It is always good to feel what is happening in your body and how it feels. It’s definitely not a good thing to go through a full check-up and completely disconnect from your body.
However, if you are prone to anxiety, you may be overly aware of your bodily sensations. This issue is especially relevant for those who struggle with panic attacks or health issues worry.
Body awareness and anxiety
People with recurrent panic attacks are very aware of their body sensations as they look for signs of an impending panic attack. Similarly, people who are overly concerned about their health tend to be very attuned to bodily sensations, looking for signs that something is wrong.
Both of these groups may be tempted to use devices such as smartwatches, rings, and pulse oximeters to monitor their bodily sensations. It is worth noting that people who often have panic attacks also have health concerns and vice versa.
Other anxious people may also struggle with increasing body awareness. For example, with someone public speaking Anxiety can cause them to hyperfocus on their body sensations before speaking. Or, a flying man phobia may misinterpret their anxiety symptoms as a sign that something bad is going to happen on the plane. A person with general anxiety and insomnia They may be due to increased heart rate when trying to fall asleep.
The problem of excessive body awareness
There are several problems associated with the overabundance of bodily symptoms:
- The more you focus on something, the more you feel it. I like to give the example of standing in line at the nurse’s office in second grade to be checked for lice during an outbreak at school. I remember being worried that I had lice too. The more I think about it, the more I scratch my head. After the nurse gave me the all clear, my head miraculously stopped itching. For many anxiety disorders, this hyperfocus leads to more symptoms and more to crash.
- Over-awareness of body sensations reinforces anxious beliefs. Focusing too much on body sensations and looking for something wrong will only make you feel more vulnerable. It’s like you’re saying to yourself, Something must be wrong because I’m focusing on it.
- Focusing too much on bodily sensations can exacerbate anxiety. Anxiety symptoms can be varied – palpitations, dizziness, chest pain, upset stomach, shortness of breath – and these are just a few of the possible symptoms of anxiety. The more you focus on them, the more powerful they can become, and the more likely you are to misinterpret them in a disastrous way.
How to reduce excessive body awareness
You don’t have to be a prisoner in your body. Here’s what you can do instead.
- See a doctor. If you’re concerned about your health in any way (even if you’re not), it’s important to visit your doctor regularly. If you find that your doctor dismisses your concerns, consider getting a referral from someone for a doctor closer to the bedside. Talk to them about your concerns. Ask them how to differentiate between anxiety and something serious.
- Give yourself permission to reduce body monitoring. People can stay healthy without constantly focusing on their bodies and still be aware when something serious happens.
- Reduce or eliminate body monitoring devices. Do a reality check with yourself – does using tools to track body symptoms help you in the long run, or does it just give you immediate confidence? Does this make you more anxious right now? Not sure if it’s safe to ditch the devices? Ask your doctor.
- Practice mental changes attention away from your body. When you find yourself becoming too aware of body sensations, try focusing on something else, such as the texture of the chair you’re sitting on or something outside the window. As you do this, tell yourself that you really don’t need to get so caught up in bodily sensations.
- Reduce or eliminate the use of Internet searches or AI about bodily sensations. Asking the computer about your feelings too often creates a vicious cycle. Now it has a term: cyberchondria. Remember, 30 years ago this technology didn’t exist and people weren’t always looking for symptoms (and probably had less health concerns).
Go back to your life
Sometimes people focus so much on bodily sensations or avoid things that might trigger these symptoms that they miss out on a lot of life. What are you not doing because of these fears? Think about what’s important to you and make a plan to get back into your life.
