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Clinical tools for addressing illness worry, body vigilance, reassurance seeking, and catastrophic health cognitions.
A formulation based on the cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety — mapping the vicious cycle of misinterpretation, anxiety, checking, and temporary reassurance.
Track health anxiety episodes — the trigger, misinterpretation, anxiety level, safety behaviour used, and the actual outcome.
Track urges to seek reassurance, whether you resisted, and what happened — building evidence that you can tolerate uncertainty without reassurance.
Test how attention to the body creates and amplifies sensations — demonstrating that body scanning is part of the problem, not the solution.
Weigh up the costs and benefits of specific health anxiety behaviours — checking, Googling, reassurance-seeking — to build motivation for change.
Track gradual reduction in body checking behaviours — setting targets, monitoring frequency, and recording what happens when you check less.