Health Anxiety worksheets
8 evidence-based resources for Health Anxiety. Preview any worksheet, then assign it to a client as an interactive digital worksheet.
Written by Tarun Vermani, Trainee Clinical Psychologist Last reviewed
These resources follow Warwick and Salkovskis' cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety (1990): ambiguous bodily signs are read as evidence of serious illness, and checking, reassurance seeking and avoidance keep that reading from ever being revised. The Health Anxiety Formulation (Salkovskis & Warwick) maps the cycle, and the Health Anxiety Monitoring Diary captures episodes as they happen — trigger, misinterpretation, anxiety, and what the client did to feel safer.
Intervention targets the maintaining processes rather than the feared illness. The Body Vigilance Experiment shows how attention to the body produces the sensations it is scanning for, and the Reassurance-Seeking Reduction Record withdraws the behaviour that keeps attention fixed on health. A theory A versus theory B comparison — an undetected illness, or a problem of worry about health — makes the alternative explicit before anything is dropped. The model is free to explore as an interactive, referenced diagram.
Interactive formulation
Interactive formulation for this presentation
Explore the published model as a referenced, interactive diagram — free, no sign-up needed.
Get the free health anxiety bundle by email5 core worksheets as fillable PDFs, plus the interactive formulation. No account needed.
Choose your bundleAll Health Anxiety worksheets
Showing 8 of 8 resources
Health Anxiety
Health Anxiety Formulation (Salkovskis & Warwick)
A formulation based on the cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety — mapping the vicious cycle of misinterpretation, anxiety, checking, and temporary reassurance.
Health Anxiety
Health Anxiety Monitoring Diary
Track health anxiety episodes — the trigger, misinterpretation, anxiety level, safety behaviour used, and the actual outcome.
Health Anxiety
Reassurance-Seeking Reduction Record
Track urges to seek reassurance, whether you resisted, and what happened — building evidence that you can tolerate uncertainty without reassurance.
Health Anxiety
Body Vigilance Experiment
Test how attention to the body creates and amplifies sensations — demonstrating that body scanning is part of the problem, not the solution.
Health Anxiety
Health Behaviour Cost-Benefit Analysis
Weigh up the costs and benefits of specific health anxiety behaviours — checking, Googling, reassurance-seeking — to build motivation for change.
Health Anxiety
Health Checking Reduction Diary
Track gradual reduction in body checking behaviours — setting targets, monitoring frequency, and recording what happens when you check less.
Health Anxiety
Understanding Health Anxiety
A plain-language explainer on what health anxiety is, why it happens, and how scanning the body and seeking reassurance keep the worry going.
Health Anxiety
What Keeps Health Anxiety Going?
A maintenance-cycle explainer on how body-checking, googling, and seeking reassurance bring short-term relief but keep health anxiety going, and how to break the cycle.
Can’t find the worksheet you need?
Tell us what’s missing — we review every request, and many become new tools in the library.
Request a worksheetFrequently asked questions
How does the health anxiety model differ from the panic model?
Both turn on misinterpretation of bodily sensations, but in panic the feared catastrophe is immediate — happening within minutes — so escape and safety behaviours dominate. In health anxiety the feared illness usually sits in the future, so checking, symptom searching, reassurance seeking and repeated consultations do the maintaining work instead.
Why reduce reassurance rather than provide it?
Reassurance relieves anxiety briefly and then wears off, which makes it self-reinforcing and keeps attention fixed on health. The worksheets treat reassurance seeking as a safety behaviour to be tracked and gradually withdrawn, including reassurance from you — worth negotiating openly with the client, and with family members where they are the source.
What should a first session in this area cover?
Typically a recent episode walked through in detail: the sensations, the meaning attached to them, and the checking, searching, reassurance and avoidance that followed, alongside the medical investigations already completed. Ending on a shared theory A versus theory B framing gives the client an alternative explanation to test rather than one to accept.
Browse other areas
Explore CBT worksheets for other presenting problems.
Ready to assign these to your clients?
Create a free account and send any worksheet as a link. Your client completes it on any device — you review their responses before the next session.
No credit card required. 10 free worksheets every month.