Health anxiety and fears around medical procedures
Some people experience persistent worry or anxiety related to health or medical procedures, which can be exhausting and distressing. This can affect daily life and healthcare decisions. Also, experiencing a difficult or traumatic birth can sometimes lead to heightened worry about your health, your baby's health, or medical procedures. This could include intrusive thoughts, checking behaviours, or feeling constantly on alert.
How therapy can help
Therapy helps you understand and manage these fears, develop coping strategies to help interpret symptoms and body changes as less distressing, and support with tolerating uncertainty.
Therapeutic approaches may include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to identify unhelpful thoughts and develop practical strategies to manage anxiety, Exposure Therapy to gently face feared situations or sensations in a paced way, Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) to cultivate self-compassion and reduce guilt or self-criticism, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to support with accepting uncomfortable feelings, learning to respond in a way that feels manageable and reducing its impact on your life.
- CBT
- Exposure Therapy
- CFT
- ACT
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Hospital, gynaecological or obstetric care that was experienced as traumatic.
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