To escape these distressing thoughts, you might turn to certain strategies.
One common approach is searching for symptoms online. But this often backfires — a simple search for a headache can quickly lead to alarming pages about cancer, which fuels anxiety instead of calming it.
Another approach is making a doctor’s appointment whenever you notice something unusual. Perhaps you avoid public places to prevent catching a virus, or seek reassurance from friends and family, often talking with them about your health worries.
While these actions are meant to reassure you, they usually only help in the short term — if at all.
Over time, they can keep anxiety going by making illness a central focus in your daily life.
What happens in our thoughts has an impact on our bodies.
Worries and overthinking drive bodily stress which maintain fatigue and other symptoms.
This diagram shows two alternative ways to respond when you notice a worrying thought about a symptom
On the left, you can see how staying trapped in thoughts lead to a vicous spiral.
No solution is found through worrying. At the same time, rumination drives arousal in the autonomic nervous system which intensifies bodily sensations.
This can spiral into a state of panic.
On the right, you can see what happens if you approach the sensation with curiosity
Using the breath can help you stay with and explore sensations in the body, can help our bodies enter a state of physiological rest.
This allows us to turn towards the actual sensations of the body. They become less frightening, and with this less intense.
Daring to give up on worry
Sometimes we don’t dare expect to get better. We continue to believe that deep down there is a serious disease in the body that needs to be cured. We put pressure on ourselves to find out what it is and worry about letting our guard down in case we or our doctors miss something important that needs a specific treatment.
Such worries seem logical on the surface. We hold on to worries because we believe that thinking about a particular issue or problem will protect us. However, rumination rarely leads us to helpful solutions.
Give your mind permission to take a break from constantly searching for reasons why you have certain symptoms and trust in the body’s ability to heal and recover when the right conditions are in place.
This does not mean ignoring worrying or new symptoms.
Medical tests can help us understand if there is something specific to be done to support our health.
Finding a balance is essential: neither rushing to the doctor at the first minor symptom nor ignoring warning signs altogether.
