test possible and all came back negative. I can’t get my mind to accept that I don’t have a heart problem…. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

[tinajohnson]

Oh my gosh you hit the nail on the head. Thank you for your videos. I fall prey to all 6 of these lies from anxiety.

[gilliangirl]

My problem is I WAS diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer 12 years ago. I can't stop worrying about its recurrence. I have pain right now in the same place, the doctor told me it's probably a muscle pull, mammogram and ultrasound came back normal. But here I am, completely freaking out.

[marylenahan]

So accurate, this help me make sense of the insanity of anxiety attacks. Thank you 🐛🦋🐦

[emmacooper]

I started feeling so anxious about my health 2 years ago and kept getting left side chest pain I thought I had a serious heart condition had every test imaginable everything came back negative no heart problems nothing and my anxiety has come back again recently and I feel the exact same way as I did before but this time I keep thinking I have sleep apnea it’s something different every time I think I have but this video helped me a lot to understand it thank you

[nickmasters]

Great video. Very helpful.

I'm particularly guilty of 1, 2, 3, and 6. And most especially 1 and 6: (1) Focusing on my symptoms will help me determine the severity and danger, and (6) help me solve health problems.

It can sometimes feel like anxiety is a being that is distinct from ourselves - sort of an evil being, or trickster, or that sort of thing (I don't literally believe this, but it FEELS this way). I watched your other video that explained how to learn to refocus attention away from troubling symptoms (in my case, a mild twitch/tremor in my index finger and thumb - a condition that my doctors say is benign). I tried to put it into practice, and actually found that trying not to focus on the symptoms was very distressing to me. It made me feel worse to not focus on it.

But when I go through your suggested thought process, it is highly evident to me that my life has taken on a very unpleasant turn since I started hyper focusing on my symptoms and possible causes (dangers), and the worrying has very much negatively impacted my quality of life. I'm not solving my problem by focusing on it. It's not getting better, and I'm no more comfortable with the condition (it's very mild, too... I know other friends/acquaintances that have the same thing). I only continue to focus on how I may have some scary condition like Parkinson's disease or that even a benign condition that affects the stability of my hands may hurt my career as a music teacher. But worrying about it isn't protecting me... it's just making me anxious and upset. So it's ironic that trying not to focus on it would make me more upset. But I think that is the "trickster" or "demonic" nature of anxiety; the anxiety wants me to focus on danger, and tells me that doing so will keep me safe.

It seems that anxiety is something that must be dealt with obliquely. You can't fight it head on (it almost wants that! "ENGAGE WITH ME, I DARE YOU!!!"). And you can't let it rule you; running away from your fears will make the anxiety more powerful. You have to learn to live WITH the anxiety... not fighting it, not running from it, but simply getting on with life.

It's a very difficult balance... a balance I need to work at much more. I can only hope that us anxiety sufferers can learn powerful and useful lessons from this process, and that our difficult experiences now will make us stronger, and better in the long run.

[taylormartin]

Thank you so much for all your health anxiety videos.❤ They are so comforting and have really helped me when I am spiraling over little things.

[maguifreitas]

Can anxiety cause physical symptoms that remain 24/7? I don't know what it's like to wake up without thinking that I'm going to face another day with anxiety

[dswabis]

This is one of your most important videos in my opinion.

[burpbo]

Hiya Dr Rami Nader

Your video's are excellent and you explain in great depth and breaking it down which is greatly appreciated.
I have tried corresponding via your website email.

Kindest regards

[BrendaNoon]

Your videos about this topic have helped me a lot, thank you. But I have a question, what if my concerns about my health turn real and it turns out I do have some medical issue? How to deal with that double anxiety? The health anxiety and the actual anxiety for my health status? Hope you can make a video about it

[yumeiye]

Another believe is I do not trust my body can its own course and
I can save my body from danger using my mind.

[hemalpatelm]

For the last 7 years, I've been experiencing health anxiety about different diseases. Recently, I feel like I'm having trouble speaking, but no one around me, including my wife, notices anything different. I'm convinced I have ALS and have started showing symptoms. Seven months ago, I thought I had a brain tumor and got an MRI, which was normal. I keep searching online about ALS and now genuinely feel I have it. I've had similar anxieties about other diseases over the years and have seen many doctors with normal reports. I'm 40 years old and from India. What should I do? Please help me.