People with health anxiety hold dysfunctional core beliefs about health and illness. Core beliefs develop early in life and are strengthened through a process of reinforcement. It can be helpful to identify significant life experiences that led one to develop dysfunctional core beliefs about health. Once dysfunctional core beliefs are identified, one can reshape them through cognitive restructuring.

People with health anxiety tend to see all bodily sensations and symptoms as dangerous. When symptoms or sensations emerge, people with health anxiety use "safety behaviors" to reduce their anxiety. In exposure therapy, one faces the feared stimuli (e.g., bodily sensations) without using safety behaviors.

When we have health anxiety, we tend to inflate the probability of serious disease, statistically speaking. CBT techniques can help you to see the likelihood of disease more accurately. The Pie Chart Method is one technique to help you consider the many non-catastrophic causes of symptoms.