Would you consider health anxiety to be a form of OCD?

[Jeninthesky]

My therapist seems to think that I'm presenting with obsessive compulsive disorder, manifesting through obsessing about illnesses and then feeling compulsion to research them online.

I do both, and I do obsess, but I can't say that the researching would be a compulsion in the classic sense of the term. I'm not anxious when I'm not research, and the research makes me feel worse, not better.

What do you guys think?

[tn13]

I think it has a lot in common with OCD, especially the Pure O type. We ruminate over the same things and can't get them out of our minds even when we know it doesn't make sense, the same as people with OCD. I wish HA was classed as its own disorder because it's a pretty unique beast altogether.

[Rachel W]

I would say perhaps you could have OC tendencies by getting stuck on certain worries, but as someone with OCD then I don't consider my health anxiety as the same as my OCD as my OCD is extremely focused on contamination fears and has nothing to do with health as I don't fear germs and getting sick from contamination (with me it is the actual disgust of having something to do with people on me (people I don't know or who seem to be less clean, or if they have contaminated things of mine in the past after having been places i don't know, I may then associate them with a negative experience so then I fear their contamination directly).

[joelhall]

With psychological disorders there is considerable overlap, and often concurrent problems. OCD itself is an anxiety disorder as it shares common patterns and signs with the other anxiety disorders. Personally I think the lines are blurry with diagnostics.

[swajj]

I thought my HA might be related to OCD in some way but my psych says I'm just a perfectionist (apparently this is bad) so I'm trying not to do that anymore lol. I'm also not allowed to feel empathy for people suffering serious illnesses because according to my psych people with HA should avoid feeling empathy. We can feel sorry for people with serious illnesses but should never let ourselves identify with what they may be feeling. It makes sense when you think about it.