The socio-health alert situation currently being experienced worldwide has led to a general increase in concern for one’s own health.
So great is the worry and fear the population is experiencing these days of not getting infected with the Coronavirus, that some have even developed an Illness Anxiety Disorder.
This disorder (formerly known as hypochondria) is characterized by an individual’s worry, fear, or conviction of suffering from a serious illness, derived from the personal interpretation of different somatic symptoms, which ultimately generates discomfort in various important areas of their daily activity.
However, Illness Anxiety Disorder is also distinguished by the following aspects:
Cognitive Aspects in Anxiety
- Ruminations about symptoms, health, and illnesses and their possible consequences.
- Excessive self-observation of the body and a tendency to view possible changes as a sign of illness.
Anxiety and Emotional and Physiological Aspects
- Constant changes in mood.
- Anxiety.
- Fears that do not correspond to real danger.
Behavioral Aspects in Anxiety Disorder
- Conversations with anyone about ailments and symptoms.
- Consulting information from different sources (books, manuals, encyclopedias, internet…).
- Constant self-observations of the body and various checks.
- Repeated visits to doctors and/or specialists.
With all this, it is observed that individuals suffering from illness anxiety disorder tend to focus their lives on negative aspects, especially those related to health. In this way, the person is creating a series of negative emotions that ultimately generate, to a greater or lesser extent, some physical symptoms.
Factors Predisposing to Anxiety
Likewise, it should also be noted that certain factors predispose a person to suffer from Illness Anxiety Disorder. These include:
- Previous experiences such as knowledge of medical errors, the presence of sick family members, or learning factors like discussing certain illnesses and reactions to them.
- Erroneous beliefs about symptoms, health, and illness.
- Selective attention to negative aspects, disregarding one’s healthier aspects, thereby self-confirming symptoms.
- Vulnerable negative mood derived from the presence of an external critical incident (continuous information, illness or death of a family member…).
- Personality traits based on perfectionism, self-demand, control, low tolerance for error, dichotomous thinking, excessive need for approval, or high levels of life expectations.
Illness Anxiety Disorder
In these cases, when a person has Illness Anxiety Disorder, psychological treatment should focus not only on the person’s concerns in the realm of personal health but also on addressing the emotions and behaviors associated with these concerns.
For this, one of the most used therapies by psychologists in these cases is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which focuses on changing how people relate to their experience, without changing its content.
Thus, the basic model of intervention for anxiety will be based on:
- Learning to detach from inevitable rules.
- Accepting what cannot be changed.
- Learning to live in the present.
- Learning to pay attention to what is important for the patient themselves.
- Getting in touch with the self.
- Learning, from the self, to clarify and choose vital values.
- Being able to organize acts and actions around the person’s vital values.
- Subjecting cognitive and verbal processes to greater control of context and favorable behavioral consequences.
- Learning to be present and oriented towards what is valuable for that person’s life.
10 Keys to Combat Hypochondria
Finally, it will also be important for the person to consider these 10 keys proposed by Mathews, Gelder, and Johnston for coping with hypochondria:
- The bodily sensations experienced in moments of overwhelm constitute the stress reactions in their most exaggerated form.
- These sensations are by no means harmful or dangerous; rather, they are unpleasant, and the body is prepared to experience stress thousands of times.
- They are just emotions, which, as such, will pass. Therefore, it’s not worth dwelling on recurrent thoughts about what is happening.
- Attention should be focused on the here and now, not on what might happen in the future.
- Over time, fear will gradually subside. One should not fight against it or force it to disappear quickly.
- Frightening thoughts make fear grow.
- The goal of intervention is to learn to face fear without avoiding it, so each attack should become an opportunity to keep moving forward.
- Despite all difficulties, progress is considerable, so in the future, you will be able to overcome it again.
- As you start to feel better, you can begin to plan what to do next: read, meet a friend, go to the cinema, cook…
- When resuming the previous activity, it should be done in a relaxed manner and being aware of what has happened. Analyzing what has occurred will help for future occasions.