So many people who don’t suffer from health anxiety don’t understand what it’s truly like—the darkness, the loneliness, the confusion. Today, I want to make things just a little more clear for you as a health anxiety warrior. Welcome to the number one health anxiety podcast with Dennis Simsek, where Dennis shares crucial lessons on health anxiety that have healed thousands worldwide over the past 15 years. This podcast is sponsored by the Health Anxiety Recovery Program, designed specifically to get to the root causes of your health anxiety and begin finding freedom from your mental and physical symptoms starting today. Visit theanxietyguy.com under Health Anxiety to start the program today and enjoy today’s episode with Dennis. Let’s dive into these key principles of healing right now.
Table of Contents
1st Principle: Health Anxiety is a Chapter, Not an Identity
The first key principle you need to understand is that hypochondria or health anxiety is a chapter—an opportunity for inner growth, not an identity. For a long time, when I suffered from health anxiety, I kept checking in with my identity, consciously and unconsciously. I found myself speaking as a health anxiety sufferer, often complaining and over-worrying. Have you ever experienced this? Are you sure this will go away? This way of thinking kept me in a deeper and deeper hole. It’s crucial to understand that this health anxiety experience is just that—an experience, a chapter. Many times, our systems want to hold on to this identity as a survival mechanism. But remember, health anxiety is not a life sentence.
2nd Principle: Standing Guard is Counterproductive
Understanding the Limits of Vigilance
Standing guard makes you feel protected but does nothing to accelerate your life into inner peace and true happiness. It’s like sitting in a rocking chair—it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere. Standing guard involves being constantly on the lookout for potential threats and fears, thinking that the more you guard, the more prepared you’ll be for the worst-case scenario. However, this mindset leads to a life devoid of creativity and living in the moment.
Living Through the Heart vs. Living Through the Head
When you live through your heart, you are present. Living through your head means living in the future, based on a traumatic past. Ask yourself: where do you want to live, and where are you living now? Create more awareness around this pattern of standing guard. Whether it’s around a symptom of anxiety or the fear of criticism, living in constant fear means not living in self-love. Understand that fear is the lowest vibration, and life responds to your emotional states.
3rd Principle: Elevate Your Self-Worth and Self-Respect
The Importance of Self-Worth
The greater your level of self-worth and self-respect, the faster you will heal your health anxiety. It took me years to understand this. I used to think it was all about the bodily symptoms or the mood, but the truth is our level of self-worth and self-respect is often low at an unconscious level. Health anxiety gives us a familiar feeling connected to the addiction to suffering. This familiar suffering becomes our identity, and the inner child resists change.
Deserving Healing
As your level of self-worth increases, you’ll start speaking to yourself differently, using better vocabulary, and reflecting on your past with pride. Recognize that you did the best you could with the resources you had. Feel proud of surviving and thriving. When you bring in feelings of pride, you start believing you deserve healing. Deservingness is crucial because many times, good things happen, but we feel we don’t deserve them. Increase your self-worth and self-respect daily to embrace healing.
4th Principle: Providing Safety to Your Subconscious Mind and Body
The Path to Clarity
The next time you experience an anxiety symptom, be more understanding and compassionate towards your body. Your body signals you because it believes it needs to protect you from a threat. These symptoms aren’t there to harm you but to work with you. If you don’t give conscious guidance to your body, it will always feel threatened. Respond to your body the same way you would to a fearful child, showing that the environment is safe. Clarity and health anxiety healing will follow.
5th Principle: Step Out of Old Patterns
The Messy Journey
A certain degree of courage is necessary to step out of old patterns and into the new and unfamiliar. This journey can be messy, but within the messiness, embrace the courageous parts of you. Fear, inner peace, expression, and suppression are all parts of you. Often, we give too much attention to fear and not enough to courage. Reflect on your past achievements and recognize the courage within you. You are already an expert with the right mindset and skillset.
Making Friends with Vulnerability
Start giving attention to the courageous parts of your life. You have accomplished things you never thought possible. You have the courage and inspiration within you. Embrace the unfamiliar, the uncertainty, and make friends with vulnerability. You are one moment of clarity away from making significant progress. Don’t just cope with or babysit your symptoms—end your health anxiety for good.
Comment below and share your biggest moment of epiphany from this podcast. I’ll do my best to reply. Remember, health anxiety is not a life sentence; it’s an opportunity to rediscover your true self. Take this opportunity today. Trust the journey and love yourself from the bottom of your heart. Remember, you are more than anxiety.
If you have any questions about the number one health anxiety program, you can find me at the link below. I’m available online today. Please subscribe to the podcast and give it a positive rating and review. Don’t forget to check out the original Anxiety Guy podcast on iTunes, with new episodes airing every Monday morning Pacific Standard Time. See you in the next episode. Bye bye.
