Condri
Recovery over reassurance

A practical way out of health anxiety

Health anxiety is not just worrying too much. A sensation or intrusive thought appears, your mind makes it urgent, checking quiets things for a moment, and then doubt comes back with more authority.

Condri helps you practise the skills that change your response: ERP, CBT, ACT, and mindfulness. The aim is not perfect certainty. It is more freedom when uncertainty shows up.

No symptom reassurance No miracle promise Skills for uncertainty
The Shift

The next response is the practice

Checking is understandable. When your body feels strange and your mind is loud, reaching for certainty can feel like the responsible thing to do.

Practice gives your brain another lesson: an uncomfortable sensation can be noticed, uncertainty can be allowed, and your next action does not have to be a search.

01

Name the pull

Notice the urge to search, scan, ask, book, or avoid before you obey it.

02

Let the alarm move

Give anxiety time to rise and fall without trying to force certainty.

03

Return to life

Choose the next useful action while some doubt is still present.

The goal is not to feel certain forever. Recovery means learning that fear can rise and fall without being fed. In one of the largest randomised trials to date, around 66% of participants with health anxiety saw significant improvement following CBT, and an 8-year follow-up reported those gains held. These are findings from the research literature, not promises about any individual outcome.

The Techniques

The skills Condri leans on

These are not wellness buzzwords. Each one gives you a different way to respond when health anxiety gets loud. Condri adapts them into self-help practice; it does not provide therapy, diagnosis, or specific care recommendations.

The shared aim

Less checking. More room for uncertainty. More life on the other side of the alarm.

erp Focus: The safety move

Exposure and Response Prevention

Face the trigger without checking

ERP is the practice of meeting a trigger and not doing the usual safety behaviour. For health anxiety, that might mean noticing the urge to Google, scan your body, ask for reassurance, or book an appointment you do not clinically need.

You do it gradually, on purpose, and at a level you can tolerate. The learning is simple but hard won: anxiety can rise and fall without the check. Over time, the urge loses authority.

Exposure-based approaches have been tested directly for health anxiety, including randomised trials comparing exposure and cognitive therapy .

cbt Focus: The threat story

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Slow down the catastrophic leap

CBT helps you slow down the catastrophic leap. A headache becomes "brain tumour" so quickly it can feel like fact. CBT puts space between the sensation, the story, and the action you take next.

You learn to test the thought without turning the exercise into more reassurance. What else could explain this? What would I say to a friend? Am I solving a real problem, or trying to erase doubt?

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Cooper et al. (2017) found CBT highly effective for health anxiety, with benefits lasting years. Internet-delivered CBT is noninferior to face-to-face therapy (Axelsson et al., 2020) .

act Focus: The argument with doubt

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Choose action while uncertainty is present

ACT is useful when the argument with anxiety has become the whole day. It teaches you to notice the fear, let uncertainty be present, and still move toward the life you care about.

The thought "What if I'm sick?" may still show up. The work is not to win that argument every time. It is to choose the next right action while the thought is there.

Randomised trials show ACT is effective for anxiety disorders (Hayes et al., 2006) .

mindfulness Focus: The body alarm

Mindfulness & Meditation

Notice sensation without escalating

Health anxiety pulls attention into the body like a magnet. Mindfulness trains a different stance: noticing sensations without immediately turning them into evidence.

A tight chest can be observed as tightness. A skipped beat can be noticed as a sensation. That small shift matters, because panic grows when every body signal becomes a case to solve.

McManus et al. (2012) found mindfulness-based cognitive therapy effective for health anxiety in a randomised clinical trial .

In Practice

What this looks like in the app

Knowing the techniques is the easy part. Using them when your chest is tight, your search tab is open, and your brain wants certainty is the hard part. Condri turns those skills into guided self-help exercises; it is not a substitute for professional care.

01

Guided ERP exercises

Practice delaying Googling, body checking, reassurance, and other safety behaviours in small, repeatable steps.

02

CBT thought challenging

Work through catastrophic thoughts without using the exercise as another certainty hunt.

03

ACT practices

Make room for fear and choose an action that belongs to the life you want back.

04

Mindfulness meditations

Guided practices for observing body sensations without escalating them into proof.

05

Calming meditations

Short sessions for when your nervous system is too activated to think clearly.

06

Progress tracking

Track practice, symptoms, and patterns so you can see the longer slope, not just today's spike.

Important: Condri is a self-help app informed by evidence-based approaches. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, therapy, or any recommendation about your health or medication. For anything medical, please speak to a qualified professional. If you are in crisis, find immediate help here.

The Evidence

What the research shows

Numbers below are drawn from published research on the approaches described above. They describe what those trials reported, not outcomes for Condri users.

66%

Improved with CBT

In the CHAMP trial, two-thirds of people with health anxiety saw significant improvement after CBT.

8yr

Benefits can last

An 8-year follow-up of the CHAMP trial reported that CBT gains held without reinforcement.

Digital CBT can work

Internet-delivered CBT was noninferior to face-to-face therapy for health anxiety.

Where to Go from Here

Learn more about health anxiety

Pick the next practical thing, not the scariest rabbit hole. These pages can help you understand your pattern, get support, or prepare for care without turning research into reassurance.

Take the health anxiety quiz

Use the SHAI-14 to get a clearer read on your health anxiety pattern.

Watch expert videos

Clinicians explain the mechanisms and methods in plain language.

Meet the experts

Meet the people whose clinical work shapes the app.

Health anxiety statistics

Prevalence, outcomes, and research evidence without the doom-scroll.

Prepare for a doctor visit

Prepare a concise plan so the appointment stays useful and calm.

Crisis support

Immediate resources for moments that need human help now.
Research Base

Research from leading institutions

These approaches were not invented by Condri. We build on clinical research into CBT, exposure, mindfulness, and internet-delivered CBT for health anxiety. For a deeper look at the data, see all the research and statistics.

University of Oxford

Pioneering research in CBT and mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety disorders.

University of Pennsylvania

Home to the anxiety research centre where ERP was developed.

Imperial College London

Major trials on health anxiety outcomes from the Centre for Psychiatry.

Karolinska Institutet

Pioneering research on internet-delivered CBT for health anxiety from Stockholm.

King's College London

Extensive work in anxiety disorders and health psychology.

Boston University

Leading research on mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety and depression.

University of Cambridge

Significant contributions to psychological research and mental health.

The Lancet

Landmark research that shapes clinical practice globally.

Published research: These references are here for accountability. We use published studies to decide what belongs in the app, then adapt them into self-help practice with clear limits.

References

  1. Tyrer P, et al. Cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients (CHAMP): a randomised controlled trial with outcomes to 5 years. Health Technology Assessment, 2017. doi:10.3310/hta21500
  2. Foa EB, et al. Exposure and Response (Ritual) Prevention for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Therapist Guide. Oxford University Press, 2012.ISBN: 978-0195335286
  3. Weck F, et al. Cognitive therapy versus exposure therapy for hypochondriasis (health anxiety): A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2015. doi:10.1037/ccp0000013
  4. Cooper K, et al. Cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 2017. doi:10.1017/S1352465816000527
  5. Hayes SC, et al. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2006. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006
  6. Hofmann SG, et al. Mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety and depression. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2017. doi:10.1016/j.psc.2017.08.008
  7. McManus F, et al. A Randomized Clinical Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Versus Unrestricted Services for Health Anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2012. doi:10.1037/a0028782
  8. Hedman E, et al. Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for severe health anxiety: randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2011. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.110.086843
  9. Axelsson E, et al. Effect of Internet vs Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Health Anxiety: A Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0940
  10. Tyrer P, et al. Cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients (CHAMP): 8-year outcomes from a randomised controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 2021. doi:10.1017/S003329172000046X

Ready to start practising?

Condri brings CBT, ERP, ACT, and mindfulness into guided self-help practice for the moments health anxiety usually wins: the scan, the search, the reassurance request, and the urge to avoid. It is not therapy or medical advice.

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