It's Not All in Your Head: How Worrying about Your Health Could Be Making You Sick--and What You Can Do about It

Where do you go for help when no one believes you're really sick? The doctors can’t explain your symptoms, but you know there’s something wrong because you can sense it in your body. Living with the specter of an unresolved health issue isn't just painful, it's isolating. The preoccupation and stress it causes can disrupt your career or interfere with personal relationships. If you continually experience symptoms of illness, or worry a lot about disease, you may be suffering from health anxiety--a condition that can produce physical effects of its own, including muscle tension, nausea, and a quickened heart rate. In this compassionate and empowering book, noted psychologists Gordon J. G. Asmundson and Steven Taylor provide simple and accurate self-tests designed to help you understand health anxiety and the role it might be playing in how you feel. Concrete examples and helpful exercises show you how to change thought and behavior patterns that contribute to the aches, pains, and anxiety you're experiencing. The authors also explain how to involve friends and family--and when to seek professional help--as you learn to stay well without worry.

Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Self-Help Book of Merit

Gordon J. G. Asmundson, PhD, is Professor and Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator in Psychology and Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina, Canada, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Asmundson is well known for his award-winning research in the areas of anxiety disorders, health anxiety, and acute and chronic pain.

Steven Taylor, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Taylor has also received several prestigious research awards. His work focuses on cognitive-behavioral treatments and anxiety disorders.

Together, Drs. Asmundson and Taylor are the authors of a related professional book, Treating Health Anxiety, also published by Guilford.