Health Anxiety Treatment for Kids, Teens, and Young Adults
In-network with major insurers.
*We do not currently accept Medicaid.
What is Health Anxiety?
For young people with health anxiety, ordinary parts of life, like going to school, eating a meal, and falling asleep, can get overshadowed by the fear that something is seriously wrong. Health anxiety can make the body feel like a constant alarm. Every twinge, ache, or heartbeat starts to feel serious, and even normal sensations get hard to ignore.
Recognizing Health Anxiety
The Cycle Behind Health Anxiety and How to Break It
Where it comes from
Health anxiety develops from a combination of a sensitive nervous system, a genetic predisposition to anxiety, and experiences like personal illness, illness in the family, or exposure to health scares that shape how a young person interprets what they feel. No single event causes it.
What keeps it going
Health anxiety often follows a cycle that can be hard to break. When a health trigger or body sensation shows up, it can lead to worry that they might have a serious illness. To feel better, someone might check their body, research symptoms, or ask for frequent reassurance. These strategies can bring relief in the moment, but over time, they teach the brain to treat everyday sensations as threats, keeping the worry going.
What treatment changes
Young people learn to sit with body sensations and health worries without avoiding, checking or asking for reassurance, building evidence that what they fear is not as likely as it feels and that they can handle the discomfort.
How is Health Anxiety Treated?
Health anxiety responds well to structured, exposure-based treatment. InStride uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with a strong emphasis on exposure therapy, delivered by a dedicated care team that works with the young person, their family, and their wider support system to make sure progress carries into every part of daily life.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
CBT helps young people understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected and teaches them more effective ways to respond. For health anxiety, that means learning to recognize the cycle of worry and checking, understanding how each reassurance only feeds the next fear, and building new ways to respond.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP)
A core component of CBT, exposure therapy involves gradually facing feared situations instead of avoiding them. Young people learn that anxiety and uncertainty are uncomfortable but tolerable, and they can handle those feelings without relying checking, searching, or reassurance. A teen who researches their headache symptoms online might practice noticing the headache, feeling the worry rise, and letting it pass without searching for an answer. Over time, they build real evidence that their body is safe and the fear doesn't need a response.
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How Families and Schools Can Support Progress
Parents and caregivers
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School coordination
Lasting Change for Young People with Health Anxiety
Hear from young people and families who came to InStride when health anxiety was consuming daily life, and built the skills to manage it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
This can be hard to figure out. Health anxiety can make everyday sensations feel urgent or serious. When medical causes have been evaluated and nothing concerning has been found, but the worry keeps coming back, it may be anxiety driving the experience. Our team evaluates every applicant and helps sort through what's going on.
With health anxiety, even when medical tests are reassuring, it’s common for the worry to return. The relief often doesn’t last, and new doubts show up, like “What if something was missed?” or “What about this other symptom?” This cycle of worry, reassurance, and doubt can keep going over time. Treatment teaches a different way to respond so the cycle stops running.
No. Treatment helps young people with health anxiety respond differently to worries and uncertainty, instead of automatically treating triggers and sensations as signs of something serious. Medical care still happens when needed.
Yes. Health anxiety frequently co-occurs with generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, and panic disorder. When health-related worry is a concern, our program is designed to support that while also helping with any other anxiety symptoms.
No. You don't need to have it figured out before reaching out. Our team evaluates every applicant and determines whether InStride is the right fit.
Most young people are in the program for four to eight months. For health anxiety, families often notice the checking and reassurance-seeking start to decrease within the first couple of months as exposure practice takes hold.
