Freedom from Health Anxiety: Understand and Overcome Obsessive Worry about Your Health or Someone Else’s and Find Peace of Mind

Filled with great information and exercises to help you take back control of your life. Wi5h patience and determination, you should be able to keep your illness anxiety at bay. Highly recommend this book.

This book identifies a problem that many of us have had, anxiety about our health. This is something that is increasingly on one's mind as we age, and the Pandemic has exacerbated those concerns. Dr. Cassiday explains the nature of the problem and introduces some practical strategies for one to use in attacking it. It is appropriate for health care personnel as well as any individual who has a concern for his/her health. And, unlike so many books in the health care field, this is readable and has practical checklists to use in attacking the problem.

Health anxiety is similar to what used to be called hypochondriasis. Basically constantly worrying of any symptoms as due to serious illness and getting preoccupied with that. This book helps nicely to self help control these worries! Recommended.

As someone who desperately wanted to have this work for me I’m really disappointed.I suffer from extreme health anxiety and the prompt to write a eulogy for either myself or someone I love sent me into a huge spiral. I was physically ill the rest of the night.Maybe exposure can help some people, but I can tell you from experience that no matter how many times I read a eulogy about myself or someone I love it’s not going to make my anxiety magically go away. I’ll be triggered EVERY SINGLE TIME.This is a hard no.

At first, I enjoyed this book. I read some statements and phrases that truly resonated with me and validated my health anxiety. I quickly began to find it very unsettling. The exposure therapy is too much and starts way too early. You can’t start with exposure therapy when you’re already in an anxious state. It made my anxiety worse. Then there was an exercise that wanted me to write my obituary and eulogy. That was was too far for me. Even my therapist told me that I should stop reading it. I understand that the purpose was to not fear death, but it was unrealistic and too extreme for me. Very triggering and unhelpful overall.

This has really helped me understand illness anxiety. The challenges in the book offer you co create ways/suggestions to combat your reassurance or avoiding tendencies.