I’ve been told the recurrent pain in my side is nothing to worry about. That it’s not, for instance, ovarian cancer. So I try to ignore it. But, being a creative thinker and inveterate worrier, I can always drum up dire scenarios. And once I’ve had such thoughts, I can’t decide whether it would be silly or sensible to double-check.

Perhaps, I reason, I’ll mention it to my GP again, while asking about a mole that, if I’m honest, probably looks different because an adjacent freckle intensified in the Malaysian sun. At least, while I was on that holiday, it dawned on me relatively swiftly that the pain in my left arm was caused by beach volleyball and was not something requiring an emergency airlift.

I’m not the only one who is acutely attuned to anything that could suggest all is not functioning perfectly. For instance, I know a woman in her thirties who has a lean, lithe body; she climbs walls at gyms, eats organic and rarely even has a cold. But recently, she was scared rigid that her headaches signalled a brain tumour, and a fluttery chest, a heart defect. The truth is, the continuing palpitations were caused by her anxiety about the palpitations.

She’s rather like a superfit racehorse, the smallest health hiccup rendering her mentally off kilter. And it’s not funny. When she’s in her worry zone, scouring internet sites for reassurance (something they rarely provide), she feels down and full of dread – and she’s not alone.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

According to Dr Robert L Leahy, president of the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy, such anxieties about health are common and often result in a pattern of health perfectionism, in which every physical discomfort or imperfection is interpreted as a sign of disease.

“With the media constantly showing the perfect body, face and life, it’s easy to think a form of real perfection exists. Sometimes, the idea you’re not perfect can lead you to think you’re diseased or you have some kind of time bomb ticking inside you.”

With medical stories breaking in the news every day, information overload can also intensify fears. “We know a lot more about illnesses and, as a consequence, we may begin to think we have them. I’ve noticed that when somebody is going for an annual check-up, they often think the probability of finding something is increased – almost using the examination as evidence of having something.”

It would seem that it is thirty- and fortysomethings who are especially vulnerable to such hypochondria. It is this generation who want to hold back the ageing process and sport perfect hair, skin and teeth. They seek to have more control than past generations over most things in their lives – and that includes their health.

Paul Salkovskis, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in the UK, says: “Health anxiety often relates to an experience or a family history of a particular disease. For example, if your mother died of breast cancer, it may be that you become preoccupied with that.” He also points out that one of the things that motivate sufferers – and sometimes the doctors they consult – is that sneaking suspicion that they may be right. Another fear is that they will cry wolf once too often and a real illness will be missed.

SO WHAT’S THE WORRY CURE?

“The only treatment supported by research evidence is cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT,” says Salkovskis, who was instrumental in devising it. “It’s based on the simple idea that people worry because they think things are more dangerous than they are, misinterpreting both bodily variations and information.”

So, for example, if you always believe your quickening heartbeat means you have heart disease, in CBT a therapist will help you to explore – and prove to your own satisfaction that there are – alternative explanations. You discover and practise other ways of responding to events and the fears they activate, so eventually you can change your thinking and, ultimately, your behaviour.

Health perfectionism often has another characteristic, too. “You may view your worry as a sign that you are a responsible person,” Leahy says. You may think being perfect means noticing – and nipping in the bud – every potential disease; that once you have had the thought that it could be something bad (even if it’s an illness you’ve feared for years), you have to check out your concern afresh to the nth degree. Since that is impossible, you need to make a distinction between being perfect and being reasonable, he says. “Maybe you need to accept that sometimes you have negative thoughts.”

One of the most surprising, valuable and successful self-help strategies he outlines is “thought-flooding about uncertainty”. Often, when people worry obsessively, they are seeking perfectionism in medical answers, believing that gaining absolute certainty is the only way to feel better. But certainty is a holy grail (you can always doubt medical opinion or tests). The upshot? You may equate the lack of a perfect answer with vulnerability. What can help is acclimatising to a little uncertainty.

‘IT’S ALWAYS POSSIBLE I HAVE CANCER’

To that end, Leahy gets his clients to repeat: “It’s always possible I have cancer [or whatever it is they fear],” over and over, hundreds of times a day. Many who have tried it have found that the internal struggle quietens. In fact, the thought becomes boring.

If health perfectionism is a source of your fears, Leahy suggests developing some “constructive imperfectionism” by doing a survey of your friends and family and asking what bumps, aches and pains they experience and what their interpretations are. Then, when you notice an “imperfection”, look for the worst interpretation, but also the best, and then ask yourself what most people would think was the most likely. “Try to use the word ‘sensation’ rather than always talking in terms of ‘symptoms’,” he suggests. “A symptom makes you think of disease, whereas a sensation can be a benign signal that you are alive. It’s all about being prudent but not paralysed when it comes to health concerns.”

The Worry Cure by Dr Robert L Leahy (Piatkus £7.99). For an NHS CBT practitioner, ask your GP for a possible referral. For a private therapist, the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies maintains a register: Victoria Buildings, 9-13 Silver Street, Bury; 0161 797 4484, www.babcp.com . Always seek medical advice if you have any concerns about your health

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