Am I Experiencing Health Anxiety?
Health anxiety (also referred to as illness anxiety disorder and hypochondriasis) is a condition characterized by a preoccupation with, or fear about, the possibility of having a serious, progressive or life-threatening illness, accompanied by either repetitive and excessive health-related behaviors. Am I Experiencing Health Anxiety? is an indicative screening questionnaire designed to help clients to self-assess whether they might meet diagnostic criteria for health anxiety, or whether their experiences might warrant further investigation.
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Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Client version
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
Health anxiety is experienced by between 1 and 10 people out of every 100 (Stansfield et al, 2016; Kessler et al, 2005) but like many anxiety disorders, it is under-diagnosed and often goes unrecognized (Olatunji et al, 2014).
The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for illness anxiety disorder include:
- A preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness.
- The absence of somatic symptoms (or if present, they are only mild in intensity). If another medical condition is present, or there is a high risk for developing a medical condition, the preoccupation is clearly excessive or disproportionate.
- A high level of anxiety about health, and the individual is easily alarmed about their personal health status.
- The performance of excessive health-related behaviors (e.g. repeatedly checking one’s body for signs of illness) or maladaptive avoidance (e.g. avoiding doctor’s appointments or hospitals).
- Illness preoccupation that has been present for at least 6 months (although the
Therapist Guidance
"Some people who report similar experiences to yours have a condition called health anxiety. Would you like to try a short quiz that could give us an idea of whether this problem troubles you?"
References And Further Reading
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
- Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617–627.
- Olatunji, B. O., Kauffman, B. Y., Meltzer, S., Davis, M. L., Smits, J. A., & Powers, M. B. (2014). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for hypochondriasis/health anxiety: a meta-analysis of treatment outcome and moderators. Behaviour research and therapy, 58, 65-74.
- Stansfeld, S., Clark, C., Bebbington, P., King, M., Jenkins, R., & Hinchliffe, S. (2016). Chapter 2: Common mental disorders. In S. McManus, P. Bebbington, R. Jenkins, & T. Brugha (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital.
- World Health Organization. (2019). ICD-11: International classification of diseases (11th revision). Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/