Overcoming Health Anxiety: A self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques (Overcoming Books)

I have always had health anxiety, but during pregnancy it got really bad (I am now 28 weeks pregnant) so I started CBT and bought this book. This book really goes into the mechanisms of the hypochondriac's brain and helps you to see things more clearly and also suggests treatment, techniques and looks into medication. It is very important to feel someone understands and this book does just that, it makes you feel less alone by describing exactly the thought patterns which you can recognise as your own. I would absolutely suggest anyone who unfortunately has this problems to buy this. PS I would also like to add that therapy is costing me 50 euro per session and the therapist is giving me advice which seems like a poor, less effective version of what is in this book!

Really helpful guide on what health anxiety is and various approaches to tackling it. I found many of the exercises contained within to be very helpful and will continue with them.

This text was recommended to me by a healthcare unit. I have been suffering from stress recently and last year lost my Dad with cancer. At the moment I am thinking that every minor ailment is a life threatening problem. The text is easy to read and is helpful if used as a cognitive behaviour therapy programme. It makes a lot of sense. I would also recommend anyone thinking of buying it to also read Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now.

My issues started with lifelong asthma and then a bad neck that made me think I was going to choke or stop breathing. So spiralled into constantly monitoring my bodies reactions and got myself into a vicious circle - I read this book and some things really resonated with me and others didn't but it is a really good way of making you rethink and rewire how you respond and react and has really helped me to get back to normality. I am still in pain but not as much simply because I am not stressing out about it - I have over the last 2 years tried accupunture, oesteopaths, weekly yoga and pilates swimming twice weekly and the peter ego book on realigning your body and have followed this faithfully (along with a multitude of pills for reflux, nerve damage and diazepam and this book just did it for me - it's things that you know just confirmed in a caring supportive but illuminating way worth every penny

This book deals with the subject in what I imagine is the standard formula for CBT. Much was straightforward, but in a few places I struggled to follow the logic of what was being said. Sadly overall it failed to grab my attention such that I would want to use it as a do-it-yourself guide to tackling my own issues. I would perhaps have given it 4 star, but the frequent missed words and similar glitches in the text were quite distracting at times. If this book was proof read before printing, then it was poorly done.

This book was written for me. I am really pleased to see that this anxiety disorder has been thoroughly researched and this book written to help people like me. I have been suffering for over 10 years and initially very little was known about HA. Now I am undergoing a course of CBT and reading this book at the same time and it really helps get to the bottom of why we feel this way. It's not about why or how you developed HA, it teaches us about our beliefs and behaviours and how this keeps HA going, as well as how to help us alter our thought processes to overcome this condition. Very happy.

This is hands down the best resource written for people with health anxiety. As a long term sufferer this is basically my bible. It's filled with practical and easy to apply advice with logical explanations of why certain feelings occur, and gives you a toolkit to help you understand your anxiety. I haven't found any resource online or offline that is as comprehensive as this book, and I've done a lot of research.

I found this a really helpful book to help you adapt with ways to cope with health anxiety, such as to stop catastrophizing every symptom and to stop checking and using safety behaviours, which only fuels the fire. It also makes you realize that whilst you are buying into your 'thoughts' and creating misery for yourself, you are wasting what precious life you do have, as it prevents you from doing the things you truly want to do. Apart from the ridiculous amount of non-editored spelling and grammar errors throughout the book, it was very helpful and made me look at my current situation from a lot calmer perspective.

Assez intéressant

This book is for those who have - like me - a strange merger between OCD and Health-related anxiety. It addresses all of the things you'll experience in a clinical environment and the techniques are all sound and scientifically validated. One thing to be wary of: this is NOT a replacement for actual therapy with a qualified cognitive behavioral therapist. Another problem with people experiencing health anxiety is a fear of doctors - but this is something you must get over if you are to achieve any sort of measurable improvement. Use this book in CONJUNCTION with your psychologist; not in lieu of. Nothing replaces face-to-face help in trying times. If you are going to judge this book based on using it all by yourself, you'll be disappointed (but you'll be disappointed with any method). The value of this book is in allowing you to have meaningful and directed conversations with your therapist about its content. ...but all of that being said, if you (like me) have suffered from health anxiety for years, you really owe it to yourself to read through these pages and discuss the content with your therapist.

Its a good book. Don't buy it if you're searching for therapy. It addresses lots of health anxiety issues but it wasn't earth-shattering.

Being a self confessed hypochondriac, I needed this book to help me get out of that mindset. The best thing it taught me was not to look every body symptom up on the internet. You could have a slight headache and the internet will convince you that you have an incurable brain tumor, or a sore throat is throat cancer. I am sure there are other great points the book had, but that one stands out as the best one I needed to hear.

This book is way too " talky " and not enough action for me. It does have exercises to do but , for one thing the print on the kindle for the exercises is way to small to read. It goes over the same things to many times. Overall it may be helpful for some people. I have found a couple of the exercises in it help. Not my favorite self help book.