Severe Anxiety: Dealing with Medical Anxiety

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from medical anxiety, you know how crippling it can be. Logically, you may understand that seeking medical attention is the right thing to do to protect your health, but trying to get yourself to actually make and keep an appointment seems threatening and nearly impossible.

The difficult conundrum with medical anxiety is that it operates on an unfortunate and continual loop. When you fear the one thing that can stop the anxiety, it can make you feel not only trapped, but hopeless.

Can you get over medical anxiety? Yes, you can. Just like other fears and anxiety-based behaviors, through therapy and prayer, you can overcome these limitations and live a normal and healthy life. Read on to learn more.

What causes medical anxiety?

While you might be predisposed to anxiety through your biological makeup, most people aren’t born with this fear. It is something that develops after experiencing a medical trauma.

Maybe your beloved mother died of cancer, and now you fear every small anomaly you discover on your body. Or maybe you got an unfavorable diagnosis, and your anxiety has convinced you that every subsequent doctor visit will result in the same terrifying news.

There are a number of ways and reasons someone might develop medical anxiety. Whatever the cause, the resulting consequence is often insufficient healthcare, missed medical appointments, and delayed checkups. This can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle.

What characteristics make up medical anxiety?

Medical anxiety varies in type and severity. Some suffer from illness anxiety disorder (IAD), which is commonly known as medical anxiety or health anxiety. The definition, as given by the National Institutes of Health, is a psychiatric condition characterized by intense, persistent, and excessive fear of having or developing a serious, undiagnosed disease.

Some people have milder cases of medical anxiety and may simply refer to their condition as “white coat syndrome,” meaning they fear things related to doctors or medical facilities.

What does having medical anxiety actually look like? Here are some characteristics you might experience.

You catastrophize

If you have medical anxiety, you will likely assume the worst-case scenario is imminent for all things health-related. That little headache you have can become convincingly similar to a brain tumor. That skin tag, which is a normal part of aging, can look suspiciously close to a cancerous growth through the lens of anxiety. When you live in a constant state of threat, your brain scans for any new or additional information that could be a sign of a bigger threat.

You feel overwhelmed

Another unfortunate element of medical anxiety is the feeling of being overwhelmed. It’s not unusual for people to postpone routine checkups or visits for minor ailments. For those with medical anxiety, those missed appointments happen often and aren’t due to scheduling mishaps.

With every missed appointment, medical conditions can compound. A minor issue can develop into something more serious. When that happens, not only does the need to seek medical attention grow, but the fear of receiving devastating news grows right with it. Even if you want to get back on track with your health goals, seeing the number of appointments you would have to face can make the whole process feel like too much.

Your mind starts to reel as you recall the date of your last dental appointment. You notice your eyeglasses aren’t quite as effective as they used to be, and you don’t even remember the date of your last blood test. You know you should make those appointments, but trying to force yourself to do the thing you fear can feel nearly impossible, and the sheer number of these necessary appointments can feel overwhelming.

You’re preoccupied

When you suffer from medical anxiety, you have a persistent preoccupation or intense focus on having or contracting a serious illness. You may not have any real symptoms that would indicate imminent danger, but your anxiety reacts as if there is an actual risk.

You may try to comfort yourself by doing independent research on symptoms or early warning signs of danger. This information rarely brings peace and might easily trigger an even greater degree of anxiety.

You seek reassurance

Another common pattern in someone with medical anxiety is the constant need for reassurance. You might find yourself asking a spouse, family member, or friend if they think something is wrong with you. You go into painstaking detail about your symptoms, hoping they’ll tell you that you’re okay.

That works for a while. You feel relief, and your fears subside. But that peace is short-lived. Before long, the doubt will resurface, and you will wonder if they’re telling you the truth or if they are even confident in their own answer.

Your behavior changes

Your medical anxiety might not just affect your mind and emotions, but dictate your behavior too. You might excessively check for signs of illness, scanning your body for any anomalies or symptoms. Conversely, you might avoid medical offices and information altogether.

Getting Over Medical Anxiety

There may not be a magic switch that you can flip to suddenly feel fearless, but with slow retraining of your mind and body, you can learn to respond differently to your medical anxiety.

Therapy

One of the most effective ways to overcome this crippling fear is through therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you identify the thought patterns that fuel your anxiety and challenge them with truth. Instead of immediately jumping to worst-case scenarios, you can learn to pause and question those thoughts. You can also learn how to replace them with more realistic and reassuring ones. Eventually, this will weaken anxiety’s power over you.

Exposure therapy is another effective approach to overcoming medical anxiety. While exposure to the thing you fear the most might feel terrifying, you don’t have to force yourself into overwhelming and scary situations all at once. You can learn to take small, manageable steps instead.

Maybe you start by simply looking up a nearby doctor or scheduling an appointment. Even if you later cancel that appointment, you’ve made progress by exposing yourself to the idea of going to the doctor. Maybe you sit in the waiting room of a doctor’s office before you even make an appointment. Exposing yourself to the environment in a non-threatening way and knowing that your name won’t be called can help you build up a tolerance for medical environments.

Each step you take to expose yourself to medical situations can help build confidence. It trains your brain to feel safe, even when the threat feels imminent.

Trusting God

Much of the fear behind medical anxiety stems from a lack of control. You don’t know what’s going on inside your body, and that uncertainty can feel unbearable. But the good news is that God knows.

God created you wonderfully, and He knows every detail about you. While He never promised a life free of difficulty, He does promise His presence even in the face of adversity. When your brain starts to spiral into the “what ifs,” you can center yourself on what is the absolute truth. That God is with you and your life is ultimately in His Hands. Your lack of control doesn’t have to be a deficit, but can be viewed as faith.

Help For Medical Anxiety

If you need help getting past your medical anxiety, schedule an appointment with a Christian therapist. These professionals at this practice can help you overcome this crippling fear that not only affects your mind but can also impact your overall physical health. They can point you back to the all-knowing, all-powerful God who loves you and wants you not to live in this fear any longer.