Health Anxiety is characterised by excessive concern over health threats or perceived health threats which can trigger an anxiety response. While it is normal to worry about your help , it can be problematic when it is excessive, persistent, leads to excessive unhelpful behaviours or causes significant distress.
Especially in the age of COVID-19, people may be feeling anxious or faced with new concerns over hygiene and staying safe. However, the concern with health anxiety is not an individual’s physical health but rather their response to potential health risk. Digital mental health can help people manage and decrease their health worries between sessions or as a self-help resource.
The resources below provide information, support and strategies to help manage health anxiety, stress and worry.
Better Health Channel
Conditions and treatments
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/conditionsandtreatments
Better Health Channel is an informational website to help people understand their health and medical conditions and to improve the health and wellbeing of people and communities. Their website includes information on a range of conditions and treatments, including the flu and other seasonal sicknesses.
THIS WAY UP
Health Anxiety Program
https://thiswayup.org.au/programs/health-anxiety-program/
THIS WAY UP offers a suite of CBT programs for a range of mental health and wellbeing problems. Their Health Anxiety program helps users learn practical strategies for managing excessive worry about health over 6 lessons. The program helps users work with their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours to make a positive change in how they feel.
Centre for Clinical Interventions
Health Anxiety
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Health-Anxiety
The Centre for Clinical Interventions is a specialist public mental health service providing information and self-help workbooks and modules for a range of mental health issues. Their website includes a range of resources including workbooks and information sheets on health anxiety. These resources are designed to provide users with information about health anxiety, including how it develops, how it is maintained, and how to decrease health worries and concerns.
ReachOut Worry Time
https://au.reachout.com/tools-and-apps/reachout-worrytime
Available on the App Store and Google Play
An app developed by ReachOut to help control everyday stress and anxiety by giving users a place to store their worries, and alerting them when it’s time to think about them. The app is designed to disrupt repetitive thinking by setting aside worries to think about once a day so people can get on with their day.
myCompass
An interactive self-help service that aims to promote resilience and wellbeing for people experiencing mild to moderate stress, anxiety and/or depression. myCompass provides users with a tool-kit of personalised self-help strategies to help learn new ways to deal with their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
We have also developed a range of factsheets on digital mental health resources and how to can help health professionals in their work. These include resources on managing stress, physical health issues and disability and managing your mental health online during COVID-19.
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