Health Anxiety Treatment in West Ashley, Charleston
Evaluation and counseling when worry about your body or your health takes over, in person or from home by secure video.
What Health Anxiety Can Look Like
Most people worry about their health from time to time, and a new symptom deserves attention. For some, though, the worry becomes a cycle: a sensation, a fear of what it might mean, checking or searching, a short burst of relief and then a new doubt. Over months, that cycle can take up hours of the day and strain work, sleep and relationships.
The worry is not a sign of weakness, and the physical sensations behind it are real. Care is aimed at the cycle, not at convincing you that nothing is happening in your body.
Two DSM-5-TR Diagnoses
The DSM-5-TR, the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, describes two conditions that people often mean when they say health anxiety.
Illness anxiety disorder centers on a strong, lasting fear of having or getting a serious illness when physical symptoms are absent or mild. People with it may check their bodies or seek reassurance again and again, or they may stay away from doctors and hospitals altogether. The pattern lasts at least 6 months.
Somatic symptom disorder involves one or more physical symptoms, such as pain or tiredness, that are upsetting or disrupt daily life, together with thoughts, feelings or actions about them that go far beyond what the symptoms call for. That can mean returning thoughts about how serious the symptoms are, high and steady worry about health, or a great deal of time and energy spent on the symptoms. The diagnosis can apply whether or not another medical condition is also present.
Both are diagnosed by a qualified clinician after a careful history, and neither one means your symptoms are imagined.
Anxiety and the Body
Anxiety itself can produce strong physical sensations. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) lists headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, trembling, sweating, feeling lightheaded and shortness of breath among the possible signs of generalized anxiety disorder. When those sensations are read as signs of disease, fear can rise, and the sensations can rise with it.
Health worry can also sit alongside other conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. Sorting out which of these are present shapes the plan.
How We Evaluate Health Anxiety
Your provider will ask what you worry about, when it started, how much time it takes each day, how often you check or search, how many visits and tests you have had and how the worry affects the rest of your life. We ask about mood, sleep and other anxiety symptoms too.
We do not provide primary care, and an evaluation here does not replace a medical workup. With your permission, we coordinate with your primary care provider so that new symptoms still get checked and you hear one consistent message about which tests make sense.
New Symptoms Still Matter
A health anxiety diagnosis never means new, changing or severe symptoms should be ignored. If you have chest pain, trouble breathing, fainting, or sudden weakness or numbness, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Treatment Options
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often used for health worry. NIMH explains that CBT helps people spot automatic thoughts that are inaccurate or harmful, question them and see how they shape feelings and behavior. NIMH describes exposure therapy as a form of CBT for anxiety in which a person spends short periods, with support, learning to tolerate the distress tied to certain thoughts or situations, so that the fear fades over time.
In practice, that can mean planning a different response to a twinge than an online search, cutting back on checking step by step and staying with uncertainty for a little longer each time. Our licensed counselors offer individual counseling using CBT, including CBT with exposure elements, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
When depression or another anxiety disorder is part of the picture, medication may be considered, decided jointly with you, with regular follow-up.
Starting Care by Video
Many people with health worry feel uneasy in medical waiting rooms. Secure video visits let adults anywhere in South Carolina meet with a provider from home, and you can also see us in person at our West Ashley office.
If You Are in Crisis
If health worry ever comes with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any hour. If there is immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Hope Behavioral Medicine is not an emergency service.
Getting Care in the Charleston Area
Charleston County has about one mental health provider for every 214 residents, compared with one for every 437 across South Carolina. Our office is on Gardner Road in West Ashley, and we also see adults anywhere in South Carolina by secure video, so you do not have to wait for a local opening or take time off to drive.
We accept Medicare, most major commercial plans, and all South Carolina Medicaid managed care plans except Select Health (First Choice). New patients are often able to be scheduled within a week of requesting an appointment.
Sources
The facts on this page come from: American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5-TR (illness anxiety disorder, somatic symptom disorder); National Institute of Mental Health, Generalized Anxiety Disorder: What You Need to Know (revised 2025); National Institute of Mental Health, Psychotherapies (reviewed February 2024); CMS National Provider Identification file, 2024, via County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, 2025.
Common Symptoms
Treatment Options
Frequently Asked Questions
The DSM-5-TR describes two related conditions: illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder. A qualified clinician can tell which, if either, fits.
No. The sensations are real, and anxiety can cause physical symptoms of its own. Treatment focuses on the cycle of worry and checking.
No. New, changing or severe symptoms still deserve a medical look. With your permission, we coordinate with your primary care provider.
CBT is often used, including exposure-based work that helps you tolerate uncertainty and cut back on checking. Medication may be considered when depression or another anxiety disorder is present.
Yes. We see adults anywhere in South Carolina by secure video, and in person at our West Ashley office.