How do I stop believing my obsessive thoughts around my health?

I’ve also struggled with health anxiety and OCD related to health. Here are some ideas: 1. Understand that no one is truly certain about their health. Not even if a doctor has just declared them super healthy. Most people walk around with a feeling of certainty about their health, but that feeling is based on probability, not certainty. (“the headache I had yesterday was probably from skipping my afternoon coffee,” “I probably don’t have cancer since I don’t have any symptoms,” etc.) 2. Now that you know that people can be uncertain and still feel safe with their health, make it a goal to accept uncertainty. Promise yourself that you’ll work toward that goal. 3. Work with an ERP therapist if you can. Things you might do in therapy that you can also do on your own if needed: A) differentiate between reasonable health actions (e.g. going to the doctor once a year, disinfecting a cut once before putting on a bandaid, etc.) vs. compulsions (e.g. googling symptoms, asking for reassurance from family members or friends, taking your temperature repeatedly) B) develop response prevention messages for when you get the urge to do compulsions (e.g. “it might be serious, or it might be nothing. I don’t need to figure it out right now”) C) do exposures so that you can practice sitting with the anxiety without doing compulsions. These could include reading articles about people whose mild symptoms turned out to be serious, writing and reading a script about becoming ill, or engaging in a behavior your OCD deems unsafe (like going an hour without drinking water or only wearing one face mask when you go out) Health stuff is really hard to deal with because OCD can make it feel like you don’t have the ability to figure out if something is a serious symptom or if it’s all in your head. The only way to get a better radar for that is to treat your OCD, which involves taking what will feel like risks. The truth is that your OCD isn’t really protecting your physical health, it’s just giving you things to do to make it feel like you’re in control. The more you can accept the uncertainty, the closer you will be to better mental health and well-being. I hope that helps. Best of luck!

Thank you. It really means a lot! Just started therapy again after almost a year and a half without. I have a 1-year-old daughter now so the motivation and circumstances are much different than they've been in the past. I've also seen an increase in my OCD since having her And I don't want her growing up seeing me struggle as bad as I am.

Thank you! It really is a motivator to make sure that I'm more managed in terms of my anxiety for her. Your words mean a lot.

I am so sorry but know that you are not alone.

I have really been working on separating the emotional reaction to the habitual response in my mind that sets off false threats for every little thing that comes up for myself.

It takes time but it's worth noting when certain fears pop up whether due to Sensations or things you see or feel in regards to your body.