Excessive Concern About Your Health
We live in a time where everyone is constantly bombarded with information. The topics related to care and protection of the body are the order of the day. This has created an environment where undue concern about your health can take hold.
This excessive worry can then be projected onto everyday life. Health is defined as a state of physical, emotional and social well-being. It’s not just the absence of disease. It is becoming more and more common for people to be afraid of getting sick or that their close friends and relatives will.
While it’s true that taking care of your health and living a good lifestyle are essential to prevent disease, excessive worry can be a problem. So in this article, we’ll explain what you can do about it and what strategies you can use to manage it.
What Is Excessive Concern About Your Health?
As you can imagine, it is normal to worry about yourself. We all have a certain fear of getting sick. This is natural and helpful if it prompts you to improve your habits. We do this by, for example, eating well or exercising regularly.
It also alerts you to the signs of illness and encourages you to see a doctor if necessary. However, if the worries continue to grow, this can lead to feelings of anxiety (Spanish link).
When this happens, negative thoughts and fear of getting sick can occupy your mind. This creates an alarm state where any minimal pain or risk of contamination makes you think you are sick.
Due to the general misinformation about various world situations, people’s anxiety has increased dramatically. There is a phenomenon of collective concern that goes beyond the individual and puts large groups of people in the same alert state.
Fear can also lead us to do irrational things. If we don’t control our undue concern about our health, we will take drastic measures that will ultimately be counterproductive and cause illness, rather than protect us.
Signs of Excessive Concern
The line between normal and excessive worry is very small. However, there are certain signs that can tell you that the line is being touched or crossed. In the first place, that state of fear that we indicated.
Constant awareness of pain or ailment, no matter how minor, may indicate an obsession. Especially if you start looking for information on the subject or can’t stop thinking about it.
The behavior of these people makes them organize their lives around the alleged problem. Their family, work, and friendship relationships have changed as a result of the obsessive disorder.
Many people even conclude that it is a symptom of a specific disease. They catalog their hypothesis with the name of a condition and self-diagnose (Spanish link), determining the direct path to hypochondria.
In this case, they begin to worry about the consequences of that alleged illness. They also tend to make it a common topic of conversation, leaving no room for other explanations or stories.
On the other hand, excessive health concerns can also manifest in very strict control of diet or exercise. Also, a person may be taking medications or vitamin supplements that are not recommended by a doctor.
What can you do about it?
The main thing in this situation is to try to ask for help. If anxiety turns to anxiety, it’s best to see a psychologist to resolve the issue. Psychotherapy is usually the best form of treatment.
You also have to take into account that the information sources you have are not always reliable. It is essential to compare the data and prevent fear from getting its grip on you. There are many articles on the internet but you should check that they are written by reliable authors and that the site you are reading is trustworthy.
