do you google??

[venusbluejeans]

To be honest no idea why I am posting this...But it amazes me how many people with HA have a disease that I have to google to see what it actually is because I have never heard of it.

I am also guessing that these people also hadn't heard of these really rare conditions untill they put their symptoms into dr Google and the it comes up with the very worst condition.. and some of them have a 0.000000000000001% chance of the person actually having.

it isn't just me is it, having to google some of these diseases people (don't) have??

[Fishmanpa]

Not having HA, Google is a great tool. Song lyrics, recipes, most anything you need to know or find out can be Googled. It's great for a non sufferer.

It's very apparent Google is involved in close to 100% of the self diagnosis seen on the boards. It's also the catalyst for close to 100% of the threads and posts written in a panic.

When I see something or someone using medical jargon, I know where it came from ;)

Positive thoughts

[Catherine S]

Yes there are some weird and not so wonderful Dr. Google diseases that people freak out about. If I see something unpronounceable it's probably come from tinternet :D

[Hollow]

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQLJl8ZrYBq3jQ_IgthK-s65Pfa3L80zFnIPpVIzEeQHoJpgXhSrg

[Buster70]

First time I got a ticket to this circus was in the 80s , no internet so researching an illness would mean a trip to the docs as I did and him saying go away there is nothing wrong with you or a trip to the library, back then I got better a lot quicker and carried on with life , then came google to self diagnose skipping the first and most likely and heading straight for the worst case scenario and imminent death , now no need to even google if an illness hasn't been mentioned on here it probably doesn't exist , ignorance was bliss but now we are all hooked :doh:

[swgrl09]

It's a compulsion for many of us ... if you think about it from an obsessive compulsive perspective. HA has a lot of similarities to OCD. I happen to be lucky enough to have both :wacko:

This is what happens for me: I get an obsessive thought that I can't get rid of. I think googling will find a tiny bit of relief. It makes me feel worse, but then I keep googling with hopes I will find just one thing that will make me feel better. Now I've done it and discovered 100 rare illnesses and I have to google those to see if I have them and in hopes that something will relieve my fears. It's all a matter of seeking relief. Do I know it is horrible and leads to me feeling so much worse? Yes. But it's a faulty coping mechanism that I irrationally think will help.

Reassurance-seeking can also be compulsive. For me, when I have obsessive thoughts, there is something about hearing somebody else say that it is normal and not to worry that calms the obsession (albeit very temporarily). When I am stuck in that moment where the obsession feels so scary and like life or death, I feel like I need that small reassurance to survive. I know it sounds dramatic, but when I am not calm and I am stuck in a pattern, it is extremely hard to get out of.

Needless to say I have had a lot of therapy and meds over the years that have helped a lot, but the obsessions still pop up and it's a matter of knowing how to cope with it that helps me now. I google much less than I used to, but we all slip up sometimes.

Most of the time I know it's irrational. That makes it more infuriating to me.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It's a compulsion for many of us ... if you think about it from an obsessive compulsive perspective. HA has a lot of similarities to OCD. I happen to be lucky enough to have both :wacko:

OCD is certainly one of the disorders that fit under HA (since HA isn't a medical term). It's an OCD theme but OCD diagnosis doesn't think about themes at all, only patterns of behaviour. But it's certainly true that some OCDers just don't touch on HA at all, like me. Some straddle the HA line and end up in the same category as the Somatoform Disorders yet there are differences. The same with GADers who experience it, but it's often HA about others rather than themselves.

But it's certainly true that the behaviours themselves can cross into probably any form of disorder where obsession or compulsion is present wouldn't you think?

For instance, and this might be why some on here worry, you could point to someone experiencing a more serious form of mental illness and pick out patterns of behaviour like ours but to a much more extreme level. There is that argument in OCD over the much disputed "poor insight" too but that's obviously not the same as no insight.

---------- Post added at 02:53 ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 ----------

The trouble with the internet, because it's not Google or any one search engine really, is it's quick & hassle free. It matches where society has been going. Before you had a waiting period inserted for you without a choice because you had to go to a library or bookshop. But once it was on the shelf, it was no different.

But now you don't even need to look up the right page, you just type it in and some algorithm does the work for you. So, even less waiting where you have to essentially expose yourself to your feelings.

It's that old argument over whether progress makes things easier but worse. After all, we can thank the internet for increased link up between terrorists and other criminals. They get the same speed increases in accessing their material or liaising.

[venusbluejeans]

What I meant is if someone puts up I have urgiuanfinriugpigub disease...... do you then have to google it to find out what that disease is??

or am I alone in not having that sort of medical knowledge??

****Disclaimer**** urgiuanfinriugpigub is not an actual disease

[swgrl09]

Ah, I read wrong! Heh sometimes I already know from my own google adventures. But there are some that I don't know. I try to not google it just because it's led me down some scary places lol

[MyNameIsTerry]

I read it wrong too.

This one is an easy answer - hell yes! :biggrin: Without being a doctor, a specialist I reckon for many of them, it's just impossible until you've come across it. Then you look up "advanced dermatheranuturalgic disorder" to find its a pimple on the bum *

* this hopefully won't come as a surprise...I made that up :biggrin:

[Carys]

Yep! I have found myself looking up conditions people have mentioned A LOT and acronyms for things too, as they mean nothing to me. In ye olden days, (Im nearly 50) twas not possible and of course it didn't stop anxiety symptoms coming, but it meant you weren't able to as easily relate them to conditions, rare or otherwise. Search engines are a great tool, but we forget that just because it is on the internet it doesn't make it true (theres a huge amount of ill informed rubbish on it) and also being so susceptible with HA you can start going down a route of research which is unhelpful and biased.

---------- Post added at 17:31 ---------- Previous post was at 17:21 ----------

It would be interesting to know if HA is more prevalent since easy internet access. Are people just more fixated on specific conditions now rather than just thinking 'something is wrong'.

[unsure_about_this]

Yes I google health conditions but I also use Google how to pop trophies in PS4 and vita games I am stuck on a number of games. Youtube does not cut it for me now since channels need 4000 hours watch time (within the last 12 months) plus 1000 subs to play ads

[WiseMonkey]

Yep! I have found myself looking up conditions people have mentioned A LOT and acronyms for things too, as they mean nothing to me. In ye olden days, (Im nearly 50) twas not possible and of course it didn't stop anxiety symptoms coming, but it meant you weren't able to as easily relate them to conditions, rare or otherwise. Search engines are a great tool, but we forget that just because it is on the internet it doesn't make it true (theres a huge amount of ill informed rubbish on it) and also being so susceptible with HA you can start going down a route of research which is unhelpful and biased.

---------- Post added at 17:31 ---------- Previous post was at 17:21 ----------

It would be interesting to know if HA is more prevalent since easy internet access. Are people just more fixated on specific conditions now rather than just thinking 'something is wrong'.

Hi,

Before the internet I often had my head in a medical book! But yes, if you google up symptoms, they can present as the most serious of conditions when it's likely to be something simple! This is where our intuition and knowledge about our own bodies should kick in but instead the anxiety creeps in and takes over.

This often comes back to some kind of conditioning/bad experience we've had in childhood (often in our family of origin) that has severely impacted on our psychological and mental well being and ability to reason rationally. I know this was the case with me, am still working on it even at 61 :(

[Confetti]

I know too much about terminal illnesses, patterns of symptoms and progressions and mechanisms of action, I've stopped only because I am way too saturated over the years with knowledge, even if I have never assumed I'd possessed it, I've probably already gathered enough information to never have to do it again lol. I've cut in half how much I leap into the impassive google maelstrom, I'm already overflowing with enough morbid wisdom to never have to do too much delving, I know the score when a core of symptoms strike you and I think I'm able to separate 'big trouble', 'let's wait and see' and 'calm down, get on with your schedule, stop being a worry wart'. I am pretty bleak by nature, well I don't consider being prepared to accept your fate as being sombre, it's more a sobering thing, anything can transpire to a creature on this planet after all. I consider myself able to see the balance in life and hold a balanced outlook, I never blot out or dilute possible deviations and meanderings, anything is on the cards in my mind, beautiful or bloody awful, so I think my deep googlings prove useful in arming myself with the terrible developments that can sprout at any moment!

[Carys]

Thats so interesting confetti, I enjoyed reading your post. So, your ability to rationalise is really strong, mine usually is too (after years of reading medical books in my hypochondrical state decades ago). I am a very rare doctor visitor, and I feel I can more often than not assure myself - actually I have a tendency to come up with least likely causes of any symptoms more often than I should ;o) However, every now and again as a stress symptom the fears resurface.

[GiovanniNL]

I only want to use Google when I need some work related information. No more medical stuff, it is hard but I want to kick Google out of the house.