Health Anxiety Therapy Online

What Is Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety is persistent, distressing worry about having or developing a serious illness, even when medical evaluations are reassuring. In the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), it most often falls under illness anxiety disorder. When physical symptoms are prominent and the worry about them is excessive, it may fall under somatic symptom disorder instead.

Health anxiety is common, and it isn’t a sign that you’re “overreacting” or making things up. The fear and physical sensations are real. The problem is the cycle that keeps them going.

The Check, Reassure, Repeat Cycle

Health anxiety is maintained by behaviors that bring short-term relief and long-term worry:

• Body checking, such as feeling for lumps, taking your pulse, or examining your skin
• Searching your symptoms online
• Reassurance-seeking from family, friends, or doctors
• Avoidance, such as skipping medical news, avoiding doctors altogether, or avoiding exercise because it raises your heart rate

Each of these teaches your brain that the threat was real and that you only escaped because you checked. That makes the next worry stronger.

How CBT Treats Health Anxiety

CBT is the best-studied treatment for health anxiety, and research reviews show strong, lasting benefits. Treatment typically includes:

• Understanding the cycle. You learn how attention, body sensations, and checking feed one another.
• Examining catastrophic thinking. You practice weighing the evidence and building tolerance for uncertainty, instead of seeking guarantees.
• Reducing safety behaviors. You gradually cut back on checking, symptom searching, and reassurance-seeking.
• Exposure. You deliberately approach feared triggers, such as reading about an illness, or sit with a body sensation without checking, until the fear decreases.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) skills. You learn to make room for anxious thoughts and live by your values instead of your fears.

Many people see meaningful improvement in about 8 to 16 sessions.

Health Anxiety and OCD

Health anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can look alike, because both involve intrusive fears and repetitive behaviors meant to reduce them. When health worries take the form of obsessions with clear compulsions, such as rituals, repeated checking, or mental reviewing, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is often the treatment of choice. Our clinicians are trained in ERP and can help you sort out what’s going on. Learn more about OCD therapy and ERP.

Treatment Online

Online therapy works well for health anxiety. CBT and exposure exercises are easy to do by video, and practicing at home means you work on your triggers where they actually happen. Learn how our teletherapy works.

Therapy doesn’t replace medical care. We encourage you to keep appropriate checkups with your doctor, and treatment helps you do that without getting pulled back into the cycle.

Related Concerns We Treat

• Anxiety and panic
• OCD
• Depression

Common Health Anxiety Fears

Health anxiety can focus on almost any part of the body. Some of the most common fears include:

• Cancer, often triggered by a lump, a mole, fatigue, or a headache
• Heart problems, triggered by a racing heart, skipped beats, or chest tightness
• Neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), triggered by tingling, twitches, or numbness
• Infections or contamination, including fears of serious diseases after ordinary contact
• Worries about a child’s or partner’s health, which can drive constant checking on loved ones

The specific fear often shifts over time. When one worry is ruled out, another takes its place. This pattern is a strong sign the problem is the anxiety cycle itself, not any one symptom.

What an Exposure Exercise Might Look Like

Exposure for health anxiety is planned together and starts small. Depending on your fears, examples include:

• Writing the word “cancer” or reading a short article about an illness without searching your own symptoms afterward
• Noticing your heartbeat for a few minutes without taking your pulse
• Going a full day without body checking, then a full week
• Delaying a reassurance question, then not asking it at all
• Exercising enough to raise your heart rate, and letting the sensations pass

Each exercise is repeated until it feels manageable. Over time, uncertainty stops feeling unbearable.

How Family Members Can Help

Loved ones often provide reassurance because they care, but repeated reassurance feeds the cycle. Part of treatment may include helping family members respond in a supportive way that doesn’t reinforce checking. For example: “I know this is scary. I’m here with you, and I trust you can handle not knowing right now.” Your clinician can include a family member in a session if that would help.

When to Seek Help

Consider reaching out if health worries take up a lot of your day, if checking or searching feels hard to stop, if you’re avoiding doctors or making repeated appointments, or if the fear is affecting your work, sleep, or relationships.

Insurance Coverage

We’re in-network with Aetna, Optum and UnitedHealthcare, Oscar (through the UnitedHealthcare network), Anthem and Carelon (through Headway), Blue Cross Blue Shield, Ambetter, and others.

We do not accept Medicare or Medicare Advantage plans.

Our clinicians are licensed across 20 states, and we have in-person offices throughout the US.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can therapy cure health anxiety? Many people recover fully or improve dramatically with CBT. Research shows the benefits often last long after treatment ends.

Is health anxiety a form of OCD? Not exactly, but the two overlap. Some people’s health fears work like OCD, with obsessions and compulsions, and ERP is very effective for that pattern. Your clinician will help you understand which approach fits.

How do I stop Googling my symptoms? Treatment helps you cut back gradually, not all at once, and replace searching with skills for tolerating uncertainty. Most people find the urge fades as they practice.

How long does health anxiety treatment take? Many people improve within about 8 to 16 weekly sessions, though it varies from person to person.

What’s the difference between health anxiety and illness anxiety disorder? “Health anxiety” is the everyday term. Illness anxiety disorder is a formal diagnosis for persistent, excessive worry about having a serious illness.

Is health anxiety treatment covered by insurance? Usually, yes. Insurance typically covers it as outpatient psychotherapy. We’ll check your benefits before you start. We do not accept Medicare or Medicare Advantage plans.

If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.