How to talk to friend with health anxiety

[aweewhilelonger]

I have a dear friend who has a lot of anxieties around health / medicines / chemicals / 'toxins' etc. She often brings up the latest health scare when we meet, fretting over whichever chemical has been added to foodstuffs or household products etc and how worried she is for her dcs health as a result. I don't know how to respond to her. I have a scientific background, so my approach is to check out the sources and the scientific evidence behind it. 9/10 the 'news' in the reports is being very poorly reported and blown out of proportion (for bigger headlines) by both the groups making the findings, or by the media. Only rarely do they have anything reliable to bring to the debate - and all they are doing while seeking publicity is scaring people like my friend. I don't want to start lecturing her about the science behind it all if that's not going to help. At the same time, I can't nod along with her when it's something I don't agree with - surely that only reinforces her anxiety? Any advice on the best way to respond to her would be appreciated... Changing the subject after a non-committal Hmmm really? Would that be too dismissive?

I don't have much experience with health anxiety. My husband suffers from episodes of psychosis with delusions. The advice for that is to aknowledge the person's distress but not to agree with the unusual thought and not to directly contradict it either. For example "It must be really scary to think that. I don't believe that myself, I believe this". Hopefully someone with more experience will be along soon.

I'd suggest that you just listen, say that it sounds like the paper didn't have all the information and ask at the end if she would like you to check the sources or claims for her. Maybe she goes to you because she knows you have that background. That way, you don't have to agree on the spot and since you would look up the medical journals anyway, just send her later a message saying why it's not correct. That way, you can eventually go back to those messages at some point and say "look, we looked up claims on all these and were wrong, please do consider that this new one is possibly wrong too". Keep repeating it's the media looking to sell papers or get advertising revenue by getting more viewers, as it puts the blame on the media outlets and not on her anxiety or naivety. I think...