If you've ever found yourself asking a partner the same question twice in one evening — "but do you think it's definitely fine?" — or checking a symptom on the internet, feeling better for twenty minutes, and then checking again, you've experienced the reassurance seeking cycle firsthand. It's one of the most common patterns in anxiety. Most people who do it know, somewhere, that it isn't really helping. What's harder to understand is why it keeps happening and what to do ins

Generalised anxiety is exhausting in a way that is hard to explain to someone who has not experienced it. Not the acute fear of a panic attack or the specific dread of a phobia, but a chronic, low-level vigilance that never fully switches off. A mind that is always somewhere else: anticipating, rehearsing, scanning for what might go wrong. A body that is permanently slightly braced. Most people with GAD have tried to manage it. They have reasoned with themselves, sought reass

If you have health anxiety, you have probably been told, at some point, that it is "just anxiety." Perhaps a GP has checked you over, found nothing, and said there is nothing to worry about. Perhaps a friend or family member has pointed out, gently or less gently, that you have been convinced you were seriously ill before and you were fine then too. And yet the next time a symptom, or unwanted sensation, appears, the fear comes back just as strongly. You know, in one part of

Social anxiety is one of the most common and also most limiting of the anxiety difficulties. It can also one of the most misunderstood, both by the people who experience it and sometimes by the treatments offered for it. Many people with social anxiety know, at some level, that their fears are out of proportion. They know that the presentation probably went fine, that most people are probably not scrutinising them as closely as it feels, that the conversation they are still r

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most misunderstood conditions in mental health — often by the people who experience it, and by those around them. It is also very treatable, when approached with the right methods. This post explains what OCD actually is, what evidence-based treatment involves, and how both CBT and ACT can be used to address it. What OCD actually is OCD is characterised by two things: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are intrusive, unwanted th

Health anxiety is a frequently misunderstood psychological difficulty From the outside, and sometimes from the inside, it can look like a failure of rational thinking. In reality it's a specific, well-understood psychological pattern, that responds well to the right treatment. If you've been caught in cycles of health-related worry — checking symptoms, seeking reassurance, temporarily feeling better, and then finding the anxiety returns stronger than before — this guide is

In clinical work, one of the presentations I find quietly affecting is this: a person who is, by most external measures, doing well. They function. They work. They maintain relationships of a kind. They may even be the person others lean on — reliable, capable, warm in professional or social settings. And yet they have no one who really knows them. Not because they're unlikeable. Not because they're antisocial or introverted. But because somewhere along the way — usually earl

You've checked the door three times. You know it's locked—you remember the physical sensation of turning the key, the click of the mechanism, the resistance when you tested the handle. But as you walk to the car, something pulls you back. Just once more. And then, because that fourth check didn't feel "right," a fifth. By the time you leave, you're fifteen minutes late and your chest is tight with a frustration that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't been there. This is w

CBT Panic Cycle Why Panic Attacks Happen and How to Break the Cycle Panic attacks are one of the most frightening experiences a person can have. The sudden surge of physical symptoms — heart pounding, chest tight, struggling to breathe, feeling faint or detached — can feel indistinguishable from a medical emergency. Many people who have their first panic attack believe they are having a heart attack or are about to die. And yet panic attacks, however terrifying, are not dange

A few years ago I tried a VR headset for the first time. Within seconds of putting it on I found myself standing on the edge of a tall building, about to leap off as a base jumper. The graphics were basic. I knew perfectly well I was standing in my living room. And yet when the jump came, my body responded immediately — I pulled back, yanked the headset off, and my heart was pounding. I had genuinely panicked, just for a moment, despite knowing with complete certainty that no