Health Anxiety

There is a form of anxiety that I like to call 'health' anxiety. People that experience this type of anxiety have worrying thoughts about many different aspects of health.

They might be worrying about the symptoms that they are having, and perhaps linking them to serious diseases. They might be worrying about how these serious disease will affect their family and their life. They then move on to researching and googling their symptoms and said diseases and before you know it they are contemplating what type of flowers to order for their funeral!

This is a classic example of the mind running away with a single thought and taking it to the very extreme. The trouble is, when people allow their minds to move in this way, the mind very quickly shifts into survival mode, invoking the fight, flight, freeze response. Once this response has begun the body starts to shut down all the parts that are not needed to run. This means that some of the first things to shut down is the immune system and the digestive system. The blood and other resources are pulled away from these areas and sent to the extremities, leaving the body no way of healing itself, or fighting off bacteria.

Which in turn causes the body more illness and disease, the person then sees an increase in their symptoms, confirming their worst fears, and starts the whole cycle over again. This is how illness and disease spreads rapidly through the body.

Allowing the body the rest and relaxation it needs to heal itself is vital. Catching the flow of negative, stressful thoughts and changing them, is the way to get your mind into healing mode. Once your mind had achieved the ability to stay calm and keep your thoughts in check, the body has a much better chance of engaging all the necessary resources to get the healing underway!

Take a look at our page https://www.themindclinicnz.com/help-with-anxiety for more information on how we can help you