How much do health worries run your days?

1)What is health anxiety?

Health anxiety means spending so much time worrying about being ill, or getting ill, that it takes over your life. The older word for it is hypochondria. Doctors have mostly dropped that term because it came to sound dismissive. In the DSM-5, the diagnostic manual used by psychiatrists, the closest diagnosis is illness anxiety disorder: a preoccupation with having or getting a serious illness, lasting at least six months, with few or mild physical symptoms. The illness a person fears can change over that time.

When physical symptoms are strong and the worry is mainly about those symptoms, the DSM-5 uses a different diagnosis, somatic symptom disorder. This self-check does not tell the two apart. It looks at the worry and the habits around it.

2)Signs of health anxiety

The NHS lists these signs. You may have health anxiety if you:

• Worry about your health most of the time.
• Often check your body for signs of illness, such as lumps, tingling or pain.
• Keep asking people to reassure you that you are not ill.
• Worry that a doctor or a medical test may have missed something.
• Read a lot of health information online or in the media.
• Avoid anything to do with serious illness, such as medical TV programmes.
• Act as if you were ill, for example by avoiding physical activity.

Anxiety itself can cause physical symptoms, such as headaches or a racing heart, and these are easy to mistake for signs of illness. Paying close attention to one part of the body also makes you notice sensations you would normally miss. Checking and asking for reassurance bring relief at first, but the relief does not last and the worry comes back. People with more health anxiety also tend to search for health information online more often and find the searching more upsetting.

3)How the scoring works

Each of the 10 questions scores from 0 (not at all) to 3 (very often), so your total runs from 0 to 30. The questions cover worry about illness, checking, searching, asking for reassurance, doubting test results, reading body sensations as illness, and avoiding doctors or reminders of illness. The bands below are Andy's own grouping to help you read your result. They are not clinical cut-offs.

4)What your score means, and what it doesn't

A single score is a snapshot of the last month. A high score means the worry is worth raising with a professional, and only an assessment can say whether it is health anxiety. A low score does not rule it out.

This test cannot tell you whether a symptom is serious, and it is no reason to skip a check-up. If you have a new symptom, or one that lasts or gets worse, see a doctor. If you have chest pain or any sign of an emergency, call emergency services.

5)What to do next

• Few or some signs: for a week, note how often you check your body, ask for reassurance or look up health information. The NHS suggests this as a first step.
• Some or many signs: when the urge to check comes, do something else for a while, such as a walk or a call to a friend. Slowly go back to things you have been avoiding because of health worries, such as sport.
• Many or strong signs: talk to a doctor. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy with good evidence for health anxiety. In trials, about two in three people improved with it. Guided online CBT worked about as well as face-to-face sessions.
• In every case, retake the test every few weeks. The trend tells you more than one reading.

If your worry goes beyond your health, the free anxiety test (GAD-7) and the panic attack test look at those sides of it.

If you are struggling to cope, or you are having thoughts of harming yourself or feel in immediate danger, please contact local emergency services or a crisis line you trust right now. You do not have to manage this alone.

6)Why tracking health worries over time helps

A test taken once shows where you are today. Taken every few weeks, it shows which way things are moving. Noting your mood and worry each day does the same in more detail, and it gives a doctor or therapist something clearer to work with than memory. Andy is built around this: a quick daily check-in, and a clear view of how your mood and worry move over the weeks.

7)About this self-check

This is Andy's own self-check. We wrote its 10 questions in our own words from the NHS list of health anxiety signs and the description of illness anxiety disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5 (2013). It is not a validated scale, and the score bands are our own grouping. It is for self-reflection and education only. It is not a substitute for professional care or diagnosis. Signs and self-help: NHS, Health anxiety. Diagnostic criteria: Merck Manual Professional Edition, Illness anxiety disorder. Checking and reassurance: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Health anxiety self-help guide. Searching online: McMullan, R. D., Berle, D., Arnáez, S., & Starcevic, V. (2019). The relationships between health anxiety, online health information seeking, and cyberchondria: systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 245, 270-278. Treatment: Axelsson, E., & Hedman-Lagerlöf, E. (2019). Cognitive behavior therapy for health anxiety: systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical efficacy and health economic outcomes. Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, 19(6), 663-676. Last reviewed September 2026.