If someone were to ask me, “Dennis, what’s the single most important aspect of health anxiety recovery?” a return to living life without the constant, hyper-focused fear of what could go wrong with your body I’m going to reveal it today. And I hope it speaks to you deeply.
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The Cornerstone of Recovery: A Shift in Mindset
This topic is so important because it holds the largest key to your health anxiety healing. And no, it doesn’t lie in any one technique or teaching. It lies in your mindset and your attitude towards fear. It wasn’t until I stopped fighting my inner protector that I could see there was another way of perceiving what I had been going through.
The most critical component is an absolute, unwavering commitment to the fact, full acceptance, that your symptoms are caused by the brain, by fear, by adrenaline, by overstimulation, and fundamentally, a lack of safety.[1][2][3] When you can finally achieve a laser focus on this truth, you can begin to understand that your constant thinking patterns and emotional states are all wired around a perceived danger and a lack of safety.
By continually engaging in activities that overstimulate your nervous system, even ordinary things, and fearing them as you do them, you continue to add more fuel to the health anxiety fire.
Beginning to Heal: What is True Acceptance?
I know a lot of you are asking, “But what is true acceptance over your truth, Dennis?” Here it is: It is the undeniable belief that your health anxiety is triggered by a perception of threat and is kept alive by your thoughts, feelings, and actions of fear.
Your mind, what I call the “monkey mind” or the “inner protector,” will try to pull you in different directions. It will whisper, “No, it’s not that, it’s this,” or “It could be that.” You must recognize that the only reason it’s doing so is to keep you in a state of survival, because that has become the most familiar, and therefore, the “safest” way to live.
The moment you can pause and identify that thought as your inner protector, you stop adding logs to the fire. You give your nervous system a chance to feel safe. But if you continue to let that inner protector dictate what’s right and wrong, you’ll stray further from the truth.
The Sacrifice of Full Acceptance
To truly embrace this, you must be willing to make sacrifices. Full acceptance comes with the need to give up old habits that keep you stuck in an identity of perceived sickness. Many who suffer from health anxiety remain in that state because they feel like they are sick or are going to get sick. Can you see how that piles more fear on top of the original symptom or thought? It’s no wonder your stress hormones are constantly firing. We must move past the confusion and franticness and understand that, knowingly or unknowingly, we have brought our nervous system to this state.
From the anxiety vibrations and head pressure to digestive issues, twitching, dizziness, and brain fog, we’ve arrived at this point. And now, it is our responsibility to guide our nervous system back to safety by rewiring the brain.
Starting the Rewiring Process
The journey of rewiring your brain begins with the full acceptance that you are not dealing with a specific physical ailment you might fear. You’ve likely had enough tests and seen enough doctors. It’s time to realize that what you’re dealing with comes down to a perception of danger and a lack of safety in every moment.
Is this easy? No. But it is a choice you have to make. When your inner protector chimes in with what could be wrong, it’s crucial not to distract from it, but to recognize it for what it is, a lie meant to keep you in survival mode. Nothing the inner protector says is fact.
How to Begin Healing: Where Acceptance Can Be Found
This deep belief, this true acceptance, can come from anywhere, so you have to be open to it. It could come from this very blog post. You might be having a “holy smokes” moment right now, realizing you’ve been chasing your own tail, going from forums to audiobooks, staying in a state of franticness, and never truly understanding the root of what you’re dealing with.
The challenge is that even after you have this realization, your symptoms will likely continue for a while. Your inner protector will try to convince you they are linked to something else, sending you down the rabbit hole once again.
Your Symptoms Will Continue, and That’s Okay
Those fear-centered thought patterns, feelings, and irritability are not going to vanish the moment you decide to focus on the true cause. This is just the beginning. As long as you understand this and don’t get disheartened by the presence of your symptoms, you’re going to be okay.
Now, you can start living your life with the knowledge that what you’re dealing with isn’t life-threatening. You can go about your daily experiences with the understanding that you are retraining your brain for safety, one small micro-moment at a time.
The Rewiring in Action
Think about how you wash the dishes. Are you doing it frantically, trying to get it over with? That sends a message of danger to your nervous system. Or are you doing it slowly, with the awareness that your symptoms are from a perceived threat wired in your brain? Are you taking your walks slowly? Are you not allowing your inner protector to pull you in every direction? This is the rewiring process, moving from one safe moment to the next.
This profound understanding might come from a moment of decision, where you declare you no longer want to live in the straitjacket of health anxiety. It might come from a disinterest in more doctor visits or a reconnection with a divine source. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, but you have to get to a place of 110% commitment to what you’re truly dealing with.
Health Anxiety Does Not Keep You Safe
A lot of people unknowingly stay in the realm of health anxiety, thinking that because they have it, bad physical things aren’t happening to them. To be sure, they continue to frequent the doctor’s office or avoid it altogether.
Let me be clear: health anxiety does not keep bad physical things from happening to you. You may have unknowingly convinced yourself that this is the case. As a result, the moment you step out of worry, you feel vulnerable, naked. You think, “This is different. Maybe something bad could happen if I stray too far from who I thought I was” a worrier, someone filled with anxiety.
Instead, what health anxiety really does is rob you of seeing the true person you are underneath all that worry and franticness. It robs you of your truth, of who you really are. It robs you of genuine communication, of perceptions of safety, of your creativity, and of living the life you deserve.
I hope a little bit of anger bubbles up inside you at the ideas you used to give so much attention and energy to. The ideas that kept you in the bubble of health anxiety out of a perceived need for safety. That’s not who you are. This isn’t your life. This is a stage, a phase that needs your targeted attention and the lessons that come with it.
When you accept these lessons in your heart and start living from a place of perceived safety, you can allow yourself to relax. The inner protector will never let you relax; you have to take that back. When you can truly relax in the face of what your mind is saying and your body is doing, you’re moving in the right direction.
Today isn’t about finding a magic technique. It’s about finding true acceptance over what you’re really dealing with. It’s about having a laser focus on rewiring your brain for safety, one small moment at a time.
