People with health anxiety often see health and illness in rigid, inflexible terms. Thinking errors, or cognitive distortions, are inaccurate, biased thoughts. All of us have these distorted thoughts at times. However, people with health anxiety tend to have them more frequently than those without health anxiety. And they can cause significant distress because they lead us to draw inaccurate conclusions about our current or future health.

One type of thinking error is called "black-or-white thinking" (or "all-or-nothing thinking"). This type of thinking involves viewing health and illness in absolute categories, instead of taking a more balanced approach and seeing things on a continuum. People with health anxiety often engage in this thinking error because they assume one is either perfectly healthy or deathly ill, leaving very little room for anything in between those two extreme categories.

This type of rigid thinking leads us to jump to conclusions and catastrophize about every symptom because we believe a symptom = illness and illness = eventual death.

The reality is that health status is not a light switch ("on" or "off"). Health and illness exist on a spectrum. The vast majority of us are not perfectly healthy. Many of us have minor health issues and arguably all of us have at least some ways that we can improve our health. What's more, having a health issue is not a death sentence. Many people with chronic and/or serious health issues can live very long (and very fulfilling) lives. Start changing your thinking by seeing health and illness on a spectrum or continuum.

Next, if you find yourself spiraling when you notice a symptom or bodily sensation that indicates you do not have "perfect health," pause and ask yourself a few questions:

Changing your way of thinking about illness takes diligence and time! Keep these questions handy and use them if you find yourself getting caught in the all-or-nothing trap. Over time, if you keep working on these thoughts, you will be less likely to assume that any illness = death and will, therefore, become less anxious about symptoms.

Remember, as with most things in life, there are many other explanations besides the two most extreme possibilities! Keep working on this stuff and don't give up. You can improve health anxiety by making small changes in how you think and behave each day.