Highlights
Some medical anxiety can go beyond “white coat syndrome.”
Illness anxiety disorder may cause some people to avoid medical care, while others seek excessive testing and reassurance.
Experts share six ways to help break the cycle of doctor anxiety—and when to speak with a mental health professional.
If an upcoming doctor visit has you spiraling days (or even weeks) beforehand, you’re not alone—nearly half of Americans report feeling anxious before doctor appointments, according to a OnePoll survey of 2,000 people.
Whether it’s the appointment itself or the bad news you’re convinced you’ll hear, experiencing anxiety around medical appointments takes a toll on more than just your peace of mind. For some people, it can create a relentless cycle that may cross from everyday worry into a more serious condition.
Ahead, we spoke with experts to help explain why some people experience stress around doctor visits, how to recognize when anxiety may be becoming a bigger problem, and practical ways to break the pattern.
Common reasons people dread doctor appointments
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According to Phil Lane, MSW, LCSW, a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, the reasons for feeling worried before a doctor’s appointment can vary from person to person, but they often share a theme.
“The most common reasons are anxiety or trauma-related, often driven by a past negative experience,” he says. The clinical term for a fear of doctors is iatrophobia, which is estimated to affect 2% of American adults and 19% of children and adolescents, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Explains the Clinic: “The word originates from ‘iatros,’ the Greek word for healer, and ‘phobos,’ which means fear.”
Importantly, this is different from “white coat syndrome,” which the Cleveland Clinic states is also known as “white coat hypertension,” essentially meaning that some people’s anxiety around doctors’ appointments can make their blood pressure readings higher in an office setting than it would normally be at home.
The most common reasons for doctor anxiety include:
A bad experience with a doctor
Going through multiple doctor visits and tests as a child to manage a health condition
Having a chronic condition or disease that requires frequent tests or treatments
The previous loss of a loved one to a medical condition or accident while they were receiving care from a doctor
Fear of receiving a life-threatening diagnosis
Having a family history of phobias or anxiety disorder
Along with emotional worry, physical symptoms can also show up with iatrophobia, including dizziness, dry mouth, extreme dread, nausea, profuse sweating, rapid breathing or heart rate, and shaking or trembling.
The difference between iatrophobia and illness anxiety disorder
Iatrophobia is a specific fear of doctors, medical settings, or the appointment itself, whereas illness anxiety disorder—formerly called hypochondriasis—is an ongoing, clinical-level worry about having or developing a serious medical condition.
Those diagnosed with illness anxiety disorder may obsess over normal bodily sensations and misinterpret them as signs of serious illness, including conditions like cancer, ALS, or heart disease. A 2024 review of research estimates that this disorder affects roughly 2.1% to 13.1% of the general population.
“There’s a significant portion of people that worry about serious illness, and they don’t want to feel or think this way,” says Karen Cassiday, PhD, ACT, owner and clinical director of The Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago and author of Freedom from Health Anxiety. “They wish they could enjoy their good health, but they’re just trapped in this cycle of feeling like [they] can’t tolerate uncertainty. And then they notice some physical sensation, and instead of thinking that it’s most likely nothing, or an odd ache or pain, they get stuck on it. [They] think about all the worst-case scenarios.”
What does illness anxiety disorder look like?
When health anxiety becomes a persistent or dominating theme in your life, it’s worth paying attention to—especially if it starts to interfere with your day-to-day life.
Experts explain that illness anxiety typically presents in two ways: care-avoidant or care-seeking.
Care-avoidant behavior
“There’s one group that has worries about their health, where they put off getting tests or screenings or annual physicals because they’re convinced they’re just going to get bad news,” says Dr. Cassiday. “[They will] sit on it rather than go talk to a doctor, because they think they know what they’re going to say.”
This care-avoidant behavior may also cause someone to dodge conversations or news articles about illnesses—such as a seemingly healthy person developing cancer—for fear they may relate to or see themselves in the story.
“The rest of us react to by going, ‘Oh gosh, that’s sad,’ but someone with true [illness anxiety] will feel like they either have to read it because they need to make sure it’s not them, or are terrified to read it because [they might] recognize things that are [similar to] their symptoms,” Dr. Cassiday explains.
Avoiding routine checkups can potentially cause you to miss health problems until they’re harder to treat, Lane adds—turning manageable issues into something more serious. He adds that instead of easing anxiety, this kind of avoidance usually feeds it, as fears about what might be wrong build up over time.
Care-seeking behavior
On the other hand, care-seeking individuals want to monitor their health, often to the point it becomes excessive.
“They over-respond to their fear by going to unnecessary doctor visits, undergoing unneeded tests and scans, and overusing the medical profession in order to find reassurance for anxiety,” Lane says. “[They] may potentially put themselves into financial trouble and mis-prioritize their lives by making medical procedures more important than other obligations.”
Dr. Cassiday adds that reassurance seeking can also signal illness anxiety, which involves a constant need to seek out information online or from others to determine whether their symptoms are worrisome.
“They tend to ‘white knuckle’ their way through doctor appointments,” she says. “They make the appointment, but it’s like their life is ruined for weeks ahead of it. They’re not sleeping, they’re feeling achy, and they’re quite hypervigilant—constantly noticing and scanning the sensation or the symptom that they suspect is the beginning of the end.”
How to help break the cycle of doctor anxiety
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Occasionally worrying about your health or upcoming doctor visit is natural—but when it severely impacts your thoughts and decisions on a daily basis, experts recommend considering a few self-help strategies:
1) Reframe your thinking around medical appointments and settings
“Rather than seeing [medical offices] as clinical locations where we go to find out bad news, we can view them as supportive places that foster and monitor our physical health,” suggests Lane.
He encourages people to fully vet their medical providers and ensure they are comfortable with their treatment approach, bedside manner, and skill level.
2) Take an active role in your treatment
To help you feel more at ease, Lane recommends asking questions, taking notes, speaking up about any concerns, and, if needed, bringing someone along for support.
“Patient autonomy is very important in helping individuals feel less anxious about medical treatment,” he emphasizes. “Too often, we are silenced by anxiety, but a part of autonomy is remembering that we have a voice in our medical treatment.”
3) Remember that medical check-ups are preventative
Doctor check-ups are meant to monitor your health, catch small issues early, and keep things running smoothly—not address something terrible that’s already happening.
“As uncomfortable as it can be to think that we might find out something negative about our health status, it would be even more uncomfortable to find out that it’s too late to do anything about it,” Lane notes.
4) Identify and cut back on reassurance seeking
It’s important to pay extra close attention to how you approach your health concerns, especially if you’re:
Constantly searching online regarding possible symptoms
Obsessively checking body lumps, rashes, or other minor symptoms
Repeatedly using at-home testing to monitor things like pulse or blood pressure
Asking others for reassurance on a perceived health issue (i.e., “Does this rash look normal to you?”)
Scrutinizing your stool every time you go
Dr. Cassiday recommends making a conscious effort to avoid constant online searches and getting rid of health-monitoring apps that fuel unnecessary worry.
5) Avoid coming to your own health conclusions
Building your own “diagnosis” through Google searches and at-home testing—along with constantly checking on minor bumps, bruises, and other “body noise”—can backfire, says Dr. Cassiday. The more you poke and prod, the more you can irritate the area and make it feel more painful or noticeable, which then fuels even more anxiety.
“If we imagine something scary, we react the same way we do as if we actually encounter the real situation,” Dr. Cassiday explains. “It’s what makes watching movies or plays or going to amusement parks thrilling, but it’s also what makes worry so unpleasant.”
6) Know when to seek professional help
If addressing doctor or illness anxiety on your own isn’t helping, it’s best to reach out to a mental health professional—especially if it’s starting to overwhelm your daily life or concern the people around you, says Dr. Cassiday.
Typically, professional treatment options include psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), therapeutic exposure, group therapy, and antidepressants.
A helpful reminder
As Dr. Cassiday points out, worrying is often focused on an “imagined awful future that hasn’t happened yet.” While it’s natural to feel nervous before a doctor appointment, letting anxiety control your decisions can keep you trapped in a cycle of avoidance, reassurance-seeking, and uncertainty.
“It’s normal for us not to know what our future holds, and that’s not a bad thing,” she says. “The best thing we can do is learn not to worry and learn to live well now.”
About the experts
Phil Lane, MSW, LCSW, is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist who specializes in treating anxiety and panic, chronic stress, trauma, life transitions, and men’s issues.
Karen Cassiday, PhD, ACT, is the owner and clinical director of The Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago and author of Freedom from Health Anxiety. She is a nationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders in children, teens and adults, she has conducted extensive research into anxiety.
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