Health anxiety
Medical Avoidance Cost-Benefit Analysis
Client avoids medical appointments or disclosures that would give them information they need but fear, and the avoidance costs them more than the feared outcome would.
Health anxiety clients often make the rational calculation that avoidance reduces anxiety in the moment, so it seems like the right trade. But over time, avoidance costs more: missed diagnoses, escalation of symptoms, relationship strain, and compounded fear. This directive makes the hidden costs visible.
By writing out both sides, the client can see the true cost of avoidance versus the cost of moving toward feared information.
Medical Avoidance Cost-Benefit Analysis
Draw a line down the middle of a page. On the left, write: “Cost of Avoiding [medical action/disclosure].” On the right, write: “Cost of Moving Toward It.”
Left side: list everything you save by not doing it. (Anxiety reduction in the moment. Not having to make the call. Not having to sit in the waiting room. Not having to hear bad news if there is bad news.)
Right side: list what avoiding actually costs you over weeks and months. (The symptom that is not diagnosed. The relationship strain when you hide it. The energy spent managing the anxiety. The things you do not do because you are worried. The next appointment you will also avoid.)
Do not judge either side. This is an inventory.
Then ask yourself: in six months, if I keep avoiding, where am I? And if I move toward it once, where am I?
Write the answer to each question. This is not about motivation. It is about seeing the math clearly.
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