KEY POINTS
- People with severe health anxiety hold dysfunctional or maladaptive beliefs about health and illness.
- Dysfunctional beliefs develop early in life and are strengthened through reinforcement.
- Dysfunctional beliefs enter one into a cycle of unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that worsens health anxiety.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to interrupt this cycle by modifying maladaptive beliefs, thinking errors, and safety behaviors
If you have severe health anxiety, you likely hold dysfunctional beliefs about health and illness. These are known as core beliefs. Core beliefs typically originate early in life through personally significant life experiences.
Perhaps you had a sick family member growing up or watched a loved one suffer from a disease. Or perhaps you felt unsafe in life due to certain experiences and, thus, learned to be on the lookout for potential threats and dangers. Your experiences led you to see health and illness in a certain way.
