Dr. Stacia Casillo, Director of The Ross Center’s New York City region, shares her wisdom in an Elle Magazine article: COVID-19 Is Making Everybody’s Cyberchondria Worse.

Cyberchondria is a form of anxiety that leads a person to obsessively search the internet to check symptoms and diagnoses for potential health issues. Dr. Casillo helps readers understand how therapy can reduce the compulsion to excessively check the news and health-related websites.  Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a successful form of treatment for many types of anxiety, including health anxiety.

A therapist might employ CBT by assessing the client’s “anxiety cycle,” as Casillo calls it. “The client and therapist create a conceptualization of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are typical of their anxiety reaction and the thoughts and behaviors that keep that cycle going. A treatment plan would consist of providing psychoeducation on health anxiety, teaching skills to challenge anxious thinking, replacing maladaptive coping behaviors with healthy coping skills, and promoting distress tolerance and acceptance of what they do and do not have control over.”

Many of the clinicians at The Ross Center utilize Cognitive Behavior Therapy to treat all forms of anxiety. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with a therapist if anxiety is limiting your ability to live the life you want.