Dr Rob Willson, PhD, is a cognitive behavioural therapist in private practice, an author and a researcher based in North London. He has been involved in treating individuals with health anxiety for the past twenty-five years. Rob regularly teaches on the psychological treatment of health anxiety and supervises numerous therapists who specialise in treating the condition. He is a chair of the charity the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation. His website is www.robwillson.com

Professor David Veale is a consultant psychiatrist in cognitive behavioural therapy. He leads a national service for people with anxiety disorders at the South London and Maudsley Trust and also works in private practice. He is a visiting professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He was a member of the group that wrote the NICE guidelines on OCD in 2006, and chaired the NICE Evidence Update on OCD in 2013. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP), and fellow both of the British Psychological Society and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is a trustee of the charities OCD Action, the BDD Foundation and Emetophobia Action. His website is www.veale.co.uk

The aim of the Overcoming series is to enable people with a range of common problems and disorders to take control of their own recovery programme.

Each title, with its specially tailored programme, is devised by a practising clinician using the latest techniques of cognitive behavioural therapy – techniques that have been shown to be highly effective in changing the way patients think about themselves and their problems.

Many books in the Overcoming series are recommended under the Reading Well scheme.

Titles in the series include:

OVERCOMING ALCOHOL MISUSE, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING ANGER AND IRRITABILITY, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING ANOREXIA NERVOSA, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING ANXIETY, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING BODY IMAGE PROBLEMS INCLUDING BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER

OVERCOMING BULIMIA NERVOSA AND BINGE-EATING, 3RD EDITION

OVERCOMING CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

OVERCOMING CHRONIC FATIGUE, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING DEPERSONALISATION AND FEELINGS OF UNREALITY, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING CHRONIC PAIN, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING DEPRESSION, 3RD EDITION

OVERCOMING DISTRESSING VOICES, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING GAMBLING ADDICTION, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING GRIEF, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING HEALTH ANXIETY

OVERCOMING HOARDING

OVERCOMING INSOMNIA, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING LOW SELF-ESTEEM, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY AND POST-CONCUSSION SYMPTOMS

OVERCOMING MOOD SWINGS

OVERCOMING OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING PANIC, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING PARANOID AND SUSPICIOUS THOUGHTS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING PERFECTIONISM, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING SEXUAL PROBLEMS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING SOCIAL ANXIETY AND SHYNESS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING STRESS

OVERCOMING TRAUMATIC STRESS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING WEIGHT PROBLEMS, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING WORRY AND GENERALISED ANXIETY DISORDER, 2ND EDITION

OVERCOMING YOUR CHILD’S SHYNESS AND SOCIAL ANXIETY

STOP SMOKING NOW, 2ND EDITION

THE OVERCOMING LOW SELF-ESTEEM HANDBOOK

ROBINSON

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd

This revised and updated edition published by Robinson in 2022

Copyright © Rob Willson and David Veale, 2009, 2022

Illustrations by Liane Payne

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

IMPORTANT NOTE

This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Any person with a condition requiring medical attention should consult a qualified medical practitioner or suitable therapist.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-47214-659-5

Robinson

An imprint of
Little, Brown Book Group

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

An Hachette UK Company

www.hachette.co.uk

www.littlebrown.co.uk

Contents

Acknowledgements

1. What is health anxiety and how can it be overcome?

2. Getting the most out of using this book

3. Defining your problem, setting goals and measuring progress

4. Reclaiming your life

5. What causes health anxiety?

6. Understanding what’s maintaining your health anxiety

7. Reducing worry and dealing with upsetting thoughts

8. Reducing anxiety by facing your fears

9. Overcoming excessive fear of death

10. Keeping health anxiety at bay

11. Supporting someone overcoming health anxiety

12. A guide to medical treatments for health anxiety

13. Seeking help and support

Appendix 1 International support groups and charities

Appendix 2 Forms for exercises

Index

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge all of the individuals who have health anxiety with whom we have worked. You have taught us much about this challenging problem and are the inspiration for writing this book. We would like to acknowledge all the clinicians and researchers who have contributed to the psychological understanding and treatment of health anxiety. A far from exhaustive list of these includes Paul Salkovskis, Mark Freeston, Ann Hackmann, Peter Tyrer, Paul Gilbert, Steven Taylor, Gordon Asmundonson and David M. Clark.