Has anyone ever done this ?

[puppyskin]

Anyone ever gone on wikipedia and diagnosed themselves with rare diseases/syndromes they have never even heard of or heard little about?

[sarahsarah]

Yep. I remember diagnosing myself with White Nile virus and Weil's disease like that. I had never heard of either before.

It shames me to say it but I even used to go through the Macmillan site and look at the symptoms of different kinds of cancer to rule them out. Problem was, for a lot of cancers, the early symptoms are vague/non-specific or even no symptoms at all. As you can imagine, it didn't help.

Have you thought about putting limits on your internet usage, allowing yourself an allotted number of minutes/ hours every day when you are online and turning off your PC/ tablet/ whatever and storing it away when you're not? This has definitely worked for me in the past when I have gone google-crazy. Even on good days/ weeks, I try to make sure I am off the net by 9pm and my iPad is out of reach in a cupboard or drawer somewhere. The days when I do surf the net later in the evening, even if I am not googling health-related matters, well I can definitely tell the difference in my quality of sleep that night. It's definitely worth a try.

The internet is a fantastic thing and I wouldn't want to be without it but I can honestly say I know my HA wouldn't be nearly as bad if I didn't abuse it the way I do.

xx

[rb1978]

Yes I have ... Mainly with types of cancer and, as sarahsarah mentioned, I have been known to go through cancer charity websites, clicking on symptoms pages.

I stopped googling and doing the above a couple of years ago. I still suffer with anxiety (mainly HA) but I really do think avoiding websites full of symptoms was a positive step.

[Tessar]

Long before the days of the Internet, I was convinced I had yellow fever because while i was off school with a cold, i saw on the news that there' been an outbreak of this disease. I am able to laugh about it now......