General Question: Coping with Health Anxiety

[JoyInTheMorning]

Ever since I was a young child, I have suffered to one degree or another with health anxiety. This is partly due to the fact that I really do have an extremely rare and severe medical condition. Things were not improved by the fact that both my mother and my sister have been diagnosed with MS. Now, my anxiety is off the charts, and I tend to view every quirk in myself or others as cause for tremendous alarm. The Internet doesn't help--the NMP site is accurate here when it states that the most common, dramatic ailments are the first to appear in search engines.

When I was young, I simply turned to books for help. However, back then, I was worried about less obscure conditions than I am now. Now, I worry about rare, obscure illnesses for which I meet few or none of the risk factors. Case in point: I have been known to link a difficult night's sleep with a condition with which only about eight people were ever diagnosed worldwide! I'm writing this because I'm suffering from a good deal of anxiety now--the specifics aren't important, but it's an absolute fact that I'm really nervous. All I really want is comfort or information or both, but if I can't get comfort, then I need information. The trouble is, the Internet is again being its usual unhelpful self.

So, I have a bit of a strange request. Since I seem to need information so badly--particularly information on obscure health conditions--can anyone here recommend a set of good, up-to-date reference books such as might be used in the actual medical profession, books that include lists of symptoms and differential diagnoses? I'm looking for something pretty comprehensive, no matter how technical. I've been in hospitals and around "doctor-talk" long enough to understand most technical information, and what I don't understand I can then look up.

And, even if you don't know of any such books, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this "treatment method". I know it's unconventional, and a psychologist I saw once told me that he didn't really advise it, because it might give me more fodder for anxiety. However, I would only use the books to look up conditions that I was already concerned about--not to scan and skim to fuel my anxiety. Has anyone tried this? Does it work? Should I leave well enough alone? If the Internet didn't work, will this method work? Is knowledge power, or is ignorance bliss? I'm sincerely interested in any suggestions or advice anyone may have to offer. Thanks!

[anthrokid]

I know it sounds like it would be helpful in theory, but in practice is is usually more detrimental than helpful. As a training psychologist, I would also advise AGAINST this method. Knowledge is not necessarily power, and you'll actually find that there is a moderate rate of medical students with health anxiety due to this. They are exposed to these books and read a huge deal about obscure illnesses, and can often become nervous and fearful of developing or already suffering from them whilst they are training. It happens in psychology too - I have known quite a few fellow students in my time to scour the diagnostics books and panic when they realise that they could very well fit into categories for a number of mental illnesses. Listed symptomology isn't the only factor in diagnosis, and this is why there are people who are trained in specific areas of diagnosis.

I really hope that didn't sound like a lecture, haha. I'm just trying to share with you the opinion of someone who is trained to work with health anxiety :)