It's Not All in Your Head How Worrying about Your Health Could Be Making You Sick--and What You Can Do about It

by Asmundson, Gordon J. G.; Taylor, Steven

• ISBN13: 9781572309937
• ISBN10: 1572309938
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-05
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

Where do you go for help when no one believes you're really sick? The doctors can’t explain your symptoms, but you know there’s something wrong because you can sense it in your body. Living with the specter of an unresolved health issue isn't just painful, it's isolating. The preoccupation and stress it causes can disrupt your career or interfere with personal relationships. If you continually experience symptoms of illness, or worry a lot about disease, you may be suffering from health anxiety--a condition that can produce physical effects of its own, including muscle tension, nausea, and a quickened heart rate. In this compassionate and empowering book, noted psychologists Gordon J. G. Asmundson and Steven Taylor provide simple and accurate self-tests designed to help you understand health anxiety and the role it might be playing in how you feel. Concrete examples and helpful exercises show you how to change thought and behavior patterns that contribute to the aches, pains, and anxiety you're experiencing. The authors also explain how to involve friends and family--and when to seek professional help--as you learn to stay well without worry.

Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Self-Help Book of Merit

Author Biography

Gordon J. G. Asmundson, PhD, is a professor of Health Studies and Psychology at the University of Regina, an adjunct professor in Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator. His work, which has been recognized with awards from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the Canadian chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain, focuses on the relationships between anxiety disorders, health anxiety, and acute and chronic pain, and the association of these with disability and behavior change.

Steven Taylor, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. He has received early career awards from the Canadian Psychological Association, the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. He is actively involved in clinical teaching and supervision, and maintains a private practice in Vancouver.

Together, Drs. Asmundson and Taylor are the authors of a related professional book, <i>Treating Health Anxiety</i>, also published by Guilford.

Table of Contents

Understanding Health Anxiety

Do I Worry Too Much about My Health?

Body and Brain: It's Not All in Your Head

Do I Have Some Other Anxiety Disorder?

Sick and Sad: Am I Depressed, Too?

Breaking the Health Anxiety Cycle

Understanding and Managing Stress

Thoughts That Influence Your Anxiety and How to Change Them

Behaviors That Influence Your Anxiety and How to Change Them

Maintaining Your Gains

Dealing with Doctors

Helping Friends and Family Help You

Living Life and Maintaining Your Gains

Resources

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.