Health Anxiety and Q&A Live Presentation REPLAY

Health Anxiety and Q&A Live Presentation REPLAY
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Health Anxiety
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes PhD, LPC-MHSP, LMHC, CIBHS
AllCEUs, Counselor Education and Training
What is It
 Health anxiety is a persistent fear that
 You will get sick
 You are sick
 Your illness is getting worse
Where Does It Come From
 Physical
 History of illness
 Current chronic illness
 Reinforcement of physical hyperviglance
 Cognitive
 Lack of understanding of the risks, protective factors and probabilities of illness (FCP)
 Cognitive biases due to exposure (school, media, click bait (cyberchondriasis))
Where Does It Come From
 Environmental
 Being in environments that are higher risk, especially if social distancing is not possible (doctors offices, jails, subways)
 Relational
 Having a family member/friend with a chronic illness
 Having a family member/friend who experienced medical trauma
 Not having faith/trust in medical providers
 Medical providers that fail to provide information or informed consent
Consequences (Chicken - Egg)
 Physical
 HPA-Axis hyperactivation
 Reduced immunity
 Impaired sleep
 Increased pain
 Increased risk for what you are fearing
 Increased likelihood of “overdoing” a good thing
 Affective
 Depression
 Anxiety
 Anger
 Guilt
 Cognitive
 Difficulty with concentration and problem solving
Consequences (Chicken - Egg)
 Environmental
 Reduced productivity
 Constantly cleaning
 Relational
 Withdrawal from others
 Isolation/rejection due to being a “hypochondriac”
 Reduced self esteem “Am I crazy?”
 Impaired support due to lack of CRAVES
Treatment
 Avoid routinely reassuring the patient that all is well. (invalidating)
 Provide safety, empowerment, voice and choice
Treatment: CRAVES
 Consistently listen
 Respond to concerns
 Attend to prevention behaviors, strengths and desire to stay healthy
 Validate feelings
 Empathize with how exhausting/terrifying it is
 Support development of
 Distress tolerance skills (TAGS)
 Information gathering* and fact-based reasoning
 Addressing catastrophizing, all or none thinking and the availability heuristic
 Social support (support groups for condition or HA)
Treatment
 Differentiate possible from probable causes of symptoms
 X pain or symptom
 Play out the tape based on your individual factors
 Increase health literacy about regarding prevention and protective factors
 Resources (Horses Mouth with Redundancies)
 Personal health care provider (concierge physicians)
 American ___ Society (Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Association)
 Harvard Health
 Cleveland Clinic
Treatment
 Dealing with Doctors
 Bring a checklist if you are concerned about X diagnosis. If they disagree, ask them to explain why and provide an alternate explanation. (In MH remember it is also a matter of degree (i.e. dementia vs. aging))
 Research after the visit to verify and increase knowledge
 Be clear about all of your symptoms
 Frequency, intensity, duration
 Mitigating and exacerbating factors
 When it started and what changed
 Don’t trivialize your symptoms or the doc likely will too
Summary
 Health anxiety impacted over 20% of the population (in 2010 (prior to the pandemic))
 Healthy caution is important, but when fear of death keeps you from living a rich and meaningful life, it becomes a problem.
 Many websites and news stories actually worsen fear. (click bait)
 Cognitive behavioral strategies can help people get into their wise mind, use fact-based reasoning, tolerate distress and take proactive steps addressing the things they can control
Contact
Video by Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes on integrative behavioral health approaches including counseling techniques and skills for improving mental health and reducing mental illness.
AllCEUs provides multimedia counselor education and CEUs for LPCs, LMHCs, LMFTs and LCSWs as well as addiction counselor precertification training and continuing education.
AllCEUs courses for counselor continuing education are accepted in most states because we are an approved education provider for NAADAC, the States of Florida and Texas Boards of Social Work and Mental Health/Professional Counseling, CCAPP
Dr Dawn Elise Snipes provides training through AllCEUs.com that are helpful for ACA OPD, Counsellor OPD, OPD Points, LPC CEUs LMHC CEUs LCPC CEUs LSW CEUs LCSW CEUs LMFT CEUs CRC CEUs HPCSA ACA

[@DocSnipes]

👌More videos can be found on this topic at kzbin.info/aero/PLcB3trehXswhJbcy3dW80fe9b1vdtNT8U&si=rQgUiUWaUv5M0-UR ❤️Self help activities and worksheets and concierge coaching with Dr. Snipes can be accessed at DocSnipes.com 👍Online Courses for Continuing Education (CEU, OPD, CPD) and Substance Abuse Counselor Certification

[@Continentofdigitalandspiritual]

Today im sitting in my plumbing class and my teacher said something that triggered me. But in between me hearing what he said and me beggining to internalize it was the concept of Dr. Snipes helping guide me through understanding what happened and I was able to transform the energy into something healthier and keep my joy right where it was. In my heart. This is my FIRST time actively taking something that would almost always ruin my week and transforming it into something healthy that WASNT MY PROBLEM or MY FAULT. This gives me a new light because even if I cant avoid triggering circumstance while on the road to success I can avoid the virus of other humans abusive pathogens from living in MY mind.

[@DocSnipes]

Thanks for watching. Wishing you peace, health, and happiness. Reading this made my heart smile.

[@CelineNoyce]

One of the most helpful videos on HA

[@DocSnipes]

I appreciate you watching.

[@gcjas1998]

I love this channel so much. Incredibly informative, well structured and covering all sorts of corners per topic. I feel like I discovered quite the gem of a series here.

[@DocSnipes]

Wow, thank you!

[@scds1082]

Thank you, Dr. Snipes. I have listened to many videos on health anxiety and yours is one of the most informative and balanced. I was wondering what you think about treating health anxiety the way OCD is treated (e.g., with response-exposure therapy etc.). Some therapists seem to think that the two problems are basically identical.

[@cassthompson6168]

Thank you for this wonderful information,, I have been dealing with health anxiety.. i was diagnosed with lupus, my medication are full with lots of side effects......every little symptoms that im going through i feel like I'm going to die.. I cant live a normal life, i cant even move around my house else it would feel like I'm going to pass out, even to go in public places I get very weak , every time i cried😭 it's so frustrated.. I'm constantly living in fear.. event when the doctor tell me my labs are ok, I'm still in disbelief because I'm still feeling sick. Wish there was a magic pill I could take for all these feelings to go away..

[@mitchnidey2453]

God bless you...prayer is the answer. Ill be praying for you

[@DocSnipes]

Thanks for watching. Wishing you peace, health, and happiness.

[@ThisIsTheRealMe2]

Hope you doing well Cass, be strong

[@Keirnoth]

Excellent timing Dr. Snipes. I've been dealing with over a month of health anxiety, lost my appetite, lost a bit of weight and my brain just went into overdrive about my symptoms. Glad your presentation came up because I'm seeing a therapist but I think I need reinforcement from the outside to make sure I'm staying sane.

[@DocSnipes]

Thanks for watching. Wishing you peace, health, and happiness.

[@ThisIsTheRealMe2]

It's brutal, going through it now. It likes to manifest and take over our lives. Hope your well

[@irene2081]

Happy Christmas Holidays! 🎄🌟 I have health anxiety because of some incidents I can remember from my childhood. 1. Around the age of 5 I went through a minor operation. My mother lied to me by saying she was going to take me to a "hotel for children". When I realized I was in hospital I burst into tears... 2. When I was in primary school I was going to have a party which was canceled. Because of that, I felt sad and started crying. My mother didn't like that and told me that because of my behavior I caused her to go to the doctor... Insane, isn't it? That's how I see it now. However back then I believe that subconsciously I felt that something would come up out of nowhere I would have no control of. Well, as a child you are not responsible for what you went through, but as an adult I take the responsibility not to let this define me. Thank you for all the help! 🙏 ❤️

[@dee0731]

Thank you Dr. Snipes 🙌🏻☀️

[@DocSnipes]

Ty for watching.

[@judithwallace2091]

Thank you for continuing to post excellent content. Your channel has been a great help.

[@DocSnipes]

Thanks for being here! Glad the channel is helpful to you.

[@davidforbes6250]

Excellent, thanks from Australii.

[@DocSnipes]

Thanks for watching and commenting in AU. Best wishes to everyone there.

[@susanfischer6155]

Yes!!!

[@DocSnipes]

:)

[@USMARSHALL2011]

Cool

[@DocSnipes]

Ty

[@Carolina-Girl-214]

Anxiety is awful. Health anxiety is miserable.

[@DocSnipes]

Yes, it’s a tough battle. Thank you for watching the video