My Health Anxiety Means I Won't Use Apple's or Samsung's Smartwatches. Here's Why

A few years ago, I was convinced I was about to die. And while (spoiler alert) I didn't, my severe anxiety around health and my tendency to always jump to the worst conclusions has persisted. The increase of health-tracking watches like Apple's most recent Watch Series 11 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 -- along with new ways that AI tries to analyze and inform us of our body's data has led me to make an important decision. For my own peace of mind, AI and constant tracking needs to stay far away from my personal health. I'll explain. Sometime around 2016, I had severe migraines that persisted for a couple of weeks. My anxiety steeply increased during this period because of the constant worry. When I eventually called the UK's NHS helpline and explained my various symptoms, they told me I needed to go to the nearest hospital and be seen within 2 hours. "Walk there with someone," I distinctly remember them telling me, "It'll be quicker than getting an ambulance to you." This call confirmed my worst fears -- that death was imminent. As it turned out, my fears of an early demise were unfounded. The cause was actually severe muscle strain from having hung multiple heavy cameras around my neck for an entire day while photographing a friend's wedding. But the helpline agent was simply working on the limited data I'd provided. As a result, they'd -- probably rightly -- taken a "better safe than sorry" approach and urged me to seek immediate medical attention, just in case I really was at risk. The Apple Watch has always had a variety of heart-rate tracking tools and I've always avoided them. I've spent most of my adult life struggling with health anxiety, and episodes such as this have taught me a lot about my ability to jump to the absolute worst conclusions despite there being no real evidence to support them. A ringing in my ears? Must be a brain tumor. A twinge in my stomach? Well, better get my affairs in order. I've learned to live with this over the years, and while I still have my ups and downs, I know better about what triggers things for me. For one, I learned never to Google my symptoms. Because no matter what my symptom was, cancer was always one of the possibilities a search would throw up. Medical sites -- including the NHS's own website -- provided no comfort and usually only resulted in mind-shattering panic attacks. Sadly, I've found I have a similar response with many health-tracking tools. I liked my Apple Watch at first, and its ability to read my heart rate during workouts was helpful. Then I found I was checking it increasingly more often throughout the day. Then the doubt crept in: "Why is my heart rate high when I'm just sitting down? Is that normal? I'll try again in 5 minutes." When, inevitably, it wasn't different (or it was worse), panic would naturally...

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