Original 21 items, not the copyrighted Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI, Salkovskis et al. 2002) — we do not administer that instrument.
Health Anxiety Check-In, Free 21-Question Self-Reflection
Constantly Googling symptoms, seeking reassurance, or avoiding doctors altogether? A 21-question self-reflection on body-symptom hypervigilance and catastrophizing health worry. A self-reflection tool, not a clinical diagnosis.
What is the Health Anxiety Check-In?
This check-in looks at health anxiety through three everyday domains. Body-Symptom Hypervigilance asks how closely you monitor your body for unusual sensations, and how much a noticed sensation tends to hold your attention once you've found it. Reassurance-Seeking & Avoidance covers two sides of the same coin: searching symptoms online, asking people close to you for reassurance, or booking doctor's visits mainly to be told everything is fine, or the opposite, avoiding medical care and tests altogether because you're afraid of what they might find. Catastrophizing Health Information looks at how readily a minor symptom or a piece of health information gets interpreted as a sign of something serious, one of the core patterns named in DSM-5 illness anxiety disorder criteria. Together, the three give a fuller picture than a single question could: two people can both look up a symptom online and come away in very different places, one reassured, one more worried than before.
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Paying attention to your body and taking symptoms seriously is a healthy instinct, not a problem to fix. What researchers describe as health anxiety, or illness anxiety disorder in DSM-5 terms, is a different, more consistent pattern: bodily sensations get monitored closely, reassurance from a doctor or a loved one fades quickly before a new worry takes its place, and minor symptoms are interpreted as signs of serious illness far more often than the evidence supports. Health anxiety is often dismissed as 'just being a hypochondriac,' but the distress it causes is real, and it can quietly cost real time, energy, and peace of mind, whether that shows up as hours spent searching symptoms online, repeated visits seeking reassurance, or avoiding checkups altogether out of fear of what they might reveal. It becomes worth paying closer attention when the pattern feels persistent, when reassurance never quite sticks, or when it's shaping medical decisions in either direction, too much or too little.
This check-in is a self-reflection tool, not a diagnostic instrument, and it does not replace an evaluation by a licensed professional or a physical exam by your doctor. It draws on the domain structure of DSM-5 illness anxiety disorder criteria, adapted here into a plain-language self-check, rather than any single proprietary questionnaire. If your results suggest this pattern is having a real effect on your day-to-day life, a therapist experienced with health anxiety or illness anxiety disorder is a reasonable next step, and your regular doctor can help address any physical concerns alongside that. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches built specifically for health anxiety, including ones that gradually reduce reassurance-seeking and body-checking, have a good evidence base for reducing how much this pattern takes over.
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