Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment that helps patients identify patterns of thinking and behavior that maintain anxiety and gradually develop more adaptive ways of responding. For patients with health anxiety, this often includes learning to tolerate uncertainty, reduce excessive reassurance seeking, and respond differently to physical sensations and health-related thoughts.

Exposure-based CBT helps patients gradually approach situations, sensations, thoughts, or uncertainty that they have learned to fear or avoid. Rather than repeatedly trying to eliminate anxiety or obtain certainty that nothing is wrong, patients learn that they can experience uncertainty and uncomfortable sensations without automatically responding with avoidance, checking, or reassurance seeking. The goal is to distinguish reasonable medical care from anxiety-driven behaviors that have become excessive or repetitive.