Why do we trust Google more than our Doctors?

[Thelegend27]

I've dealt with health anxiety for years, and just like most of you i turned to Google for answers, only to be scared to death of the search results. And after seeing a doctor about 4 small lymph nodes in my neck i was told they are normal nodes after i had a cbc and ultrasound, but i continue to worry because of what Google said and completely ignore the good news and reassurance of my Doctor. Ive seen many of you on here who continue to worry even after your doctors say you're fine. So the question is, why do we believe Google over our Doctors who have seen us in person and has ran tests and everything.

Health anxiety is a nightmare, i constantly wonder if ill be around another year or so because my anxiety has me convinced i have some sort of disease like cancer and such.

My doctor told me to stop Googling symptoms and diseases, she said something on Google may seem like what you're experiencing but it may not even be close, take my lymph nodes for example, Google just uses the word enlarged, and she said enlarged has a wide range of meanings, she said most patients she has seen who have cancerous nodes are the size of golf balls, and that they grow quickly, so when Google uses the word enlarged i assume its talking about my 1 cm lymph nodes and not a 4 cm lymph node but my doctor said that i should always trust the Doctor because they have thousands of patients to reference to and i only have Google, and that most information online wasn't even written by doctors.

Whats your thoughts on all this?

[ServerError]

It's not that people specifically believe Google over doctors, in my opinion. The way I see it, anxiety latches onto uncertainty. It thrives and feeds off the slightest scary possibilities, the gaps in our understanding and the fact that not everything is within in our control.

Anxiety sufferers know doctors aren't flawless. They're human, and can, theoretically, make mistakes. Tests, while almost always accurate, can go awry. That's all true.

Now you might say, "but the same is true of an internet search engine". And you'd be right. But the point is that, when we have anxiety, the logical thing to do - believing doctors and the rational explanation for what we're feeling - gets gnawed away at by the fact that some woman in Spain lost her foot after a stomach ache or some kid in Colorado died of mouth cancer after drinking shower water. The slightest possibility that the worst-case scenario could happen becomes impossible to dismiss because our minds latch onto it. We want to control it, but we can't. And before we know it, we've allowed this lack of control, this outside possibility, to grow into a huge issue in our minds.

Most anxiety sufferers, if you told them to assess somebody else's situation, would believe the doctors, trust the tests and accept the most rational explanation. But because our own lives feel so vulnerable and we know how fragile we really are, it becomes impossible (at least, without help and treatment) to just dismiss the uncertainty and the horror story. We want to be told it will never happen to us, that it couldn't happen to us. And yeah, it probably won't. But it could. And when we have anxiety, that's where the problem lies.

These are just my thoughts. I couldn't give a crap what Google says anymore.

[Chany3284]

Well said ����

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yep, it's not trust of Google or lack of trust in a doctor. It's an anxiety disorder that includes Cognitive Distortions which collide very well with Confirmation Bias.

Learning about them so that you can spot them and create strategies to change this thinking, works very well.

[Thelegend27]

thats a good point of view on the situation, i agree anxiety latches on and you're there for the long ride. i wish i would have never started doing internet searches for my symptoms. and people are scared of the unknown, the possibilities no matter how small the chances are we still feed on the fear of what if. thanks for the responses.

[Catherine S]

Good post. For example, as a long term sufferer of ectopic heartbeats...or palpitations, skipped, missed beats and flutters etc, if I Google this, it will come up with irregular heartbeats and then launch into the description of Arrhythmia, which is an actual heart condition that can lead to having a pacemaker fitted.

In the 1980s before Google, we had a well thumbed medical encyclopedia at our house, and when these palps started for me i'd look up every heart condition and be convinced I had it and instantly panic. But after over 40 years of living with these palps, I know they are a completely different thing. Also of course, the cardiologists have always explained the difference to me over those years and I trusted them...and they were right because I'm still here and living life without a pacemaker!

Google is a great tool, but doctor Google is not so great for hypochondriacs any more than those medical encyclopaedias were before :lac:

ISB ☺ x