Improve Your Health Anxiety With Behavioral Experiments
Identify your specific problematic behaviors and take small steps to reduce them.
Posted February 20, 2025 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
People with health anxiety tend to get tangled up in problematic behaviors, such as reassurance-seeking, excessive body checking and avoidance. These behaviors act like a vortex, sucking you into that vicious cycle that is so hard to break free from. There is an incredible sense of freedom that comes from learning to disengage from these behaviors. Let's talk about some baby steps you can take to accomplish this. People with health anxiety tend to have similar patterns but we are all unique in our specific fears, triggers, assumptions and behaviors. In order to stop problematic behaviors, you need to first understand your own tendencies so you can tailor interventions to fit your specific health anxiety profile, so to speak.
Think back to times more recently when you have been anxious about your health. What did you do ? Take a look at the list below for some common examples of things me and my clients have done.
You might do all of these plus others. Don't beat yourself up. We all engage in more than one (often many) of these behaviors. Write your tendencies down so we can experiment.
Benefits of Behavioral Experiments
- Experiments give you the opportunity to test out the accuracy of your beliefs. If you believe you need to see a doctor for every new symptom, try waiting three days for mild ones to see if it's necessary. If you avoid doctors out of fear of bad news, challenge this by scheduling checkups or tests. Experiencing the outcome firsthand is more powerful than relying on others' reassurances. 2. Behavioral experiments help you tolerate uncertainty without relying on safety behaviors —a key step in managing health anxiety. Health anxiety is often driven by the belief that uncertainty is dangerous. By gradually building tolerance through experiments, you can reduce anxiety and gain confidence in handling the unknown.
Ideas for Behavioral Experiments
Grab your list of specific behavioral tendencies when you get anxious about your health. We want to target your very specific behavior in a very specific way (see list below for ideas). Behavioral experiment ideas for safety behaviors:
Behavioral experiment ideas for avoidance:
Tips for Designing and Implementing Experiments
Before, during and after your experiment, document the following in a thought log:
There you have it! This is just one step in the process. My clients and I design many experiments. Miracles aren't going to happen from doing this once. But my hope is that you will try this and feel empowered. You can then continue with additional experiments and build confidence slowly.
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Brittney Chesworth, Ph.D., LCSW , is a psychotherapist with a private practice that focuses exclusively on the treatment of anxiety disorders through cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.