You Know That Feeling…
You wake up already scanning your body.
The weird flutter in your chest.
The tight stomach.
The dizzy wave when you stand up.
And instantly, your mind whispers: “Something’s wrong.”
But test after test says you’re fine and somehow that makes it worse. Because how can your body feel this off if nothing’s actually wrong?
That’s the impossible tug-of-war of health anxiety: your brain says danger, your doctor says normal, and you’re stuck somewhere in between feeling like you can’t trust either.
Your Nervous System Isn’t Lying, It’s Over-Protecting
When you live with chronic anxiety, your nervous system is like a smoke alarm that’s gotten too sensitive. It picks up on every flicker, every change and reacts as if there’s a fire.
You feel:
- tightness in your chest
- shortness of breath
- nausea or digestive issues
- random muscle twitches or tingling
- heart flutters or lightheadedness
These are all real sensations, but they’re not signs of danger. they’re signs of a body stuck in high alert.
Your brain is constantly checking for threats. When it can’t find any outside, it turns inward. It starts monitoring your heartbeat, your breathing, your stomach and that internal focus actually amplifies every sensation.
The Spiral: From Sensation → Fear → More Sensation
You feel a symptom → your brain flags it as danger → your body releases adrenaline → your heart races → and now that physical reaction feels like proof something’s wrong.
That’s the anxiety loop: your body reacts to your thoughts, and your thoughts react to your body.
Breaking that cycle takes practice...not proof.
Because even if you got 100 tests, your mind would still ask, “But what if they missed something?”
“Okay… But What Do I Do About It?” You don’t need to force yourself to “stop worrying.” You need to retrain your body to feel safe again.
Here are a few tools that help my community (and myself):
- Name the pattern — when you notice a new symptom, say: “This is my nervous system trying to protect me.” Naming it gives you back power.
- Shift attention outward — anxiety loves internal focus. Ground yourself by noticing 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you feel.
- Breathe with structure — try a 4-7-8 breath to signal calm to your vagus nerve.
- Reduce body scanning — if you catch yourself checking your pulse or Googling symptoms, delay it by 10 minutes. Each delay weakens the loop.
- Support your body — magnesium glycinate, L-theanine, and Purity CBD can all help calm the physiological side while you work on the mental.
Healing Is Slow, But It’s Real
One of the hardest parts about recovering from health anxiety is realizing you might feel off for a while even as you’re getting better. That doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means your nervous system is re-learning safety.You don’t have to feel 100% calm to be okay.
You just have to keep reminding your body that it isn’t in danger anymore.
A Note from Me:
I lived in that place...convinced something was always wrong. I had folders of lab results, doctor visits, EKGs. And what finally changed me wasn’t another test , it was learning to live with uncertainty and trust my body again.
If this resonates, I wrote a 30-Day Anxiety Reset Challenge that walks you through what actually helped me rewire my nervous system day by day...the things I still do now.
You can find it on PeakOfPanic.com.
You’re not broken. You’re healing.
And that starts with believing your body is trying to protect you, not hurt you.