Doing scary stuff sucks…which you’re definitely aware of if you’re dealing with mysterious health symptoms and dragging your feet about facing them head-on. I know I’ve put off doctor’s appointments because I wanted to let something—a weird rash, digestive issues, persistent headaches, whatever!—go away on its own. But it’s important to recognize when you’re actually being avoidant because you’re anxious, especially if your health problems are consistently on your mind, but a doctor’s appointment isn’t on your calendar.
If you’re spiraling about what could be going on with your body, but you’re paradoxically unable to take the next step, you might be dealing with health anxiety: the persistent feeling that there’s something majorly wrong with you (even when you’re having not-so-major symptoms, like run-of-the-mill aches and pains, or a common cold). According to research cited in a 2023 study, roughly 2 to 13% of people feel this specific strain of anxiety. Sometimes, it can manifest as the certainty that you’re sick (even if you’re not), so you go to the doctor too much. But you might be reading this article because you or someone you care about is having the opposite problem, which is trouble with taking the step from worrying to actually doing something about it.
If so: You’re not the first person to put something off because you’re scared. In fact, you’re probably spinning your wheels because, at least in the moment, it feels better than facing the unknown. Delaying a medical appointment is a common response to feeling stressed about what’s going on with your body, according to a 2021 study on health care avoidance. Still, all good things must come to an end—especially, you know, when they’re not actually good for you.
“That anxiety often comes from a place of feeling helpless. Once you’re working with a diagnosis, you’re ridding yourself of the unknown,” Caitlin Donovan, senior director of the Patient Advocate Foundation, a nonprofit focused on helping people get the care they need from health care providers, tells SELF. “The important thing to keep in mind is that [dealing with health anxiety] is all about making you feel better—physically better, and emotionally better. That’s the end goal. Not addressing whatever it is that’s bothering you is not going to improve your situation.”
So where do you start? Here are some expert tips for getting over an anxiety spiral—and into the doctor’s office.
Step away from the frantic online searches.
Who among us hasn’t spent a sleepless night in bed, face illuminated by the glow of a phone screen, typing “vaginal discharge Reddit” or “lower back pain Adderall” into Safari? Not just me, right?
Right. Experts tell SELF that I’m far from the only chronic-symptom-googler among us. James MacDonald, PhD, a Los Angeles–based licensed psychologist who specializes in health anxiety at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Los Angeles, tells SELF that, by looking up your symptoms online, you’re trying to offer yourself temporary anxiety relief without addressing the deeper issue. “We engage in reassurance-seeking behaviors, and vague googling can help us feel better in the short term. [You might think] ‘Oh, my symptoms don’t fit with this, so I probably don’t have that,’ or, ‘My symptoms do fit with this, and therefore I have some certainty about what it is,’” he says. But “doing your own research” online doesn’t give you any real insight into what the problem might be, if there even is one. Even when it doesn’t freak you out more, it’s not going to do away with your anxiety—or treat the potential issue—in the long run.
