why do we google?

[roxy90]

Just sat here wondering the rationality of googling our symptoms.

We know it will come up with something serious. We know. We will be more worried than we were to start with. Yet we still do it. Why????

This is coming from someone who has been relatively google free for a couple of months to just having a marathon session and now contemplating writing my will...!

[nomorepanic]

Have you read our sticky thread about Google?

[Tanner40]

Google has it's place, but not for someone looking into HA and their symptoms. Why do we do it? I can only speak for myself, but it was a compulsion. I didn't know where to go, what to do, or who to reach out to during times of anxiety and worry. So I googled in the hopes of finding out that it was merely anxiety. Then when I wasn't satisfied with that answer, as I so rarely was, then I would add another symptom or put in the search words in a different order, until I came up with something that scared me to death.

I try to never google symptoms as it starts out a cycle of anxiety and reassurance needs.

[hadenough]

On the rare occasions I have googled my symptoms (Im too scared to most of the time) it was in the vain hope that there would be a simple, non life threatening reason for the symptoms I was having at the time. Of course it never worked out that way and I always ended up regretting it.

[unsure_about_this]

I been very bad in the past googling my symptoms and running to the GPS every couple of weeks. I fear I have had everything thanks to Googling my symptoms.

Also daily mail health section does not help reading those articles about people being misdiagnosis with something serious.

My CBT coach says that these sites and googling are bad and should trust the GPs more they are the real experts with health, even though I do fear GPs do miss things on the rare time.

[cattia]

I've been googling again lately after doing better for quite a while. I think for me it's a compulsion. I feel like I *have* to do it otherwise I will miss something really important. It kind of feels like if I don't do it I'm not protecting myself. I know how irrational this seems. I always justify it to myself in a million different ways. I often feel shaky and panicky when I'm about to Google because I know it's going to be an anxiety provoking experience.

[rb1978]

I think it's a compulsion for me too.i know how bad it is to do it I really really do but like Cattia said, its that feeling of having to do it just to make sure you've not missed something vital. Why I can't somehow learn that Google never makes me feel better but just increases my anxiety I don't know.

I suppose another element of it is the desire to quickly pop onto google amd instantly get 100% reassurance that you're ok from finding numerous websites all saying your symptoms are nothing whatsoever to worry about.

If only it worked like that in real life.

[Fishmanpa]

If I were to take what I read about my cancer verbatim from what I Googled and believed it, I shouldn't be here. Also, based on my symptoms, Google diagnosed me with Lymphoma and I actually had Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Shows you how much Google knows!

The odds for survival etc. were quite grim. When I spoke with actual survivors and my team of doctors, the picture was quite different.

Now, what would I choose to believe? A slim chance or a really good chance? Google was very negative but the reality was quite different. AND, where are you getting your information and is it up to date? Much of what's out there is old and outdated and beyond that, just not accurate.

It goes back to "If it's on the internet, it MUST be true"... We all know the reality of that! Google is a useful tool but it's an Achilles heel for someone with HA. As an outsider, I can't even fathom believing a computer generated algorithm over a medical professional yet I see it here every day. "My doctor can't be right because Google said......" "He had to have missed something because Google said....."

Can you not see the absurdity of that?

[Tinker28]

Fishmanpa I like your post! Very reassuring, but at the same time I should feel that way cause it should be the normal and so yeah!

[almamatters]

I used to google for reassurance. I had the idea that if I put my symptoms in and it came up with a non serious, benign cause then I was ok. Of course this hardly ever happened and I usually ended up being diagnosed with the C word and then going to my GP and giving them my opinion of what I was suffering from. I try not to google anymore , it has caused me a lot of pain and misery.