Safety behaviors are what we do to try and prevent or reduce the anxiety we are experiencing from a given symptom, bodily sensation or bodily function. The three main types of safety behaviors related to health anxiety are reassurance-seeking, checking and preventive. All of these behaviors might reduce anxiety in the short-term but they most definitely increase it over the long-term. Why? Because we learn to rely on them to achieve a sense of safety and rob ourselves of the opportunity to see t