Before she leaves for work in the morning, Peyton Lynas needs to check her vital signs three to four times to feel safe to start her day. A certified nursing assistant for older adults living in Rhode Island, Lynas knows exactly how to check her blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature. Throughout the day, she’ll check them an additional 10 to 15 times, all to calm the relentless presence of her health anxiety.
“I will take my blood pressure until it’s something that I’m okay with,” Lynas, 33, tells Fortune. “Which is debilitating. There have been times that I will cancel plans because I’m not okay with what my vitals are.” For three weeks in November, in fact, Lynas couldn’t leave her home, convinced she was having a heart attack. Eventually, she went to the ER. Nothing was wrong.
What is health anxiety?
Lynas, who has shared her struggles on TikTok, is one of an estimated 5.7% of people globally who suffer from health anxiety, also called illness anxiety disorder—previously known as hypochondria. Since health anxiety often goes undiagnosed, UCLA reports, it could actually affect more than 10% of the population—and research indicates it’s becoming more common. It can impact people in a range of ways—Lynas, for example, who has received an official diagnosis of and therapy for the disorder, is most afraid of having a heart attack.
Health anxiety can appear as “feeling an usual sensation or pain in one part of your body and thinking this means, ‘Oh this means I have some serious illness,’” even when there may be nothing physically wrong, Paul Greene, psychologist and director of the Manhattan Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, tells Fortune. Also known as illness anxiety disorder, it’s defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a “preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness,” and can be focused on a specific problem, like heart attack or cancer.
“It’s not just someone being a little nervous about their health—it’s a persistent and often overwhelming fear that something is wrong, even after tests come back normal or doctors reassure them,” TikTok creator Dr. Joe Whittington, an ER doctor, tells Fortune in an email. “It can become a mental loop that’s hard to break out of.”
@peytonkingmas Welcome to my Health anxiety talk… stay a while🫶🏻 #panicattack #healthanxiety #anxietyrelief #letstalk #awareness ♬ original sound – PeytonKingman🦋
Health anxiety isn’t just about fear for your health, but something that takes a toll on a person’s emotional well-being, relationships, and finances, according to experts and those with the condition.
While many people can experience anxiety about their health, Simone Saunders, a Canada-based therapist specializing in trauma, tells Fortune, she explains that asking yourself, “Is this interrupting your day-to-day life?” to the point of causing distress and taking up considerable time can help you determine if your health worries are more serious. People with health anxiety, she says, will experience consistent worrying—plus frequently check symptoms online and at doctor’s appointments.
“On an extreme level, it can look like someone constantly going to different doctors, requesting repeat scans, Googling symptoms for hours a day, or checking their body obsessively,” Whittington explains. But it could also look like someone who frequently mentions symptoms, avoids certain activities out of fear of injury or illness, or silently spirals at the onset of a headache or a stomach cramp.
“It’s not always loud—but it’s always heavy,” he says.
‘I don’t know what I will do financially’
While a recent study on the cost of health anxiety put the number at around $2,500 a year for those in the U.S., Lynas estimates that she’s spent at least $18,000 over the past nine years because of it—even though her doctor’s visits have been completely covered by state health insurance with no copays.
She’s spent around $3,000 for her at-home health equipment, she says, while missed days at work have likely cost her at least $2,500. The rest, she estimates, comes from numerous objects to distract her or calm her anxious thoughts—like weighted blankets or natural supplements, as well as replacement batteries or devices for blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters (to measure blood oxygen levels), and thermometers.
And soon Lynas’ coverage will end, as her employer is switching to an insurance that won’t cover her frequent emergency room visits, CAT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and doctor’s appointments.
“I don’t know what I will do financially. It will not be possible,” she says, assuming she will go into debt.
Peter Ruppert, 28, believes his finances have taken a big hit too, despite the free health care access in the UK, where he lives. His greatest fear is the same as Lynas’s—having a heart attack—which has led him to pay for pricey cardiologist visits and several heart tests, which can cost about $400 each.
Ruppert, who works as a content strategist and shares on Instagram under “anxiety_fitness,” feels doesn’t have a choice, despite the financial toll. “You feel like you absolutely have to, otherwise you’re going to die,” he tells Fortune. He too has been diagnosed with health anxiety and sought mental health treatment, which he says has been steadily improving his condition.
Ruby Thomas, a content creator also in the UK, estimates that she’s spent well over $2,600 on her health anxiety—which would be more, if she didn’t have free health care. But there have been several occasions where she’s opted for private, more expensive doctors just to reassure herself—like the over $900 she spent on a breast scan recently. After her official health anxiety diagnosis, she’s been in therapy to help—which adds another $50 per week to her bill.
@rubycleansthings Do you struggle with Health Anxiety?💕 #healthanxiety #healthanxietyocd #ocd #anxietydisorder #mentalhealth ♬ original sound – Rubycleansthings
“There’s only been one week I haven’t been at the doctor since this year started,” Thomas, 28, tells Fortune.
Situations like hers can be a “financial nightmare,” Whittington says. “You’re talking about repeat doctor visits, unnecessary tests, ER bills, specialist consultations—all adding up fast. And for some people, it also affects their ability to hold a steady job if they’re constantly calling out or too anxious to perform.” Both Lynas and Ruppert, in fact, say they’ve missed work because of their fears.
Strained relationships
After Thomas recently found a lump in her mouth, she spent an entire vacation with her partner panicking, unable to enjoy herself. “The hardest part for me is how not present I am,” she says, adding that her health anxiety is the only thing that causes fights in her relationships.
“If one person in a relationship has bad health anxiety and another person does not, the person who does not is going to get impatient, or fed up or exasperated with the situation,” Greene says.
“The thing that’s made me the saddest is the impact on my family,” Thomas adds, explaining that herer mother is a nurse, and while she’s always patient, even she struggles to help reassure her.
“There’s certain things I’ve had checked multiple times with doctors and I still don’t feel secure in it, and that’s when you just feel a bit hopeless because you’re like, ‘Well if even going to doctors can’t make you feel better, you don’t know what will,” she says.
Celebrations are the hardest, Thomas says.
“Christmas days are the saddest because my brain will tell me, ‘This is your last Christmas. Birthdays are really triggering because you think it’s going to be your last birthday,” she says,“You almost feel like you’re not allowed to enjoy yourself because you should be on the lookout.”
Ruppert says he feels like he missed out on his 20s because of his health anxiety, often canceling plans with friends out of his fears over getting sick or something bad happening to him. “You miss out on loads of opportunities,” he says.
Tips to manage health anxiety
Health anxiety, according to Greene, “is considered by psychologists to be a very treatable condition.” The standard of care is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America states that CBT focuses on our cognition, or the way we think, and our behaviors, or the way we act. In these cases, CBT would aim to shift the way people with health anxiety assign meaning to situations. For example, if someone is afraid that lightheadedness means brain cancer, CBT can help someone understand that their anxiety is rooted in the meaning they assigned to that feeling, but may not be rooted in reality.
While Greene emphasizes that he never wants to dismiss patients’ health fears which could very well be valid, CBT can still help someone overcome fears by correcting irrational thoughts and changing the behaviors that come from them, learning to approach anxious situations differently and cope with the anxiety and uncertainty.
While experts agree that trying CBT is the best way to get a handle on symptoms, there are also some methods that someone with health anxiety could try on their own—with Greene suggesting an attempt to limit looking symptoms up online, which can amplify the anxiety.
Whittington, meanwhile, suggests finding a doctor you trust and building a relationship, as bouncing around for lots of opinions “often feeds the anxiety.” He also suggests practicing grounding techniques like deep breathing—or even distraction techniques, like splashing your face with cold water to reset your nervous system—and exercise, even a brisk walk, to help burn off anxious energy.
Saunders suggests trying not to isolate yourself with your worries. “The more open and honest we can be with other people, the more support we’ll have,” she says.
Finally, says Whittington, be kind to yourself. “This isn’t about being dramatic or weak—it’s a real condition, and you’re not alone,” he says.
For more on mental health:
- Eating disorders in middle age are ‘way more common than people think,’ says expert. 3 women share their stories
- Gen Z’s angst is dismantling the long-established happiness curve and confounding researchers
- Stressed out children may share one factor: Highly educated parents
