How Anxiety About Health Can Disrupt Someone's Life
- People with severe health anxiety hold dysfunctional or maladaptive beliefs about health and illness.
- Dysfunctional beliefs develop early in life and are strengthened through reinforcement.
- Dysfunctional beliefs enter one into a cycle of unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that worsens health anxiety.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to interrupt this cycle by modifying maladaptive beliefs, thinking errors, and safety behaviors.