Will a fitness monitor / watch hamper or help my anxiety?

[Busby88]

Sorry didn’t know where to put this but basically I’m thinking of getting a FitBit if there are any available at a decent price in the Prime Day deals tomorrow.

I do however suffer with health anxiety. I’d like to think that the health monitoring would actually reassure me, and also it will hopefully nudge me into being more active which will in turn make me healthier, something I’m desperate to achieve (am obese). But also just wondering if a tracker like this is likely to make me worry more?

Anyone with experience of health anxiety find something like this helps them?

I’ve worked really hard to get my anxiety in general under control but at the moment health anxiety specifically does keep flaring up!

I have health anxiety and for me it would make it worse. That said, my specific phobia is heart rate and blood pressure related and as part of previous treatment, I was told to reduce checking. That wouldn’t be possible with a fitbit or similar which has HR tracking.

I have anxiety. I got gifted an Apple Watch and the heart rate tracker and oxygen saturations made my anxiety worse. It eventually turned into an obsession, constantly checking my heart rate and looking at my results first thing in the morning. I took it off after about 1 month once I realised what it was doing to me and it's still on the shelf collecting dust

It did help me achieve my fitness goals and daily targets though so may be worth getting one without the heart rate monitors etc

Yes that’s what I’m thinking. My big anxiety at the moment is over my heart so in my head being able to track it would help, but you’re probably right and it would lead me to check it all the time and panic over every single thing!

Definitely make things worse. Nobody needs to know their heart rate etc, so it's pointless.