Throughout the course of our lives, many of us will have some concern about our health. Whether that’s diet related, lifestyle, or something else entirely. But for many people, this can become more than just a transitory concern and become an all-consuming worry and source of anxiety.
Health anxiety has become somewhat of a catchall phrase and exists on a broad spectrum, explains Timothy Scarella, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard University.
The range starts with a healthy level of concern, which makes sure we visit the doctor and get regular checkups, to extreme levels of “pathologic health anxiety,” which can lead to an unhealthy obsession with our own state of wellness, he says.
“If you tested every person in the world, you would find a range of how anxious people are about their health and how much trouble that causes them,” Scarella says.
