What These 3 Common Health Anxiety Habits Really Mean
Welcome to the Health Anxiety Podcast Show. This is episode number 41, and I’m your grateful host, Dennis Simsek. Today, we are discussing three health anxiety habits and what they truly mean at an unconscious level. That’s right. We’re going to go deep today. We’re going to get to know why we do what we do each and every day and what we’re really searching for.
Before I get into this very important podcast episode, remember that F-Coping, Start Healing, the Anxiety Recovery Read of the Year, is now out on Amazon, my friends. Head on over and begin your healing journey with me through F-Coping, Start Healing on Amazon today.
Habit 1: Reassurance Seeking
The very first health anxiety habit that I recognize is reassurance seeking. A lot of you are going, yes, yes, yes, reassurance seeking. We hear it all the time in the majority of our lives, in health anxiety content, and related videos out there. But what does it truly mean? Why do we do it?
What Reassurance Seeking Really Means
- Connect with me because I’m lost: It means guide me because I’m having trouble guiding myself.
- Reassure me: I don’t have a priority of my physical safety because I don’t have trust in my body to heal or faith in a pleasant future.
These are the understandings as to why health anxiety sufferers continue to seek reassurance each and every day, knowing that what they are doing is, in fact, digging themselves a deeper ditch.
How to Overcome Reassurance Seeking
When we can begin peeling the onion just a little bit, we can recognize reasons for why we do what we do. When we can replace some of those actions with other actions, we stop reassurance seeking and we begin following a set strategy to heal health anxiety rather than continuously look for tips that don’t last.
Habit 2: Repeated Doctor Visits and Fear of Doctor Visits
The second health anxiety habit that I see sufferers do each and every day is repeated doctor visits and fear of doctor visits. These are two extremes. Either you continuously, repeatedly visit the doctor, or you are so fearful and afraid of visiting the doctor.
Why We Engage in Repeated Doctor Visits
- Authority confirmation: An authority figure must confirm my good health because my past authority figures may not have provided me with the guidance I needed during childhood.
- Certainty of good health: I require certainty of my good health because uncertainty has been circulating in my mind for quite some time now.
- Inner relief and peace: To re-experience a sense of inner relief and peace when leaving the office knowing that things in my physical world are alright.
Understanding the Fear of Doctor Visits
- Emotional certainty vs. result uncertainty: The certainty of what I’m currently dealing with emotionally favors the uncertainty that may arise due to a result that goes against my desires.
- Past traumas: The fear can be connected to traumas from the past related to your own or someone else’s illnesses or movies with white-coated doctors that are creating chaos.
- Feeling of imminent death: Since the irrational thoughts have been so habitual, health anxiety sufferers have over time turned them into legitimate beliefs.
Habit 3: Monitoring Bodily Sensations Constantly
Thirdly, when we’re talking about health anxiety habits in terms of behaviors, we need to discuss monitoring bodily sensations constantly. I remember back in my day, I’d wake up in the morning and the first thing I would do is check to see if that lingering physical symptom of anxiety was in fact still there.
Why We Monitor Bodily Sensations
- Preventing the worst: The worse may not come true if I’m one step ahead and monitor my symptoms in case they get worse.
- Maintaining the status quo: To unconsciously keep things the way they are due to low levels of self-worth and belief in ourselves.
- Seeking control: Rather than re-experience times in my past where I lost control, either due to my own mistakes or mistakes made by others towards me.
How to Overturn This Habit
Warriors, these three health anxiety habits must be overturned, but in order to overturn them, we have to begin seeing through them. In order to see through them, we have to peel the onion and recognize why we do what we do and what it provides us with. What am I uncomfortable in terms of moving towards? When we can begin going towards this place, we’ll stop identifying with health anxiety because health anxiety isn’t a personality, a persona, or an identity.
Final Thoughts
You do things that bring on the idea that you’re a health anxiety sufferer. But these are just temporary times. They’re temporary times because each and every one of us in this world are given one big, huge challenge. For you, the challenge is health anxiety. And I promise you, when you learn the lessons, see through your symptoms, and engage in a set strategy that will begin showing you the path towards healing health anxiety, like the End the Anxiety program, you will begin to see through your old ways. And this is our goal.
Remember this quote: “Sometimes we forget that we have more choices on how to perceive something that once filled us with fear.” You have more choices. Remind yourself of that the next time you are stuck with an irrational fear. I love you.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, please give it a positive rate and review. And I’ll see you in the next podcast episode. Don’t forget to begin your healing with me through F-Coping, Start Healing, which is out on Amazon. Love you all. Remember that you are more than anxiety. Bye-bye.
Warriors, if you are enjoying this podcast, please subscribe and give it a positive rate and review. Also, don’t forget to check out the original Anxiety Guy podcast on iTunes, with new episodes airing every Monday morning, Pacific Standard Time. Remember, you are more than anxiety. See you in the next episode.
