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Improve Health Anxiety with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Memory bias with health anxiety
How Information Processing Biases can Increase Health Anxiety
Sep 23, 2023
With health anxiety, we have unhelpful or inaccurate core beliefs about health and illness. These beliefs lead us to process information ...
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Fear of Death: How CBT Can Decrease Fears of the Dying Process
Fear of Death: How CBT Can Decrease Fears of the Dying Process
Sep 18, 2023
When it comes to the dying process, people often fear being in intense pain, feeling humiliated, and burdening or hurting others. Many pe...
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Health Anxiety and the Emotional Reasoning Thinking Error
The 'Emotional Reasoning' Thinking Error and Health Anxiety
Sep 15, 2023
With health anxiety, an event happens, we have thoughts about that event, and then react to those thoughts. Learning to evaluate automati...
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Posts tagged "hypochondria"

How Information Processing Biases can Increase Health Anxiety

Sep 23, 2023 Posted by: Brittney Chesworth anxiety,  biased information processing,  cognitive behavioral therapy,  cognitive restructuring,  confirmation bias,  core beliefs,  hypochondria,  memory bias,  thinking errors
Memory bias with health anxiety
With health anxiety, we have unhelpful or inaccurate core beliefs about health and illness. These beliefs lead us to process information in a biased way. We tend to seek out "evidence" of our belief (e.g. that serious disease is everywhere) and we ignore or dismiss evidence to the contrary. It can be helpful to use a CBT technique and track your thoughts and assumptions in a thought record so that you can identify these patterns.

The 'Emotional Reasoning' Thinking Error and Health Anxiety

Sep 15, 2023 Posted by: Brittney Chesworth anxiety,  catastrophize,  cognitive behavioral therapy,  cognitive restructuring,  emotional reasoning thinking error,  hypochondria,  thinking errors
Health Anxiety and the Emotional Reasoning Thinking Error
With health anxiety, an event happens, we have thoughts about that event, and then react to those thoughts. Learning to evaluate automatic thoughts and identify cognitive distortions is a critical skill for improving health anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps to improve health anxiety by reshaping dysfunctional thinking patterns, beliefs, and behaviors.

Why Watching Videos about Tragic Health Stories on Social Media Worsens Health Anxiety

Sep 11, 2023 Posted by: Brittney Chesworth biased information processing,  confirmation bias,  core beliefs,  fear of disease,  health anxiety,  hypochondria,  overestimating threat,  thinking errors,  threat bias
Why Watching Videos about Tragic Health Stories on Social Media Worsens Health Anxiety
People with health anxiety hold dysfunctional core beliefs about health and illness. 
One dysfunctional belief held by those with health anxiety is the overestimation of the probability and severity of disease. Core beliefs are reinforced by information processing, in which we pay more attention to data that confirms our belief.