Wearables and home health devices can be useful. They can also become a private little panic machine on your wrist, bedside table or bathroom shelf. I should state before I go any further, that I am an early adopter of all forms of tech, and more so with wearables due to some problems I have had with my health. Originally I found them useful, but now I want to stand back, and look at them as a psychologist, and discuss how a person with anxiety, or health anxiety might interact with them in a way that doesn’t help. I am not saying the problem is with the wearables, far from it, but rather, I want to alert you to problems with, for example, reassurance, checking and monitoring.
I am talking about Apple Watch heart-rate checks, ECG features, smart rings, blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, thermometers, glucose monitors, sleep trackers, symptom apps and anything else that gives you a number about your body.
For some people, these devices support health. For someone with health anxiety, they can quietly become a reassurance ritual.
In my work with health anxiety, I have seen the checking shift over the years. It used to be pulse-taking, blood-pressure machines and repeated symptom searches; now a watch or ring can provide a fresh number every few minutes. When I suffered really bad with panic attacks years ago, I silently took my pulse, or checked the pulse on my neck, but now, the technology has changed. The anxiety loop has not. If you keep checking until the number feels safe, the device is no longer just giving you information — it is being recruited into reassurance.
The difference is not the device. The difference is how you use it.
The medical boundary first
Some people have been asked by their GP, consultant or nurse to monitor something at home. If that is you, follow the medical plan you were given. Do not stop medically advised monitoring because of an article online.
But if you are checking to calm anxiety rather than because a clinician asked you to collect specific information, this page is for you.
How a health device becomes part of health anxiety
It often starts innocently.
You feel a flutter in your chest, so you check your heart rate. It is a bit high. Anxiety rises. You check again. It changes. You search what the number means. You sit very still to see if it comes down. You check again. Then you avoid walking upstairs because you do not want the number to rise.
Or you take your blood pressure. It is higher than you expected. You panic. You retake it immediately. It is higher again because you are now frightened. You take it ten more times. By the end, you have not learned anything reliable about your blood pressure. You have learned that numbers can terrify you.
In CBT terms, the device has become a checking or safety behaviour. It lowers anxiety briefly, then keeps the fear alive.
A simple test: health monitoring or reassurance checking?
Ask yourself these questions.
- Did a clinician ask me to take this measurement?
- Do I have a specific schedule for checking?
- Do I record the result once and move on?
- Or do I check when I feel anxious?
- Do I repeat the check until I get a number I like?
- Do I feel calmer for a few minutes and then need to check again?
- Am I avoiding normal activities because of what the device might show?
- Have I started trusting the device more than my own life?
If the checking is urgent, repeated and anxiety-led, it is probably part of the health anxiety cycle.
The problem with “just checking once”
Health anxiety often bargains.
I’ll just check once.
But one check asks another question. If the number is high, you panic. If it is normal, you wonder if you checked correctly. If it changes, you wonder which reading is true. If it reassures you, you want that reassurance again tomorrow.
The real issue is not the number. The real issue is the rule your brain is learning:
“I need data before I can feel safe.”
Recovery teaches a different rule:
“I can feel uncertainty in my body without immediately measuring it.”
If your GP has asked you to monitor
Make the plan as specific as possible.
Ask:
- What exactly should I measure?
- How often?
- At what time of day?
- How many readings?
- What should I write down?
- What number or pattern means I should contact you?
- What should I not do?
Then follow the plan like a prescription. Do not add extra checking because anxiety asked for it.
For example, if you are advised to check blood pressure twice a day for a week, do that. Do not check every time you feel a sensation. Do not keep retaking it until it feels right. Do not Google every number. Record it and bring it back to your clinician.
That is health monitoring. The other is anxiety monitoring.
If you are not medically required to monitor: try a 7-day reset
A reset does not have to mean throwing devices away. It means retraining your relationship with them.
For seven days:
- Remove the most tempting health metric from view if possible.
- Turn off non-essential notifications that trigger checking.
- Decide on one planned check only if you genuinely need it.
- Do not check during panic spikes.
- When the urge appears, delay for 20 minutes.
- During the delay, do something physical but ordinary: make tea, walk around the block, fold laundry, shower.
- Record the urge, not the number.
Your record might look like this:
- Trigger: felt heartbeat after stairs.
- Urge: check watch.
- Fear: heart problem.
- Response: delayed 20 minutes, made lunch.
- Outcome: anxiety reduced from 8/10 to 5/10 without checking.
This is the kind of data that helps recovery.
What about heart-rate alerts?
Heart-rate alerts can be genuinely useful for some people. They can also terrify people who have no clinical reason to be monitoring minute-by-minute changes.
Do not decide alone in the middle of panic. Bring it to your GP:
“My watch is increasing my anxiety. Do I medically need these alerts on, and if so, what should I do when they appear?”
If your GP says you do not need to monitor, consider switching off unnecessary alerts. That is not reckless. It may be the psychological treatment step you need.
What about sleep trackers?
Sleep trackers can create a similar problem. You wake up and immediately check how you slept. The device says your sleep was poor, and you begin the day convinced you will not cope. Or it says your heart rate changed during sleep, and you start searching.
Ask:
- Is this helping me sleep better?
- Or is it making me more vigilant?
If it is making you more vigilant, take a break. Your body knows how to sleep better when it is not being audited every morning.
A replacement phrase for checking
When the urge to measure appears, try saying:
“This is an urge to get certainty. I am going to practise not measuring my body for the next 20 minutes.”
Then put the device down and move.
Do not wait until you feel brave. The bravery is in the movement.
How family can help
If you live with someone, tell them your plan.
Helpful support sounds like:
“I know you want to check your pulse. What does your plan say?”
Unhelpful support sounds like:
“Check it and you’ll feel better.”
They may mean well. But reassurance-based help often keeps the loop going.
If checking your health has become a daily loop
My Health Anxiety Course brings this work together in a structured CBT programme. I teach you how to map the checking, reassurance, body-scanning and avoidance cycle, then practise reducing the behaviours that give short-term relief but keep the fear going.
You do not have to ignore genuine health concerns. The work is learning the difference between sensible healthcare and anxiety asking for another check.
The point to remember
Health technology gives information. Health anxiety turns information into interrogation.
You are not trying to become careless with your health. You are trying to stop treating every body sensation as a data emergency.
A healthier relationship with wearables is possible. The rule is simple:
Use devices when they are medically useful. Do not use them as a ritual to feel certain.
FAQs
Should I stop wearing my Apple Watch if I have health anxiety?
Not necessarily. The question is whether it is helping your health or feeding compulsive checking. If alerts or metrics are increasing anxiety, discuss what you medically need with your GP.
Is checking my pulse a compulsion?
It can be. If you check repeatedly to feel reassured, especially during anxiety spikes, it may be maintaining health anxiety.
What if my device shows something abnormal?
Follow the medical advice for your device and speak to your GP or urgent services if needed. After appropriate advice, avoid repeated checking unless your clinician asked you to monitor.
Sources and further reading
- HSE: Health anxiety (hypochondria) — including checking, reassurance and gradual reduction of these behaviours.
- NHS: Health anxiety — signs, self-help and when to speak to a GP.