Illness anxiety worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this Illness anxiety worksheet?
People with illness anxiety tend to have recurring thoughts about having or catching a physical illness. Even when they try to focus their attention somewhere else and tell themselves to not think about the illness, the thoughts keep coming back with even greater intensity.
How will the worksheet help?
The purpose of the illness anxiety worksheet is to postpone illness related worries by scheduling a time, during which they allow their mind to worry. Locking the worry in the worry locker for a later period of time will reduce overthinking by knowing that they have locked away the worry and have the option of coming back to it at a later time.
How to use this worksheet?
Designate the same time and duration to have these thoughts every day. After a week of locking worries, ask the client the following questions: 1)What happened to the worries you postponed? 2) Are the worries still present? 3)Did you open the locker at the designated time?
