I’m so thankful for this community! Do you guys have any tips on how to overcome health anxiety OCD? (Basically obsessions around fear of getting sick/dying)

Hi, I had health ocd/anxiety pretty badly for awhile and at times it flares up ... erp exposures are 100% the best for this!!! I sort of accidentally lost my health anxiety by doing a very traumatic exposure I do not suggest going for something so big right away.. start with smaller exposures... try not to do the compulsions.. etc!! I decided to try an anti anxiety medication and had a terrible fear of medication almost any med that wasn’t Advil made me panic thinking I was going to get every bad side effect.... I took the anti depressant the first time and had crazy bad panic and anxiety but I kept taking it, exposing myself to something that was really hard helped me, the anti depressant actually did give me terrible side effects and I was off it within 3 days after that my health anxiety completely went away because I realized that even though I took the meds and had an awful experience I made it through, and I wasn’t afraid of feeling bad anymore!! I don’t recommend trying something that intense, I think that just sort of happened in my case, but you could try with doing exposures everyday until the fear is gone!! Good luck and definitely start erp !! You can download erp worksheets for free online too!

I’ve had a health ocd/ phobia that my drink or food is drugged as it will make me go crazy. It’s definitely not as bad as a few years ago but now even when I think something is drugged I drink/eat it anyways and focus on my breathing and tell myself it will be okay. It’s hard but nothing bad has happened. I juts take a few little steps at a time. You are not alone. It will get better!

What ERP exercises worked for your health anxiety? Thanks

The basics of erp in general has really helped! I suggest reading some books on erp or whatever type of ocd you have! U pretty much have to expose yourself to the situations u fear regularly, don’t do the compulsion ( slowly stop the compulsion) and sort of let the uncomfortable feelings, thoughts and anxiety pass!!! So in general that exercise overtime has helped me the most! It’s very hard at first but with time it does help! Good luck!!

How long did you do exposures to help start seeing benefits? The same health anxiety themes keep popping up for several months now and doing exposure scripts isn’t helping.