59 | Why You Can’t Stop Thinking Something Is Wrong With Your Body

What if every symptom feels bigger than it should?
Why does reassurance never seem to last?
How do you stop anxiety from turning your body into something you constantly fear? 

In this episode, Jessica Davis talks about health anxiety and the exhausting cycle of body scanning, symptom checking, Googling, and needing reassurance. She breaks down why this spiral feels so convincing, why it hits teens and young adults so hard, and what you can start doing to loosen its grip so anxiety stops stealing so much of your life. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode 

• What health anxiety actually is, and how it differs from simply caring about your health
• Why Googling symptoms and seeking reassurance often make the fear worse
• How anxiety creates real physical sensations that then fuel more panic
• How to use parts of the C.O.U.R.A.G.E. Method to challenge fear-based thoughts
• Why taking one small step back into your life matters more than waiting to feel certain 

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This podcast was created by Davis-Smith Mental Health, offering counseling for teens & young adults in Illinois (only). We accept BCBS PPO, Aetna PPO, and self-pay clients.

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⚠️ Disclaimer:  Block Out the Noise provides personal insights and practical stra...

Transcript

The Symptom Spiral

Jessica N. Davis 0:07

You open your phone to check something quick, just a symptom, just a search, a headache that won't quit, a tightness in your chest that doesn't make sense, a small thing you notice that suddenly feels big. So you scroll, you read, and 20 minutes later, you're lost in the spiral of symptoms and worst-case scenarios, convinced something must be wrong. Going to school, showing up for class, even hanging out with friends feels impossible because your own body has become the question you can't stop asking. You're tired, but tired of feeling like outside life keeps moving without you. This episode is for Beauty. No matter what your body is telling you right now, there is still a life available to you. And today we're going to talk about how to find your way back to it.

Welcome, Toolkit, And Safety Note

Jessica N. Davis 1:04

Hi, and welcome to Block Out the Noise, a space where we talk about anxiety, self-doubt, and overthinking, and what you can actually do about it. I'm Jessica Davis, licensed therapist and mindset coach, and I created the courage method to help teens and young adults stop letting anxiety run the show. If you haven't grabbed the anxiety survival toolkit yet, you're going to want to. It's a free resource packed with coping skills, audio tools, a full breakdown of the courage method, and a meditation to help you get out of your head and back into your life. You can find the link in the show notes. And a quick reminder: this podcast is here to support and guide you, but it is not a replacement for talking to someone in real life. If you're struggling with your mental health, please reach out to a therapist and if you're in crisis, contact emergency services or a local helpline. You don't have to go through it alone.

What Health Anxiety Looks Like

Jessica N. Davis 1:58

Today we're talking about something that comes up more than people realize and that doesn't get nearly enough acknowledgement. We're talking about health anxiety. It's important to clarify that there's a difference between being someone who takes their health seriously and being someone whose fear about their health has started to take over. Health anxiety is when your worry about being sick or becoming sick is so loud that it starts to drown out everything else. You feel a headache and your brain jumps straight to something serious. Your heart beats a little fast and suddenly you're convinced something's wrong with it. Your stomach hurts before school or class or work, and you're already trying to figure out how to get out of going. And here's what makes it so exhausting. It doesn't stop when you get reassurance. You go to the doctor, they tell you you're fine, and maybe for a couple of hours you feel better. And then the thought creeps back in. But what if they miss something? What if the test was wrong? What if it gets worse? Here's why that happens. Reassurance feels like relief, but for health anxiety, it only works temporarily. And every time you seek it, your brain learns that the only way to feel safe is to get more of it. So the cycle doesn't break, it just actually gets stronger. The reassurance becomes something you need more and more of just to get the same few minutes of calm. And that's an exhausting way to live.

Why Reassurance And Google Fail

Jessica N. Davis 3:32

So you Google. And we all know what happens when you Google symptoms. Every sensation becomes more catastrophic. Every stomach ache becomes something serious. Every weird feeling in your body becomes a worst-case scenario. And the more you search, the more convinced you become that something is definitely wrong with you. I think it's worth understanding why this hits teens and young adults so hard. Your brain is still developing. The part of it that weighs risk, that puts things in perspective, that says, okay, let's calm down, that's still being built. And on top of that, you're living in a world where health scares are everywhere. Someone posts about symptoms. A video goes viral about a condition you didn't know even existed until yesterday. An algorithm figures out you searched something once and now it keeps showing you more of that. That's not you being dramatic. So if you found yourself in that spiral, I don't want you to be too hard on yourself about it. It makes complete sense that this happens. What matters is learning how to get out

Fight Or Flight Creates Symptoms

Jessica N. Davis 4:41

of it. Here's what's actually happening in your body when you are in this type of spiral. When anxiety is loud, when you're fixating on a symptom, scanning your body for proof that there's something wrong, your nervous system is already activated. It's already in that fight or flight mode. And that response releases stress hormones, which can cause your heart to race, your chest to feel tight, your stomach to hurt, the very symptoms you're afraid of. So you feel something, you get scared, your body responds to the fear, and now there are more symptoms to be scared of. And the hard truth is their bodies were okay, but they weren't living like it. That's what health anxiety does. It doesn't just steal your peace of mind, it steals your life. So that's what we're going to talk about today, what it looks like, why it happens, and most importantly, how you find your way through it, even on the days when it feels

What Fear Takes From You

Jessica N. Davis 6:07

really hard. I think about that a lot when I work with people who are stuck, whether it's health anxiety, keeping them frozen, or just stuck in a situation that they feel like they can't pull themselves out of. Because here's the honest question that we all have to sit with in a way. What does focusing on the fear actually do for you? What does staying in the worry and the worst case scenario and the constant scanning, what does that give you? I'm not asking that to be harsh. I'm asking because I think if we actually sat with it, most of us realize that it doesn't give us anything we actually want. It actually takes away from so many things. It keeps you home, it keeps you on your phone, it keeps you out of your own life. It doesn't make us safer, it doesn't make us feel better, it doesn't solve anything. What it does is just keep us from living. And you deserve to live. And I mean genuinely live. All of you, the ones who anxiety is lying to them about their health, and the ones who are navigating something that is genuinely hard. There is still a life available to you. Not a life without hard moments, because that's guaranteed, but one with good days inside of the difficult ones, one worth finding your way back to. And that's exactly what I wanted to help you to do today.

Reduce Checking To Break The Cycle

Jessica N. Davis 7:35

The first thing I want you to understand is that moving forward doesn't mean pretending you'll be fine. It doesn't mean pushing through in a way that ignores what your body actually needs. It means making a choice, even a small one, not let the fear or pain be the only thing that gets your attention today. That's it. That's the starting point. And I want to say this before we get really into the skills. I know that when you're in the middle of this, even thinking about doing something different feels very hard. When anxiety is loud, the idea of taking any kind of action can feel completely out of reach. That's not weakness, that's what anxiety does. It makes you feel like everything is much harder because the mental exhaustion that you put into just trying to figure out what you should do next can feel like you've already faced a huge battle. So I'm not going to ask you to overhaul everything today. I'm asking you to start somewhere small. So here are a few concrete things that you can do to break the cycle we talked about earlier. The first one is to start reducing how often you check. I know that when it comes to something feeling wrong, pull to Google or even now AI is almost automatic. It feels like information will make you feel safer. But what actually happens is the opposite. Every search opens a new door to a scarier possibility, and your brain is already activated, it's already scanning. It latches on to the worst thing it finds. The research on this is really clear. Symptom checking doesn't reassure people with health anxiety, it feeds it. Every time you check, you're telling your nervous system that there's something worth being afraid of. And your nervous system listens. So here's what I want you to do. Think about how many times a day you're checking right now and pick a number that feels like a realistic step down from that. If we're checking 10 times a day, maybe we try to check only seven times. If we're checking five times a day, maybe we're trying to check only three times. We're just trying to reduce it slowly but surely. The goal is to start loosening the grip one step at a time. So your nervous system gets the message that it doesn't need to stay on high alert. The second thing comes directly from the courage method, and it's the you.

Question The Story And Act Anyway

Jessica N. Davis 10:34

Most of the time, a racing heart is anxiety, a stomach ache, is stress, a headache, is dehydration or tension or bad night's sleep. And then ask question two what's the actual evidence for and against this fear? Not what does Google say, not what does the worst case scenario look like, but what do you actually know right now? Your brain isn't a reliable narrator that's trying to protect you, but it doesn't always have the full picture. And it's okay. It's necessary, even to question what it's telling you. So here's what that might actually sound like in your head. My heart is racing. The most realistic explanation is anxiety. I've been stressed all day, and I had a normal checkup not long ago. The evidence that something serious is wrong is really low at that point. Even if this feeling is really uncomfortable right now, uncomfortable isn't the same as dangerous. That's it. That's the skill. You're not dismissing what you're feeling. You're just refusing to let that fear write the whole story. Tool number three, it comes from the A and the courage method. A stands for act despite uncertainty. And I want you to hear that. Not act when you're feeling ready, not act when your fear goes away, not act when you have a guarantee that everything is fine. Act despite the uncertainty. Because the certainty you're waiting for is never going to come. There will always be something your body does that you don't fully understand. And there will always be a moment where you could choose to either stop or to stay in the fear instead. The question is what you do with that moment. Choose one small thing today that is about living your life, not about managing your symptoms, not about figuring out what's wrong with you. Just one thing that reminds you that you are more than what you're going through right now. If health anxiety is what you're dealing with, maybe that looks like going to class even when your stomach feels off. Not because that feeling isn't real, but because you're choosing not to let it make the decision for you. It doesn't have to be big, it just has to be a step. If you are interested in finding out more about the courage method, as we went over UNA and this episode, please have a listen to episode five. It's called Why Courage is the missing piece to overcoming anxiety. And it will give you the full picture of the framework and how to implement this in your daily life. Because that one step taken in the middle of the fear, in the middle of the pain, in the middle of the uncertainty, to be honest, that's not a small thing. That is courage. We all are courageous in our own ways. We just have to acknowledge it and see it for ourselves. So, whatever

Pockets Of Peace And Closing

Jessica N. Davis 13:32

you're carrying today, I want you to know something. Today still has good moments in it. Maybe not an easy day, maybe not a pain-free day. Um, probably not a day where your anxiety is quiet, but there are pockets of peace available to you. A moment where you laugh at something unexpected, a conversation that reminds you that someone cares, a second where you look up and notice that the world outside is still going, and so are you. Those moments are real and they belong to you just as much as the hard ones do. I hope you go looking for them today. I truly do. If this episode helped you, please take a couple minutes to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find this show. And we truly want to make an impact, and you can help us do that by leaving a review. Regardless of if you do or not, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. Until next time, keep moving forward, trust yourself, and never forget you have what it takes to block out the noise.