Overcoming Health Anxiety
As a therapist, I sometimes get triggered by stories my clients tell me. I had a client who had a family member who passed away from cancer and it took me back to over 7 years ago when my grandmother died of cancer in the hospital. I had recently moved a couple hours away, and I knew she was sick, but had not realized how bad. After speaking to my cousin, I decided to drive up to Long Island to see her 3 weeks after I moved.
When I walked into the room, I realized how bad it really was. She was not conscious and was breathing heavy. I sat next to her and was holding her hand for what felt like only a few minutes and she stopped breathing. It didn’t feel real. I lived with my grandmother for 20 years, and had only moved out a year and a half before she passed away.
Her death crushed my spirit because she was a kind and loving person to her core, even though she was not a woman of many words. Losing her was mentally crippling, and because she was a faithful woman of God who served at her church as an usher for longer that I had been alive, and passed away the way that she did at 80 years old. My maternal grandmother also passed away after a long battle with kidney failure 12 years earlier, she was also a faithful woman of God.
I could not understand why they both died of disease, when my other great-grandmother was still alive and well at 93. I thought that if you were faithful and did the best you could living by biblical standards, you would live a long life and die of old age, not a debilitating disease.
Two years later in March of 2020, I tested positive for COVID-19, when no one knew what it was, and death rates were rising every day. It turned my health anxiety up a notch, and I would have racing heart beat and would feel a pit in my stomach anytime I felt pain in my body and did not know what it was from. My mind would spiral into thoughts of ‘what if I have a disease that will kill me’. I have had panic attacks at night when I would have shortness of breath and pounding heartbeat. I would always have a racing pulse when I went to the doctor for an annual physical, so much so that they tried to put me on blood pressure medication.
If my kids or husband got sick or had a fever, same symptoms. I could not sleep and I would have panicked thoughts that would physically manifest in my body. When 2025 came in, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to overcome health anxiety. Now that it is 2026, I was able to check it off of my list with 3 steps.
One – Come to Terms with Death
Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers have passed away from health related issues. They were also both faithful women of God. They both went to church every Sunday without fail and served. My paternal grandmother was a faithful usher, and my maternal grandmother was a minister and the dean of a bible college at her church. It took a conversation with my mother to help me realize that even when people are faithful, they still need to take care of themselves physically. She told me that my maternal grandmother had kidney failure, had a kidney transplant and it worked for 7 years, and she stopped taking her medication, and then had kidney failure again. I recognized that I need to do the best that I can eating healthy and getting exercise and build my faith in God through prayer and reading the bible.
Two – Create the Calm in the Storm
Over the summer I had an issue with my right breast, it swelled up, had a cyst and was producing milk. This had never happened to me before, and I got scared. When I went to my GYN my blood pressure was high. However, I did some grounding exercises like deep breathing and the 54321 grounding technique which helped shift my thoughts. I also had been listening to the bible every day, when I felt anxiety, I listened to it twice a day and prayed right after I used grounding techniques.
Three – Lean on God’s Word
I learned that God is no respecter of persons, what ever he did in the bible, he can do for me, I just have to have faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, so I had to continue to build up my faith by reading the word and learning to understand that it is true. Then I had to believe that if he did it for others, he can do it for me. I have memorized Philippians 4:6-7 ‘be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I had to consistently use grounding techniques and focus on the word every time I felt anxiety.
I am now at a place where I do not need anxiety medication when I feel anxiety, and I have not had a panic attack. I am able to control it by shifting my focus with grounding techniques, reminding myself that I am safe and healthy, and by reading the bible regularly. This year will be the second year that I read through the bible in a year using the You Version bible app, which makes it easy to listen.
We all go through situations that will stroke our fears and cause us to feel anxiety. You can take the reigns back by grounding yourself, and then shifting your focus and practice it every time you feel fear, or start to develop a worry that is difficult to control. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Pray a specific prayer to God and ask him to take the fear away, and to replace it with his peace. When you pray, you do not have to use special words. Its talking to God, in a way that is authentic, honest and real.
Prayer
God, I am struggling today and I need your help. My anxiety feels like it is taking over my mind and I pray that you take it away from me. Pour your spirit into me so that I can have the strength to get through what I am dealing with. Lord, I need you and I am praying that you cover and protect me. I believe Jesus shed his blood and died for my sins, and I am grateful for your love and protection. Please fill me with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and replace fear with power and a calm mind, in Jesus name, Amen.