Health Anxiety Self-Monitoring Record (Archived)
NOTE: An improved version of this resource is available here: Health Anxiety Self-Monitoring Record. Older versions of a resource may be archived in the event that they are available in multiple languages, or where data indicates that the resource continues to be frequently used by clinicians.
Individuals with health anxiety experience clinically significant distress associated with health concerns. This thought-monitoring record enables clients to monitor negative automatic thoughts, worries, and predictions associated with their health.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
Cognition (interpretations) are a fundamental part of CBT and thought monitoring is an essential skill for clients to develop. Thought monitoring can be used to:
- Identify negative automatic thoughts (NATs), images, or memories
- Notice associations between events and cognitions
- Help clients understand the links between thoughts, emotions, and body sensations
This Health Anxiety Self Monitoring Record is designed to help clients to better understand their thoughts and emotional / physiological responses related to health concerns.
Therapist Guidance
- Clients should be instructed to record specific instances in which angry thoughts, feelings, or responses were prompted.
- In the first column (Situation) clients should be instructed to record what they were doing when they started to notice a significant change in how they were feeling. Training clients to record specific details (such as who they were with, where they were, and what had just happened) is often helpful when later elaborating a memory for an event, or simply in understanding the reasons for subsequent thoughts and responses
- In the second column (Thoughts about my health) clients should be directed to record any automatic cognitions. They should be reminded that cognitions can take the form of verbal thoughts, but can also take the form of images, or memories. If a recorded cognition is an image (e.g. “I had a picture in my mind of dying in hospital with my family looking concerned”) clients should be directed to question what that image means to them (e.g “It means I worry about how my family could cope without me”) and to record that idiosyncratic meaning.
- In the third column (Emotions) clients should be instructed to record their emotional reactions in that moment (which can typically be described using single words, e.g. anxious, scared, terrified). Clients should be encouraged to rate the intensity of these sensations on 0–100% scale.
- In the fourth column (Body sensations) clients should be instructed to record associated body sensations (e.g. tightness in my stomach).
References And Further Reading
- Beck, A.T., Rush, A.J., Shaw, B.F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.