View Full Version : Internet-induced health anxiety - Cyberchondria?
cyberchondriaguy
27-01-17, 04:04
Hello all!
For years, I've struggled with health anxiety, whether it has been chest pains giving me heart attack fears, headaches giving me brain tumor fears, or tingling extremities producing fears of a serious neurological condition. Every time I noticed a symptom, I'd search it online. Often, this searching ended up escalating my anxiety, as I'd always be prompted with webpages suggesting I had some kind of serious condition.
As a college student, I partnered up with some health professionals and spent the last few weeks researching this kind of internet-induced health anxiety (cyberchondria). Along with writing a paper on the topic, I've started to create a website in hopes of helping other people who deal with internet-induced health anxiety. The link to this website is on my profile page - I'd love suggestions or comments about it from people who have dealt with this condition in the past.
Has anybody else found that their internet searches have fueled their health anxiety? If so, do you want to share your experience?
Yes. It has been the primary fuel for my health anxiety.
I've always been somewhat of an anxious person, but the internet has kicked it up several magnitudes of severity.
I dare say I wouldn't be suffering from health anxiety right now if i hadnt gone down the google rabbit hole.
I'll check out your site.
Off-loading the blame onto something else in my opinion.
I think nearly every one of us in this subforum have got ourself into a state over Googling symptoms. But too many times I read people on here saying "Google told me I had cancer", "I wish Google didn't exist", "I blame Google", etc.
The thing is Google is a neutral player in all this. All it is a search engine. We type in our fears, and it spits out information based on the words we put in it. It's easier, and more tempting, and huger, and more accessible, but essentially there's no difference between Googling symptoms and holing yourself in your local library poring over medical dictionaries.
Google never tells you have cancer. It points you to information, which you use to tell yourself. It's your anxious mind that forgets to remind you that if you find scary information from the Daily Mail or Fox News it's most likely hysterical horses***t. It's your anxious mind that searches medical information sites and sees "side pain is a symptom of cancer", but misses the bits that mention it's very rare, or there's several other symptoms you don't have, or you're the wrong demographic, or there are hundreds of much more common things that also have this symptom. It's your anxious mind that self-aggrandises you into thinking that you can spend an hour reading complex medical texts online with a layman's understanding and that makes you qualified to question medical professionals who reassure you you're OK.
Having information at our fingertips is a blessing and a curse, and the ease at finding this information is dangerously alluring, but it is not the technology at fault, rather our anxious minds blasting away at our otherwise logical critical skills.
I don't think the original post was trying to blame Google or the Internet, they were merely stating it fuels it, which it does.
Ironically my first ever googling showed up panic attack when I typed in "waking up with racing heart", yet I still managed to develop health anxiety from a few measly nights of panic attacks.
I don't think the original post was trying to blame Google or the Internet, they were merely stating it fuels it, which it does.
Ironically my first ever googling showed up panic attack when I typed in "waking up with racing heart", yet I still managed to develop health anxiety from a few measly nights of panic attacks.
And I think this is why I don't think it's a simple question. I've certainly read things online that have fuelled my HA and sent me into panic. But the Internet also includes a whole host of information that tells you that probability is hugely on your side that you don't have Disease X.
When I had MS fear, I found evidence everywhere online that I had it. I was literally convinced it was a done deal. I don't have Brain Tumour fear, so when other posters on here do I can do a quick Google search and find symptoms, and facts, and statistics, that can help reassure them. If they went to the same websites they would see HEADACHE! and DIZZINESS! and SURVIVAL RATE! and not even register the logical facts I was seeing that pretty much said they didn't have anything to be worried about, just as I was looking at websites and seeing TINGLES! and BLURRY VISION! and DISABILITY! not the bits that, looking back with hindsight a clear head, pretty much ruled me out as having MS.
Which is why I think while the Internet is a dangerous tool for we health anxious types, but the problem is the temporary disintegration of critical assessment of information by our anxiety. The internet's dangerous because it throws more information at us, and amplifies this, and helps it snowball, but I'm always wary of the level of agency some posters (and not necessary the OP here) give "Google" in their own minds. It's spitting out what we tell it to spit out with the fears we put in it.
Exactly.
"internet-induced health anxiety" implies that the internet is triggering the problem.
Seek and you shall find.
Whatever you go looking for you generally find.
Yes I can also Google issues that I don't have a fear of. Yet if it's something I could possibly have 'symptoms' of, I ensure I stay well away from Google. Funny way our minds work. It's also strange how even those of us with health anxiety have different triggers and the likes. For example some people worry over the common cold, I simply cannot imagine how something people of all ages, for many, many years get on a somewhat regular basis can cause worry. However last year I had a spot on my boob and went into full blown panic over IBC.
Many years ago I had a traumatic miscarriage (massive clots and blood pooling on the floor and fainting, sorry if tmi) and I never developed health anxiety from that, yet panic attacks, that weren't even massive panic attacks caused me to develop full blown anxiety.
I agree with keekee. I have asked the question myself. That is, before the internet became easily accessible to everyone, including grandma and grandpa was the incidence of health anxiety significantly different? I believe it was. Before the internet people really only had access to information in hard copy. I remember when I was young my mum had a big medical book which she would look things up in. If she looked up something like liver cancer (hypothetical) there would be one or two paragraphs covering the topic. After all only a certain amount of space can be given over to covering hundreds of medical conditions lol. Now if you were to type liver cancer into Google you would get thousands of paragraphs about liver cancer. With the book you have no choice except to stop reading because of the limited information. The information you can read on the internet is almost unlimited. 15 or so years ago I had my first HA experience. I had the internet but there was a lot less information about medical conditions so I didn't bother looking things up. My next experience of HA was more than 10 years later and by then the internet had become a mine of information. And like most HA sufferers I spent hours every day Googling symptoms etc etc My psychiatrist said to me one day that he wanted me to promise him that I would stop doing it. I did promise him and I usually stick to my promises so from then on I stopped googling. I had the same psychiatrist 15 years ago and he didn't need to ask me to do that. I think your research is fascinating and I would like to read your conclusions. Good luck.
It's not misinformation though. You choose to interpret it how you want.
You search and then panic at the remot/unlikely worst case scenarios.
By the way, I do have HA.
I bash my head, my brain says blod clot. I spent MONTHS in 2014 worrying about lymphoma. I spent a good week or two last year worrying about Leukemia.
I don't have it so much anymore.
The thoughts start with you. The panic starts with you. The googling starts with you. The solution starts with you. Getting better starts with you.
You see where I am going....
I agree with keekee. I have asked the question myself. That is, before the internet became easily accessible to everyone, including grandma and grandpa was the incidence of health anxiety significantly different? I believe it was. Before the internet people really only had access to information in hard copy. I remember when I was young my mum had a big medical book which she would look things up in. If she looked up something like liver cancer (hypothetical) there would be one or two paragraphs covering the topic. After all only a certain amount of space can be given over to covering hundreds of medical conditions lol. Now if you were to type liver cancer into Google you would get thousands of paragraphs about liver cancer. With the book you have no choice except to stop reading because of the limited information. The information you can read on the internet is almost unlimited. 15 or so years ago I had my first HA experience. I had the internet but there was a lot less information about medical conditions so I didn't bother looking things up. My next experience of HA was more than 10 years later and by then the internet had become a mine of information. And like most HA sufferers I spent hours every day Googling symptoms etc etc My psychiatrist said to me one day that he wanted me to promise him that I would stop doing it. I did promise him and I usually stick to my promises so from then on I stopped googling. I had the same psychiatrist 15 years ago and he didn't need to ask me to do that. I think your research is fascinating and I would like to read your conclusions. Good luck.
I don't disagree with anything you're saying, but there is also the flipside of this that the two paragraphs in your grand-parents' medical dictionary didn't offer the mine of information we have about the chances of not having cancer either, that are also on the Internet. The problem isn't the Internet, it's the Internet in the hands of an anxious mind.
And it's not just medical stuff - when I was moving house, I got into an anxious state poring over crime statistics of the new area, that I wouldn't have had access to in analogue times. When I get anxiety about world events, I can find any opinion or "fact" to back up virtually anything. The information age is wonderful, I genuinely believe that, but it's also overwhelming and difficult for handling anxiety of any kind - not just medical.
And also before the Internet, if your grandparents did find themselves suffering from anxiety, they wouldn't be able to chat in a place like this for help, advice, support, etc...?
No but they were more likely to accept their doctor's opinion. It was my mother who owned the medical book not my grandparents. My mother didn't have HA and she didn't know how to use the internet. I understand what you are saying. However if the OP's hypothesis was "The incidence of health anxiety has increased significantly since the advent of the internet" I believe her conclusion would be that it has increased significantly. But I agree with you that without the Internet forums like this one wouldn't exist. However, I might then go on to suggest that this forum should be avoided by some who frequent here because it can act as a trigger. Perhaps not by you or I but definitely by some.
It is certainly a good topic for research, I agree - I'm not suggesting it's not in any of this, just it's a tricky one to necessary ascribe cause and effect to.
Is technology a causer or a facilitator of anxiety? Does it increase the number of people with HA, or simply amplify or change their behaviour? Is any increase in irrational health anxiety offset by people who may have been health anxious and made numerous doctors' appointments without information, but perhaps now are logical enough to navigate online information and talk themselves out of irrationality? How easy is it to differentiate between the two groups? Is it now easier to see HA because HA sufferers congregrate in online space?
MyNameIsTerry
27-01-17, 12:10
Hello all!
For years, I've struggled with health anxiety, whether it has been chest pains giving me heart attack fears, headaches giving me brain tumor fears, or tingling extremities producing fears of a serious neurological condition. Every time I noticed a symptom, I'd search it online. Often, this searching ended up escalating my anxiety, as I'd always be prompted with webpages suggesting I had some kind of serious condition.
As a college student, I partnered up with some health professionals and spent the last few weeks researching this kind of internet-induced health anxiety (cyberchondria). Along with writing a paper on the topic, I've started to create a website in hopes of helping other people who deal with internet-induced health anxiety. The link to this website is on my profile page - I'd love suggestions or comments about it from people who have dealt with this condition in the past.
Has anybody else found that their internet searches have fueled their health anxiety? If so, do you want to share your experience?
Look at excellent responses, particularly from SLA & axolotl (excellent description of the impact of Cognitive Distortions, axolotl).
Are you asking the right question? Is it induces in that it creates anxiety disorder or merely fuels an existing one? You state you were an existing one so it seems the latter but this new label suggests the Internet directly creates it, which I think is a different issue.
I don't have HA so I'll add an example I share (or did) with people on the GAD board. When I was still pretty bad if I read about social unrest, war, terrorism, etc it triggered my GAD. Different to HA being triggered by reading, or rather applying Confirmation Bias, to their symptoms? Nope. Not that different, just that mine was less direct. But then, how could you plan a world around mental health conditions...imagine the censorship all because some people struggle to interpret things correctly?
So, is the news detrimental to people like me? Yep, but then so would reading a book too.
An interesting observation you might want to consider is old sitcoms. Have you ever heard of One Foot In The Grave? Victor has an old medical book. When he consults it he comes up with cancers or other life threatening diseases. His wife tells him off and funnily enough, she says what people on here say. "Stop reading that book, you're not a doctor, you will just convince yourself you have X and worry all week"
They didn't have the Internet back in those days.
lol axolotl maybe all will be revealed if we ever get to read the OP's paper. ��
Google didn't cause my HA but it certainly increased and perpetuated it.
It validated my worries with "evidence".
I would NEVER EVER recommend anyone googling
I had HA before the internet. I used to spend all my lunch hours in the medical section of the book shop looking up medical symptoms. The difference is that on the weekend I had no access to the bookshops, so my fear would die down a little. Over the past years with internet access it has become easier to research symptoms, but as others have said, Google is a tool and it's up to you how you use it, and its never a good idea to google symptoms if you are an anxiety sufferer.
cyberchondriaguy
27-01-17, 16:53
SLA: I agree - the anxiety begins in us. However, I I want to clear up something that you’ve said - I think that there is more misinformation online than we think. Some websites (particularly government/organizational websites) have been shown to have much more accurate medical information than other websites (medical blogs/forums such as this one). That’s not to say that forums like this aren’t immensely helpful for users - however, I don’t know if people fully realize that the accuracy of online health information varies by source.
I don’t think we should simply be accepting the fact that the internet induces health anxiety. There are a handful of actions that can be taken, both on a large scale (changes in how search engines operate) and on a patient-physician scale (increased awareness of the phenomenon) that can ensure that there’s less unnecessary health anxiety fueled by the internet.
SLA: I agree - the anxiety begins in us. However, I I want to clear up something that you’ve said - I think that there is more misinformation online than we think. Some websites (particularly government/organizational websites) have been shown to have much more accurate medical information than other websites (medical blogs/forums such as this one). That’s not to say that forums like this aren’t immensely helpful for users - however, I don’t know if people fully realize that the accuracy of online health information varies by source.
I don’t think we should simply be accepting the fact that the internet induces health anxiety. There are a handful of actions that can be taken, both on a large scale (changes in how search engines operate) and on a patient-physician scale (increased awareness of the phenomenon) that can ensure that there’s less unnecessary health anxiety fueled by the internet.
I think this is a wider issue of poor digital and information literacies, though, that is a factor in how people get misinformation about all topics. Look at the amount of fake news and "alternative facts" out there. A greater public understanding of the veracity of sources goes further than medical issues.
With a some exceptions, however, the majority of people I've chatted to on here are anxious through a misunderstanding of legitimate websites, filtered through a cherry-picking anxious mind, rather than getting scared by BS clickbait.
MyNameIsTerry
27-01-17, 22:14
I think this is a wider issue of poor digital and information literacies, though, that is a factor in how people get misinformation about all topics. Look at the amount of fake news and "alternative facts" out there. A greater public understanding of the veracity of sources goes further than medical issues.
With a some exceptions, however, the majority of people I've chatted to on here are anxious through a misunderstanding of legitimate websites, filtered through a cherry-picking anxious mind, rather than getting scared by BS clickbait.
That's my observation too, it's more about the sufferer than the information.
Sources are one thing but it would be a sticking plaster to not apportion responsibility correctly here.
---------- Post added at 22:14 ---------- Previous post was at 22:12 ----------
SLA: I agree - the anxiety begins in us. However, I I want to clear up something that you’ve said - I think that there is more misinformation online than we think. Some websites (particularly government/organizational websites) have been shown to have much more accurate medical information than other websites (medical blogs/forums such as this one). That’s not to say that forums like this aren’t immensely helpful for users - however, I don’t know if people fully realize that the accuracy of online health information varies by source.
I don’t think we should simply be accepting the fact that the internet induces health anxiety. There are a handful of actions that can be taken, both on a large scale (changes in how search engines operate) and on a patient-physician scale (increased awareness of the phenomenon) that can ensure that there’s less unnecessary health anxiety fueled by the internet.
So, is this solely about existing sufferers being impacted by the Internet? Or a true disorder, which seems to be the indication of giving it a name? Reading your webpage suggests an additional disorder when really this should already be part of the existing disorder. And why is it only health? If it's about the Internet why does it not cover it the way I gave an example for?
GlassPinata
27-01-17, 22:27
Googling symptoms did not induce my hypochondria; I've had hypochondria since before the internet existed.
It was so severe when I was a child- nine or ten- that I convinced my family on several occasions that something was truly wrong and made them take me to the doctor (in one case, it was an unusual-looking mole; in another, a lump on my wrist. Both times I was convinced it was cancer, and my desperation was such that I even convinced my poor father that it might be cancer. Both times, it turned out to be nothing. After that, he quit taking me seriously).
That said, googling symptoms can certainly add fuel to the fire.
But I don't think it's the internet that initially strikes the match.
googling symptoms can certainly add fuel to the fire.
It can also douse the flames if you go looking for evidence to refute your fears.
It's all about how you approach it.
Everytime I read... "Dr Google said...." or "Everything pointed to dick cancer...."
I go... :doh:
When I think about it I have to agree that some information found on the Internet has helped quell my fears. I am a great advocate of the advice given by a past member here, RLR. I still read his posts because they are so informative. His understanding of HA was unmatched in my opinion. Take for example this post of his:
The problem is neither with the tests nor the prospect that you may have metastatic cancer. The problem is unwarranted ruminations that you personally believe your symptoms are somehow related to cancer. Just because you have symptoms that seem strange to you, does not in any way equate them with a serious illness of any kind. You have anxiety disorder with somatic features. Physical symptoms are present but without disease. You are trying with a great deal of effort to convince yourself that your symptoms are directly linked to cancer. As a neurologist with more than 40 years experience, I'm going to have to tell you in a fairly straight-forward manner that the way in which metatstatic cancer presents itself and its effects on the body are nothing comparable to what you are attempting to try and claim. The fact that you lack specific knowledge where this is concerned has allowed fear to strip you of any logical assumptions and alternatively suggest that there's a greater chance than not that something dreadful is wrong.
Your legs feel like jelly because you are out of shape, plain and simple. Muscle twitches are an extremely common phenomenon and predominantly have more to do with early fatigue of muscle than of any type of nervous system malady. Parasthesias or numbness of the extremities is most commonly due to anxiety disorder. Cancer simply does not present itself in this manner whatsoever. You have to realize the illogic of your worries in that you've never been in an environment where people with true cancer are under evaluation and treatment for you to be able to make any sort of real-world comparison. It's like stating that because you have a headache, it's a brain tumor because people with brain tumors have headaches. Well far more people with headaches have sinus conditions, migraine syndrome, tension, etc. and a thousand more causes that we see on a daily basis.
His responses were always written with consideration of the mental state of the person asking the questions (the HA sufferer). The overwhelming majority of information found on the Internet, medical books etc isn't.
GlassPinata
28-01-17, 01:27
"Everything pointed to dick cancer...."
:laugh:
cyberchondriaguy
28-01-17, 01:54
That's my observation too, it's more about the sufferer than the information.
Sources are one thing but it would be a sticking plaster to not apportion responsibility correctly here.
---------- Post added at 22:14 ---------- Previous post was at 22:12 ----------
So, is this solely about existing sufferers being impacted by the Internet? Or a true disorder, which seems to be the indication of giving it a name? Reading your webpage suggests an additional disorder when really this should already be part of the existing disorder. And why is it only health? If it's about the Internet why does it not cover it the way I gave an example for?
Looking at the responses we've had here, it looks like "internet fueled health anxiety" may be a better description for most than "internet induced health anxiety." To me, "cyberchondria" is just a term referring to health anxiety that has either been been brought about or augmented by the internet, rather than by other mediums. Perhaps I've been confusing by using it so broadly. Also, thanks for looking at the website.
I think we're on similar ground in that we don't see this internet-induced/fueled health anxiety as a unique disorder - regardless of whether or not your fears are fueled by Victor's old medical book or by something you see on Google, it's still health anxiety. However, I do think it's important that we realize that health information on the internet nowadays is immeasurably more accessible than it has ever been before, which, naturally, may be making health anxiety more prevalent than ever before.
Referring to your post before, I'm not saying that we must "plan a world around mental health conditions," but I do think that the internet's health anxiety inducing/fueling properties can and should be acknowledged in certain situations.
GlassPinata
28-01-17, 04:17
Looking at the responses we've had here, it looks like "internet fueled health anxiety" may be a better description for most than "internet induced health anxiety." To me, "cyberchondria" is just a term referring to health anxiety that has either been been brought about or augmented by the internet, rather than by other mediums. Perhaps I've been confusing by using it so broadly. Also, thanks for looking at the website.
I think we're on similar ground in that we don't see this internet-induced/fueled health anxiety as a unique disorder - regardless of whether or not your fears are fueled by Victor's old medical book or by something you see on Google, it's still health anxiety. However, I do think it's important that we realize that health information on the internet nowadays is immeasurably more accessible than it has ever been before, which, naturally, may be making health anxiety more prevalent than ever before.
Referring to your post before, I'm not saying that we must "plan a world around mental health conditions," but I do think that the internet's health anxiety inducing/fueling properties can and should be acknowledged in certain situations.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
We- the community of HA sufferers- are not medical professionals (I'm assuming) but literate, mostly-intelligent laymen.
There is a reason why medical professionals go to school and earn a degree.
You can't learn to diagnose yourself simply by reading. Especially when half the material you're reading is of questionable veracity.
We have the ability to (mostly) understand what we read about the symptoms of various diseases, but we lack the scope and breadth of knowledge that medical professionals have. We lack the context, the ability to put things in perspective.
A doctor knows a sore throat isn't throat cancer, because he's diagnosed ten thousand people with sore throats in his twenty-year career; one had throat cancer and the other 9,999 had strep throat or a viral infection.
He would never jump to the conclusion that a sore throat represents throat cancer.
We, having not seen ten thousand patients with sore throats, assume that sinister causes must be much more common than they actually are, and our evil instructor, Dr Google, assures us that we are correct by bombarding us with the word "cancer" anytime we google a sore anything.
That's my take on it, anyway.
But even knowing this does not really help me keep it in perspective, not when it's my throat that's sore. When it involves me personally, I am quick to jump to the conclusion that I am that one unfortunate patient in ten thousand (or a hundred thousand, or ten million, or whatever the case may be).
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