Health Anxiety Treatment
Health Anxiety Treatment in Greenwich, Darien, Westport, Westchester, and Surrounding Areas in Connecticut and New York.
What is health anxiety?
Health anxiety is also known as hypochondriasis, illness anxiety, or somatic symptom disorder. People with health anxiety have irrational and excessive concerns that they have a serious illness, despite medical reassurance. They are preoccupied with various physical symptoms, such as a pain, stomach ache, or changes in heart rate, and worry that minor symptoms or body sensations mean that they have a serious illness. They repeatedly check their body for signs of illness. They often spend a lot of time searching the internet about their symptoms, will see several medical providers and go to emergency rooms, have excessive costly medical visits, and frequently seek reassurance from others. However, they find little little or no reassurance from doctor visits or negative test results​. They often avoid several situations in fear of getting sick.
How do you treat health anxiety?
We treat health anxiety with cognitive behavioral treatment and exposure exercises. We also incorporate mindfulness and acceptance strategies. We will work with you to disengage from and challenge obsessive thinking about your health. We will also work with you to increase tolerance for your physical symptoms that you may experience and decrease checking behaviors. Through exposure therapy, we will work with you to gradually and systematically confront anxiety-provoking thoughts, situations, and bodily sensations.
What kind of experience do you have in treating health anxiety?
Dr. Sala has extensive training in both CBT and exposure therapy to treat health anxiety, and has worked with several patients with health anxiety throughout her career.