To show how ridiculous Dr Google can be...

[username001]

So one of my friends has mild HA, it never really bothers her much but I was speaking to her for a bit last night and she said she Googled her symptoms. Dr Google of course said the following;

If the pain persists see a doctor
If the pain goes away see a doctor
If you experience weight loss see a doctor
Unexpected weight gain? You got it, see a doctor!

Gave me some insight as to how ridiculous it can be sometimes, it literally contradicts itself - we laughed about it, hope you all can get a chuckle out of it too!

[MyNameIsTerry]

:doh::D

Have you ever seen Russell Howard's sketch covering the causes of cancer as reported by the newspaper? That was equally funny & contradictory. It was about what made you a risk and at one point it flashed up Man or Woman. There were a few like that.

[username001]

Haha no I've not seen it - it is crazy though, like I'm not worrying about anything right now so I can take a step back and look at it and go wow, online advice is so inaccurate - but a week ago when I had a bad back (still have one but saw a GP, he wasn't worried) I was convinced it was cancer - and all the symptoms I 'had' - even though one of my imaginary symptoms, pins and needles and/or tingling - isn't even a symptom of a spinal tumour at all according to the GP! Our minds do crazy stuff to us

[MyNameIsTerry]

We all have our blind spots with anxiety. I am fine with health issues (I have GAD & OCD) but constantly struggle with time and obsessions around it. It does help having people to bounce things off on here, I think it's better than stewing at home non stop although these places are worse for some people too.

That's the thing I've noticed about HA, the focus on the symptoms that fit but forgetting about the ones that scream it can't be that. Tunnel vision is a big problem and them comes to spiralling catastrophizing and it's hard to see outside of it. Like someone used to say on here a while ago, until someone actually created cancer in a medical dictionary, how could you have worried about it?

[username001]

Yeah that's exactly it - I think as well what a lot of people forget is that cancer, which is the main one most people worry about, isn't a subtle illness. If you had it and it was progressing - You'd more than likely know about it, your immune system would be shot, you'd be fatigued and weak through your body trying to combat it - it's not something that will silently creep up on you in most cases - which most people forget, myself included