Health Anxiety Coach

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Health Anxiety Coach

Grab my free guide below to start improving your health anxiety! Hi, I'm Dr. Britney Chesworth. I am a licensed therapist, researcher, educator and coach.

Dr. Brit, PhD, LCSW | Health Anxiety Therapist | Author | CBT Coach | Personal History w/ Health Anxiety

I help people improve health anxiety w/ cognitive behavioral therapy & exposure. I’ve spent the past 15 years helping people become unburdened by health anxiety so they can live more freely and joyfully. Health anxiety is one of my favorite things to work with because I personally struggled with this for so long. I’ve wasted many of my years living in fear of disease and dying. I know how real this struggle can be. You are not alone. It wasn't until I tried cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that I started to notice significant changes in my fear of disease. CBT is a short-term, skill-based, action-oriented type of intervention that reshapes unhelpful thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. CBT is considered a first-line psychological treatment for health anxiety. Inspired by my personal growth and change, I decided to specialize in CBT and began using these methods with my clients. I've watched my clients experience remarkable transformation in their lives, in relatively short periods of time, through retraining their brain to see health and illness more adaptively.

01/06/2026

A video I did based on an old IG trend- found it in my drafts and thought I might as well post it 😂.

I would often scroll through Reddit to look for posts about a symptom I had or to just browse personal health stories. What a TERRIBLE idea this was, lol. It always seemed harmless at first. But it never was. If you use Reddit/other forums to ask questions about your symptoms (or even just scroll through threads about health), you probably know deep down it never actually helps. It’s meant to soothe anxiety/uncertainty, but does the opposite.

Why? I’ll break it down: (1) You’re not getting accurate, personalized info. People answering in forums are not your doctor. They don’t know your health history and are often other anxious people sharing worst case scenarios. You then cling to those scary outcomes, even if there were 50 “it’s nothing” replies in between. (2) You reinforce your fears and unhelpful beliefs. Each time you post, read, or scroll about symptoms, you strengthen the belief that something is wrong and that you can’t tolerate uncertainty. You might get brief relief if you see a reassuring comment, but it never lasts. (3) You worsen memory bias. You forget the boring “it was just gas” comments but remember the one rare cancer story. That becomes your “top of mind” fear and later feels like proof of danger. (4) You train your brain to outsource safety. The more you depend on Reddit, Google, or FB groups, the less you rely on internal coping skills. You teach yourself that you must check to be safe.

If you’re ready to get better, one small shift is to resist the urge to go to Reddit or any health forum for answers. Instead, treat the new symptom/fear like a trigger or an opportunity to practice doing something different. Log the urge. Delay the behavior. Redirect your attention. The urge will pass. Down with Reddit!

✨If you have health anxiety, grab my free guide to improve it. Comment “guide” for the link. ✨

✨If you are a therapist or a mental health/medical professional and want to learn how to help people with health anxiety, I have a new course available! Comment “TreatHA” for the details. ✨

01/05/2026

If you have health anxiety, you already know how compulsive checking can feel. You might scan your body for lumps, search for symmetry, poke or prod areas that feel “off,” or even compare one side of your body to the other. In the moment, checking feels like it might give you peace of mind but long-term, it fuels more anxiety and hyperawareness.

Here’s an experiment you can try this week to reduce checking and start retraining your brain: STEP 1: Choose one specific checking behavior to target. Maybe it’s looking at your skin in the mirror or pressing on your chest to check your heartbeat. STEP 2: Make a prediction. Write down what you believe will happen if you resist the urge to check. (Example: “If I don’t check, my anxiety will spiral and I won’t be able to stop thinking about it all day.”) STEP 3: Delay the behavior. Start small. Try delaying the check by 5 minutes. Then build to 10, 15, 30 minutes, or an hour. Eventually, aim to skip the check altogether. STEP 4: Track what actually happens. Were your predictions accurate? Did the anxiety go down even without checking? Did anything catastrophic happen or were you just convinced it would? STEP 5: Reflect. The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety but to teach you that you can feel uncertain and still be okay. This is how you build tolerance and reduce anxiety over time.

Remember: checking is short-term relief that comes with long-term cost. Every time you resist it, even a little, you’re rewiring your brain to feel safer without reassurance. And, lastly, to be clear- we are talking about EXCESSIVE behaviors (not what is reasonable/recommended).

Try this experiment for the next 7 days and notice what shifts. You don’t have to do it perfectly. If you give in to the checking, simply regroup and try again. Each time you succeed, you build skills and gain confidence.

✨If you have health anxiety, grab my free guide to improve it. Comment “guide” for the link. ✨

✨If you are a therapist or a mental health/medical professional and want to learn how to help people with health anxiety, I have a new course available! Comment “TreatHA” for the details. ✨

01/04/2026

Waiting for test results can feel like emotional torture when you have health anxiety. The uncertainty leaves your mind searching for certainty, answers and relief, and it often pulls you into spirals that feel impossible to escape. While you cannot control when results come in or what they will say, you can influence how much power anxiety has over your days while you wait. The tools in this post are not about forcing yourself to be calm or pretending you do not care. They are about reducing unnecessary suffering, responding to fear in a more supportive way and reminding yourself that you are capable of coping, even in moments that feel overwhelming. If you are in a waiting period right now, take this one moment at a time. You can learn to live your life even while uncertainty exists.

If you have health anxiety and want to take the first step toward getting better, grab my free guide! Comment “guide” and I’ll send it your way.

AND if you are a therapist/mental health professional and want to learn how to help your clients improve their health anxiety, I have a new comprehensive course to teach you how to help your clients using exposure-based CBT. Comment “TreatHA” and I’ll send you the info.

12/30/2025

So you hear a scary health story and it instantly signals future disaster. The story feels personal, relevant, and urgent, even though it has nothing to do with your actual body or medical history. Your mind starts connecting dots that are not there, scanning your past symptoms, predicting your future, and rehearsing how this same outcome is somehow inevitable for you. When you then tell your partner all the reasons this could happen to you, it feels like you are being realistic or prepared. But, instead, it trains your brain to treat disease as catastrophic and unbearable rather than difficult but survivable.
In these moments, possibility is synonymous with probability. Someone else’s diagnosis becomes proof that you are next. The spiral makes illness feel even scarier and more intolerable than it actually is. The more you mentally rehearse worst-case scenarios, the more you reinforce the belief that getting sick would be the ultimate disaster, something you could not cope with or manage. This belief keeps you living in fear of the future instead of in your actual life. Meanwhile, nothing has changed in your body, only your level of anxiety.
Health conditions are a part of being human, especially as we age. This does not minimize how hard and disruptive medical conditions can be. It simply acknowledges the reality that many people live full lives while managing diagnoses, treatments, and uncertainty. When health anxiety takes over, it strips away this truth and replaces it with a single rigid story that illness equals devastation. Practice responding differently. Hear the story, notice the fear response, and choose not to analyze, reassure, or seek info. Just allow the anxiety to rise and fall on its own.
Over time, this teaches your brain something critical. You can tolerate uncertainty, you can handle fear, and if a health issue ever does arise, you will cope with it using information, support, and resources. The more you believe you can cope, the less power the idea of illness has over your daily life.

In my book, Help I’m Dying Again, I discuss practical steps to tackle health anxiety. Common “order” and I’ll send the info.

11/03/2025

If you’re a therapist or other type of mental health/medical professional who wants to learn how to treat health anxiety with exposure-based CBT, check out my new course. It is a comprehensive course on how to implement evidence-based cognitive and behavioral strategies to help your clients/patients reduce health-related fears. 75 bite-sized CBT video lessons and 300 pages of supplemental materials to walk your clients through these strategies, step by step.

If you’re a licensed clinical social worker, you will earn 13 clinical continuing education credits for completing this course. This course is ASWB-ACE approved!

Comment “treatHA” and I’ll send the info your way.

10/27/2025

Learn how to treat health anxiety with exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Licensed clinical social workers earn 13 clinical continuing education credits.

https://www.coachbritney.com/treathealthanxietycourse

10/22/2025

I think sometimes there is a misconception that those of us who treat health anxiety are telling people to just not go to the doctor or to not bother about symptoms. Not. at. all. We don’t want either extreme for you, whether it is complete avoidance or excessive use of safety behaviors. What we want is for you to manage your health in moderation.

However, this isn’t easy to do, right? Learning to live in moderation when it comes to managing your health requires you to be able to live with a little uncertainty when it comes to your health.

We health-anxious people have a hard time not knowing FOR CERTAIN that we don’t have something serious going on somewhere in this body of ours. But there is no possible way to know this with 100% certainty. We can be fairly certain, sure. But nothing in this life is 100% certain.

I get into my car every day knowing there is a tiny chance I could get into a lethal car accident, even if I drive safely. But I’ve learned to live with that tiny bit of uncertainty because, well, I don’t want that stopping me from living life! It is the same with our health. The key is growing more comfortable with just a little uncertainty when it comes to our health.

If you haven’t yet, grab my free guide to improve health anxiety! Comment “guide” and I’ll send the link your way.

10/22/2025

When you live with health anxiety, it’s easy to fall into patterns of trying to feel safe. These “safety behaviors” are the things you do to reduce uncertainty or discomfort about your health but, ironically, they’re the very things that keep the anxiety going. Three common types of safety behaviors are reassurance seeking, excessive body checking, and preventive behaviors.

Reassurance seeking includes asking loved ones for constant reassurance, researching symptoms online, or visiting doctors and requesting tests to make sure nothing serious is happening. Body checking involves repeatedly scanning your body, touching or pressing areas that feel “off,” checking your pulse, blood pressure, or heart rate, or examining your skin or eyes for signs of illness. Preventive behaviors include going to great lengths to avoid perceived danger, like reading endlessly about how to prevent diseases, carrying “safe” items or people with you, or researching hospitals before going somewhere new.

While these actions bring short-term relief, they reinforce the belief that you’re only safe when you’re vigilant or certain about your health. We want to break this cycle by helping you gradually reduce these behaviors and build tolerance for uncertainty. The goal isn’t to eliminate all caution, but to learn that you can handle not knowing everything about your body or health.

Start by noticing when you engage in safety behaviors and what emotions or thoughts drive them. Next, experiment with small reductions. For example, delay checking your symptom or asking for reassurance for a set amount of time. Practice sitting with the discomfort rather than reacting immediately to it. When you do, you teach your brain that anxiety can rise and fall naturally, even without reassurance.

Over time, this helps your brain learn a new association: uncertainty doesn’t equal danger. The less you rely on safety behaviors, the less power anxiety has over you. Getting better involves learning to live peacefully with the parts of life that are uncertain.

Grab my free guide to start doing this! Comment “guide” and I’ll send it your way.

10/10/2025

I mean, I barely escaped death. Why isn’t he ecstatic? Of course, we know why, lol. Only WE think we are dying. They always just thought it was… a symptom. I’ve realized over the years just how helpful it has been to observe my husband’s reactions to symptoms (both mine and his own).

When you struggle with health anxiety, your brain automatically zooms in on danger and runs through every catastrophic possibility. You forget there are other interpretations available. Watching someone without health anxiety is like seeing a glimpse into another world. They feel a symptom, they notice it, maybe they’re mildly annoyed or curious, and then they move on. No spiral. No Google deep dive. No writing a eulogy in their head. They just…keep living their day. That used to shock me. But it also taught me that not everyone’s brain jumps to worst-case scenarios and that my reactions, while understandable given the health anxiety, weren’t the only way to respond.

A great socratic question is: What would someone without health anxiety think or do in this situation? It creates distance from the fear and helps us access a more balanced perspective. I take it a step further and ask: What would Don (my husband) do? Don has the least amount of health anxiety of anyone I’ve ever met. If his heart skips a beat, he shrugs and keeps eating his sandwich. If his stomach hurts, he assumes he’s hungry or ate something weird…not that he’s in organ failure. Learning to mentally “borrow” his mindset has helped me interrupt the automatic catastrophizing and consider more realistic explanations.

We are not trying to dismiss symptoms or ignore our bodies. We are learning from people who interpret symptoms in a healthy, adaptive way. They are living proof that there is another option. So the next time a symptom shows up, ask yourself: If I didn’t have health anxiety, how would I see this? Who in my life sees health-related situations in an adaptive way? How would they interpret and respond to this situation?

If you have health anxiety, grab my free comprehensive guide to improve health anxiety with CBT! Comment “guide” and I’ll send it your way.

09/16/2025

When you live with health anxiety, avoidance can feel protective. Skipping the check-up, putting off that phone call, or distracting yourself from a symptom may seem like a way to dodge bad news. But there is a catch. Avoidance doesn’t protect you. It feeds your anxiety. Every time you avoid, you learn, “See? That must have been dangerous.” The fear grows, not because the doctor’s office is dangerous, but because you never give yourself the chance to find out otherwise.

Improvement isn’t about forcing yourself into the scariest situation right away. It’s about retraining your brain through small, consistent experiences that show you your fears are exaggerated and that you can handle uncertainty. Cognitive strategies help you see the distortions in your thinking, like assuming anxiety means danger or believing one bad doctor visit predicts all future visits. Behavioral strategies take it further. By actually facing the situations you avoid, you gain firsthand evidence that your predictions are unreliable.

Think of it like exercising a weak muscle. At first, lifting even a light weight feels uncomfortable. But over time, as you practice, your strength builds. The same is true with tolerating uncertainty around your health. Each step you take toward facing what you avoid, you are teaching yourself that you can handle the anxiety and uncertainty and that your predictions are often wrong.

If you have health anxiety, my book, Help I’m Dying Again, is officially out!! 🎉

Pick it up at many major retailers or comment “order” and I will send the info your way!

09/11/2025

It isn’t reasonable to expect that you will be able to have answers immediately (or that you will always get it right). Get out of emergency mode. It is not only screwing up your life but It isn’t necessary. Here’s how to start:

1) Challenge catastrophic thoughts: Instead of immediately assuming the worst, practice looking for alternative, non-catastrophic explanations. Your headache? Could be tension, dehydration, or screen time. Muscle twitching? Perhaps it is stress or fatigue. Try this:Identify thinking errors (like catastrophizing or black-and-white thinking). Then use Socratic questions: “What’s an alternative, non-catastrophic explanation for this symptom? What would I tell a friend? Remind yourself: Common things are common. Rare things are rare.

2) Stop feeding the anxiety cycle: Reassurance-seeking (Googling, doctor hopping, asking for constant validation) doesn’t help long-term. It only reinforces anxiety. Same with excessive body checking. The more you check, the more you find, and the more you panic Instead, try this: (A) Set a waiting period before acting on the urge to Google or seek reassurance (e.g., wait 3 days); (B) Have a symptom management plan: “If this persists or worsens after X time, I’ll check with a doctor” and (C) Remind yourself that anxiety makes everything feel urgent but it rarely is.

3) Build your uncertainty tolerance. We can never be 100% certain about our health. But we can get better at tolerating that uncertainty. Think of it like a muscle. The more you practice sitting with it, the stronger you get. What helps: (A) When anxiety overwhelms you, redirect your focus to the present moment (grounding, mindfulness, or engaging in a task); (B) Remind yourself: “I don’t need certainty to be safe” and (C) Let the fear exist without acting on it.

You don’t have to live in emergency mode. Assume first that symptoms are minor. Go about your life. And if real red flags appear, you’ll know when to take action.

My book, Help I’m Dying Again, is out! If you want practical, evidence-based techniques to reduce your health anxiety, grab your copy! Comment “order” ❤️

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