Picture this…

You’re sitting by the lake. The sun is out. The view is beautiful.

And then your brain says:

“What if that headache I had earlier is actually an aneurysm? Is there a hospital out here? Do I have cell service? Better check…”

If you’ve ever had a peaceful moment hijacked by a worst-case scenario, you’re not alone.

One of the things anxiety does remarkably well is take an ordinary sensation, fill in the blanks with uncertainty, and convince you that you need to start preparing for the inevitable catastrophe—even when there isn’t a shred of evidence that anything is actually wrong in the here and now.

For many people, this quickly turns into a cascade of contingency planning:

“Where’s the nearest emergency room?”

“How long would it take an ambulance to get here?”

“Should I look this symptom up?”

“Maybe I should make sure my spouse is nearby in case I pass out…”

Before you know it, your peaceful afternoon has been replaced by an emergency that exists only in your imagination.

“But what if this time it’s actually serious?”

This is the question I hear all the time from people with health anxiety. It’s an understandable question. After all, people really do become sick. Medical emergencies really do happen.

So how do we make sense of this without ignoring genuine health concerns?

Here are two ideas I often discuss with clients.

1. Look at your history.

Have you experienced this exact sensation before?

Did it lead you to urgent care, the emergency room, or multiple medical appointments?

What happened?

Many people struggling with health anxiety have been medically evaluated numerous times for the very symptoms that continue to trigger fear. They’ve had clean workups, normal imaging, reassuring examinations, and yet the anxiety returns the next time a familiar sensation appears.

At some point, treatment asks you to begin trusting your history.

Not because nothing bad could ever happen, but because your own experience has repeatedly shown that your anxious brain tends to overestimate danger.

That’s a very different process than ignoring new or medically concerning symptoms.

2. You’re already living with uncertainty every single day.

Here’s something anxiety rarely wants you to notice.

Every day, every one of us walks around with the possibility that we could become ill. We don’t actually have certainty about our health…ever.

Most of the time, though, your brain isn’t flagging that uncertainty as urgent, so you go about your day without thinking much about it.

Then one sensation shows up—a headache, a skipped heartbeat, a brief dizzy spell—and suddenly anxiety says:

“This one is different.”

“This one needs your full attention.”

“Don’t relax until you’ve figured it out.”

In reality, the everyday uncertainty that you walk around with all the time hasn’t changed. What’s triggering your brain’s faulty alarm system to go off has.

Treatment for OCD and anxiety isn’t asking you to take on a new risk.

It’s asking you to tolerate the exact same uncertainty you’ve always lived with—without allowing anxiety to convince you that today is somehow different simply because it has your attention right now.

Your body is full of sensations.

One of the biggest misconceptions about health anxiety is that people are “making symptoms up.” They’re not!

Bodies produce thousands of sensations every day, but people simply don’t notice most of them.

When anxiety enters the picture, your attention becomes laser-focused on your body. And when you start scanning for evidence that something is wrong, you’ll almost always find a sensation to analyze.

The problem isn’t that the sensation exists. The problem is the meaning anxiety immediately assigns to it.

The goal isn’t to prove you’re healthy.

This is one of the biggest shifts people make in treatment.

The goal isn’t to convince yourself that nothing bad could ever happen, because none of us has that guarantee.

The goal is learning to live a full life without requiring certainty first. Waiting until you’re 100% sure you’re safe is a moving target that anxiety will never let you reach.

I’ve worked with many people navigating OCD, anxiety, and health anxiety, and one of the most common things I hear is:

“It feels like my brain just won’t let me enjoy the moment.”

The good news?

That pattern can change through the gold-standard for care in OCD called Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy.

To learn more about ERP, here are some links from the International OCD Foundation to get you started:

What is OCD?

What is Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy?

OCD in Kids

Barb Shepard is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and OCD and Anxiety Specialist in Syracuse, New York.

Interested in learning more about OCD and anxiety treatment? No spam, just a good old fashioned monthly blog.

Important Disclaimer

This article is intended for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reading this article or following my social media content does not establish a therapeutic relationship. If you are receiving treatment for anxiety or OCD, consult your own mental health professional regarding recommendations that are appropriate for your individual circumstances.