Morning Medical with Dr. Chow
A daily update covering the latest medical & health news from around the world using artificial intelligence. Doctor Chi-Ming Chow is a family physician, general internist, and cardiologist. He is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
I thought I was dying but it was health anxiety - here's how to recognise the signs
When does concern about your health become an “obsessional worry”? Dr. Chi-Ming Chow examines Hollie Sharman’s severe health anxiety, which led to hospital visits four to five times a week despite normal tests. Learn the warning signs, including body checking and repeated symptom searches, plus strategies for challenging worst-case thinking, limiting reassurance-seeking and using grounding techniques.
Key Points
- Health anxiety can drive repeated emergency visits and intense physical fear even when medical tests are normal, because the distress is rooted in obsessive worry rather than physical disease.
- Common signs include frequent body checking, online symptom searching, and constant reassurance-seeking, which can keep the anxiety cycle going.
- Management often involves recognizing alternative explanations for symptoms, reducing reassurance-seeking, using grounding and breathing techniques, and getting support from a mental health professional.
Chapters
| 0:00 | |
| 1:11 | |
| 1:56 |
Transcript
Loading transcript...
- / -