Google'ing Tip

[sl1nky]

If you find yourself absolutely needing to google something related to your symptom, include "anxiety" or "forum" at the end of the search query, it'll relate much better and wont cause you significantly more distress and worry. :yesyes: Though do try to avoid googling in the first place, try calling the Samaritans or a help line, or even 111 (but they can over speculate).

I know there's a tip section and moderators may feel obliged to move this post to there but i feel maybe some people who visit might not see it.

[LilGsMama]

Good tip! I've found that adding the word "Forum" at the end of whatever I feel I need to Google cuts out most of the SCARE sites and more often than not gives me an interesting discussion with people with similar problems/advice.

Best that I don't Google at all but hey, it's a start :winks:

[Alwaysalert]

The forum tip us a good idea honestly. You see that tons of people have your issues and give good advice.

[KeeKee]

I think that's really good advice. I like to type in 'no more panic' at the end if I'm googling as I can't use the search feature on this site from my mobile for some reason.

[androidz]

You can also type "-cancer" (or any other word you fear) at the end of your query, without the quotation marks, for example: "shortness of breath -cancer".

What this does is remove from the results all the sites with that word, because let's face it, it's not a realistic outcome for any of us here :D.

[Yorkshire born]

Great tip.

Places like here are a brilliant Google substitutes. Once I found this site I was able to start to put my symptoms in context, realize just how common anxiety symptoms are (like many I didn't even believe I was suffering from anxiety at first) and that they are totally benign, though very unpleasant. None of us would be here if our all our symptoms turned out to be what we thought they were :blush:

Of course there is nothing wrong with a check up at the doctors if you have new or worsening symptoms but if you feel the need to check them out online, you get a far more reasoned response on places like here than from Dr Google.

[Fishmanpa]

If you find yourself absolutely needing to google something related to your symptom, include "anxiety" or "forum" at the end of the search query

I suggested this as well several times. Good tip for sure.

Positive thoughts

[androidz]

Of course there is nothing wrong with a check up at the doctors if you have new or worsening symptoms but if you feel the need to check them out online, you get a far more reasoned response on places like here than from Dr Google.

What hypochondriacs tend to forget is that Google is not a diagnosing tool, it's just a search engine based on a keyword hit algorithm, which put in simpler words means that you'll always get the most dramatic/sinister/funny/weird results first because those are the ones that people are the most interested in, either out of curiosity, fear, boredom or whatever.

For example... if you google "door opens on its own", in the first few results you'll get websites talking about paranormal events, ghosts and poltergeists and other silly stuff like that, when the most likely reason for a door to be opening on its own is because the hinges might need some lubricant or some fixing. But people are more attracted to weird paranormal stuff like ghosts so you'll get those results first, eventhough it's clearly stupid and that is not the reason why your door opens on its own.

The same happens with health concerns and symptoms. Eventhough a sore throat means a strep throat or a simple common cold in 99,99% of the cases, people googling stuff like "sore throat cancer" are the culprits that innocent hypochondriacs get these results in the first page when they google "sore throat", because google links the keywords sore throat + cancer and shows you the results with the most hits :p

[MyNameIsTerry]

What hypochondriacs tend to forget is that Google is not a diagnosing tool, it's just a search engine based on a keyword hit algorithm, which put in simpler words means that you'll always get the most dramatic/sinister/funny/weird results first because those are the ones that people are the most interested in, either out of curiosity, fear, boredom or whatever.

For example... if you google "door opens on its own", in the first few results you'll get websites talking about paranormal events, ghosts and poltergeists and other silly stuff like that, when the most likely reason for a door to be opening on its own is because the hinges might need some lubricant or some fixing. But people are more attracted to weird paranormal stuff like ghosts so you'll get those results first, eventhough it's clearly stupid and that is not the reason why your door opens on its own.

The same happens with health concerns and symptoms. Eventhough a sore throat means a strep throat or a simple common cold in 99,99% of the cases, people googling stuff like "sore throat cancer" are the culprits that innocent hypochondriacs get these results in the first page when they google "sore throat", because google links the keywords sore throat + cancer and shows you the results with the most hits :p

I agree with you. Cognitive Distortions need to be understood to challenge the thinking.

Someone with HA Googles and sees 100 different possible illnesses and 99 of them are minor but 1 is major, they discount all the minor ones and zoom in on the major one even though is may be the least possible. That's all explained in Cognitive Distortion hence why it is so important to understand them as they will just be happening until you spend time learning about your own.

Also, people often don't think how a medical professional would, they don't just look for symptoms to confirm an illness (or make a preliminary or partial diagnosis) they also look to disprove it with symptoms that can't exist in that illness. I find people with HA struggle with this as they are drawn to that major illness that has their focus.

Then there is the issue of multiple problems with no connection. People with HA often seem to look at them as a whole when some could be anxiety thus weakening the case for the more major issue that then slots into a more minor one. This is tricky though and perhaps more for a doctor.

---------- Post added at 05:57 ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 ----------


Though do try to avoid googling in the first place, try calling the Samaritans or a help line, or even 111 (but they can over speculate).

111 yes, but I don't think we should call The Samaritans unless you are really desperate with your anxiety. You have to think about the other people who need their support so unless you are one of those people, just use a forum like this or the chat room.