WORRIED SICK

How to manage health anxiety when it’s all around. their lives.

- KAREN ROBOCK

I’M A CONSISTENT but casual worrier by nature. My health isn’t in my usual rotation of anxious thoughts, though. It’s more likely to be worries about money, parenting and my career that cycle through my brain at 3 a.m. And in general, worries don’t dominate my thoughts on a day-to-day basis or rule my life (although the morning after a restless night can feel pretty soul-destroying). But since COVID-19, I’ve taken a few anxious double takes.

When I got a stuffy nose, I worried it couldn’t be explained by seasonal allergies. When my oldest daughter came down with a fever, I worried it was something more. And when my husband, who is a front-line worker, had a stomach bug and was required to go to the hospital for testing — well, I veered close to panic. These abstract fears have started to follow me around like a shadow.

So is the fact that I, a quiet 41-year-old without an anxiety problem, find myself with a constant, low-grade fear of an impending health scare also cause for worry? At this point, I don’t know too many people who aren’t feeling a twinge of health-related anxiety on a daily basis. How are people with diagnosed anxiety disorders — especially those relating to health — expected to cope?

What is health anxiety?

Since the start of COVID-19, you’ve likely heard friends talk and seen lots of online chatter — both serious Facebook posts and flippant Instagram memes — about escalating anxiety around health. But feeling a pandemic induced health panic isn’t the same as having a diagnosed health anxiety disorder.