Health Anxiety
If you often feel overly worried about your health, you may be experiencing ‘health anxiety’.
If you’re experiencing health anxiety, you may spend a lot of time googling your symptoms, visiting the doctor, checking your body for signs of illness or changes, and seeking reassurance from whānau and friends. You may also find yourself avoiding places, situations or conversations about health.
Fortunately, health anxiety is treatable, and many people who seek help can get better. This course will teach you practical skills to tackle constant worry about your health so you can get back to living life to the fullest!
Start course nowThe skills in this course can benefit both those who worry about developing a future illness, or those who have a diagnosed medical condition already. Many people with diagnosed medical conditions will have an expected amount of anxiety, however if your anxiety about health is starting to have a big impact on your wellbeing, this course could be helpful.
What you'll learn
Part 1- Introduction to health anxiety and how CBT can help.
- Part 2
- Learning how to reduce your focus on health worries.
- Part 3
- Learning to spot unhelpful thinking that keeps the cycle of anxiety going.
- Part 4
- Learning how to challenge your anxious thoughts and put your fears to the test.
- Part 5
- Tackling avoidance and worries using exposure therapy.
- Part 6
- Overcoming setbacks and staying well.
How effective is it?
Most people benefit from each lesson completed and show greater improvement when they complete the entire course.
Randomised controlled trials and effectiveness studies prove that the tool really works.
of people who benefited substantially
of people report they were no longer troubled by anxiety after completing the course
Step by step
- 1Take a quiz
- Take a short quiz to get an understanding of how you're feeling before starting the course.
- 2Illustrated stories
- Follow our characters as they gain some CBT skills and learn to look after their mental health.
- 3Lesson
- Lessons and activities you can download to practise the skills learnt in each story.
- 4Tools & Tips
- Additional activities and information you can download and complete between lessons.
What type of support will I receive?
The amount of support you receive will depend on how you choose to do this course. If the healthcare professional you are working with prescribes it for you, they will receive updates on your wellbeing and progress so they can support you.
If you choose the self-care method, you won't get support from your health professional. The self-care method is designed to enhance motivation and self-reliance. Provided you complete all parts of the course, your results from the self-care method will be as good as with supervision.
How long will it take?
You can take this free course at your own pace. It is best to do one lesson every week or two, so you have time to practise and revise the new skills you've learnt. After you've finished, we'll keep your account open so you can revisit the course at any time.
Give it a try now