But there is help to be found for the one to two percent of Danes who are affected by treatment-requiring health anxiety.
If the corona crisis has caused a health anxiety, you can get help from an online offer in the Central Jutland Region, which is now widespread throughout the country.
Lisbeth Frostholm is a leading psychologist and professor at the Research Clinic for Functional Disorders at Aarhus University Hospital, which is behind the offer.
She believes it may help some of their patients not to go to a doctor first.
– In Denmark, we fortunately have a general practice, but for some patients it can be a barrier that you have to go to your own doctor, she says.
One of the symptoms of health anxiety may be that you get recurring thoughts about a suspected disease – such as covid-19 – that are difficult to stop again.
Some patients are afraid to seek medical attention.
The treatment lasts 12 weeks, during which you are in constant contact with a psychologist and complete various modules. Either you refer yourself or are referred by a doctor.
If you refer yourself, you must fill out a questionnaire. If the psychologists at the clinic believe that you may have health anxiety, you come to an interview before any treatment.
The reference can always be withdrawn.
Because the offer was expanded due to covid-19, the pandemic fills a lot for the patients, says Lisbeth Frostholm.
– For some it has been difficult to leave home. Some have had very many control strategies to avoid infection, which has made it difficult for them to have a proper quality of life, take care of their work or find a way to be with friends and family.
Torsten Bjørn Jacobsen, chairman of the Psychiatric Foundation, is positive about expanding the offer.
– It is perhaps one of the positive effects of having a pandemic. There are a wide range of treatments that are provided as remote treatment.
– It’s probably something that has come to stay because it’s convenient, it’s easy, and in fact it also provides a good service, he says.
The offer, which is now being expanded, started as a research project in 2015.
Since the clinic started the offer, several hundred have been through the process, according to Lisbeth Frostholm. She estimates that they have had 50 people through the course since it was expanded last year.
Lisbeth Frostholm says that one of the benefits of online treatment is flexibility.
– Of course, online treatment is not for everyone, but the opportunity to sit in your own home and log on to your tablet or PC and work with the methods that we have shown to be effective has some advantages, she says.
She mentions, among other things, that patients do not have to spend time on transport and that they can follow the treatment at the time of day that suits them best.