{"id":18665,"date":"2020-04-20T15:12:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T20:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/?p=18665"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:54:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T19:54:34","slug":"how-much-health-anxiety-is-normal-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/guides\/how-much-health-anxiety-is-normal-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Health Anxiety Is Normal Right Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coronavirus information changes quickly, so please note the publication date on this story. You can find current<\/em> recommendations and national outbreak data on the CDC<\/a> website. Or, if you want local coronavirus updates and stats, check out the department of health website for your state<\/a> or your city<\/a>. Enjoy reading and stay safe.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Every afternoon, I slide a thermometer under my tongue until the metal tip is pressed into my lingual frenulum (the piece of skin connecting your tongue to the bottom part of your mouth). If the thermometer moves around too much, I start over. If the initial reading seems high, I wait a few minutes and try again. I usually take my temperature again before bed too, just to see how my body\u2019s doing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t even know I owned a thermometer until about six weeks ago, when I found a dinky $2.99 one in my medicine chest. I also didn\u2019t used to periodically sniff items in my fridge to confirm I could still smell. But then a chorus of ambulance sirens became the soundtrack to New York, and I became acutely aware of itchy eyelids, indigestion, charley horses and all other unpleasant or unfamiliar physical sensations \u2014 including, one time, a sore lingual frenulum.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When it comes to preventing and detecting COVID-19, we\u2019re our own first line of defense against a highly contagious disease that we don\u2019t understand well and don’t yet have any vaccine or treatment for. In this situation, according to experts, it makes sense to have some anxiety about your health and be more attuned to potential signs of illness as a result. <\/span>Feeling anxious can be an adaptive response that motivates us to go through the rigamarole of disinfecting groceries and seeking medical attention. But adaptive anxiety stops being adaptive if it gets in the way of the important stuff \u2014 sleeping, getting your job done, singing show tunes to your dog, etc. <\/span>Fortunately, we have <\/span>effective strategies to manage anxiety related to health, whether the problem is situational or rooted in a preexisting condition.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re a little more reactive or neurotic than usual, your brain\u2019s just doing its job. And if your googling sprees are reaching deeper and deeper into the night, you can do something about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is health anxiety, exactly?<\/h3>\n

Health anxiety is a general term, not a diagnosable condition. There are formal disorders characterized by anxiety and\/or obsessive behavior related to health and sickness, but the clinical language <\/span>is still evolving. The most widely known term, hypochondria, has actually been phased out. Instead, the\u00a0<\/span>DSM-5 (the bible of mental health conditions) splits hypochondria into two disorders: <\/span>Illness anxiety disorder (IAD) and somatic symptom disorder (SSD). IAD, <\/span>the closest analog to hypochondria, is characterized by worrying about being<\/span> ill despite having no symptoms. With SSD, the worry is that harmless bodily sensations indicate a serious illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emily O\u2019Bryan, a<\/span> postdoctoral fellow at the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, thinks of health anxiety as existing on a continuum; it \u201c involves excessive worry about having or acquiring a serious illness or disease and can range in severity from mild to severe.\u201d O\u2019Bryan, <\/span>whose research focuses on identifying and targeting risk factors for health anxiety, says that someone<\/span> with severe health anxiety may be diagnosed with IAD or SSD, depending on the presence of symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Health anxiety also overlaps with obsessive compulsive disorder, says Dr. Peter Tyrer, <\/span>a community psychiatrist at Imperial College London.<\/span> Highly health-anxious people often engage in hypervigilant behaviors, such as repeated hand-washing or compulsive symptom-checking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCore health anxiety tends to persist, as sufferers regard themselves as the only true monitors of their health and trust no other.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cyberchondria, another term related to health anxiety, means compulsively searching for health information online. It\u2019s not a diagnosable condition either, and experts describe it in a few different ways, including as a form of hypochondria, a potential symptom of several different anxiety disorders and a generally unhealthy activity that can fuel anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t especially anxious about your health until the coronavirus came along, then the coronavirus isn\u2019t going to cause you to develop IAD or SSD, which require at least six months of persistent symptoms for a diagnosis. \u201cCore health anxiety tends to persist, as sufferers regard themselves as the only true monitors of their health and trust no other,\u201d says Tyrer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

But you can still experience health anxiety that\u2019s not attached to a disorder. \u201cMany people can have brief episodes of health anxiety after the trigger of another physical illness, or indeed with <\/span>impending COVID-19, and these resolve quickly when the threat disappears,\u201d Tyrer says.<\/span><\/p>\n

How anxious is too anxious right now?<\/h3>\n

Part of what makes the current situation nerve-racking is the amount of uncertainty we\u2019re required to tolerate: We\u2019re supposed to use common-sense measures to protect ourselves from catching and spreading a virus that doctors and scientists are still just learning about. The facts on how and how far it can spread, for instance, seem to change weekly.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re also supposed to monitor our health and get in touch with a doctor if we develop COVID-19 symptoms. This isn\u2019t necessarily a straightforward task. While the hallmark symptoms, like fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and fatigue, are the most common early signs of infection, they\u2019re not the only ones<\/a>. Pink eye, diarrhea and others are on the list too. <\/span>And if you do suspect you have COVID-19, you may not be able to get a definitive diagnosis unless you become sick enough to require hospitalization, which can bring its own sets of anxieties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the circumstances, it\u2019s understandable to have concerns about being ill, says Michelle Pargman, a licensed mental health counselor in Jacksonville, Florida. \u201cDepending on how much we are inundating ourselves with the news, and to what extent we know others with the virus, it is incredibly common right now to feel alarmed about our health status,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pargman says she\u2019s noticed increased awareness of bodily symptoms. \u201cPersonally and professionally, I certainly have experienced more acknowledgment among people in general that they are more acutely aware of aches, pains, breathing and GI issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not necessarily a problem. Mild, adaptive anxiety about getting sick can propel you to take critical safety precautions like washing your hands as often as you should or MacGyvering a T-shirt mask. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t at all worried about COVID-19, I\u2019d be engaging in more risky behaviors,\u201d says O\u2019Bryan. \u201cHowever, worry can become excessive, even in the context of a pandemic. Excessive worry can have costs, including distracting people from what they value and unnecessarily increasing distress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mild anxiety about getting sick can propel you to take critical safety precautions like washing your hands as often as you should or MacGyvering a T-shirt mask.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

S<\/span>tephanie Woodrow, a therapist in Washington, DC, who specializes in anxiety disorders, says that anxiety <\/span>becomes maladaptive<\/span> \u201cwhen it interferes with us doing what we want to do [and exceeds] what most others experience in a given situation.\u201d (<\/span>Meanwhile, Tyrer says, \u201cSome people I know who have been chronically health-anxious have been saying to me, \u2018I feel more normal now, as everyone I see now is feeling the same as I have done for years, and that’s quite reassuring.\u2019\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a person is concerned about contracting COVID-19 but can still work from home, engage with family at home or friends over the phone, and get pleasure from activities such as watching a movie or reading a book, seeking professional help is probably not necessary,\u201d Woodrow says. \u201cHowever, if a person cannot focus on other things, it might be time to reach out to a therapist.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While nonemergency in-person care is limited right now, teletherapy has never been more accessible. <\/span>Psychiatrists and therapists have a number of tools at their disposal to treat health anxiety. The most common approach is cognitive behavioral therapy. This results-oriented method helps people understand and reframe their disordered thoughts and then form new behaviors. When appropriate, therapists may use other methods too, including <\/span>exposure and response prevention<\/span><\/a>, which involves confronting obsessive thoughts surrounding fears of illness, and <\/span>acceptance and commitment therapy<\/span><\/a>, which helps people accept negative thoughts but change how they react to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also try to manage health anxiety on your own. Some helpful DIY tips happen to be core tenets of CBT, although some therapists strongly recommend doing CBT with a professional to guide you. O\u2019Bryan says the same treatment methods and anxiety-relief strategies are applicable across the health anxiety spectrum, whether someone has IAD or is a new member of the “worried well.”<\/span><\/p>\n