Googling

[sugarandspice]

I cant stop googling things. Yellow in stool and abdominal issues???? Yup. Must be Colon cancer right?? I can't tell if I'm crazy or if it's a real thing I should be worried about [emoji847] Breasts tender?? Breast cancer. Asthma is lung cancer. Those are the basic things I worry about. I have a hard time telling when I should actually ask the doctor or worry about things.

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[ShaunRyder]

I was exactly like that at one point. Have you been to the doctors about your anxiety?

[BazB44]

not just googling, but reassurance seeking is just as bad. Some of the people on here are awesome, great help, but when I had no internet for a month awhiiiiiiiile back and wasn't on here....my symptoms disappeared lol. These sites are so addicting.

[Elen]

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1760556#post1760556

Please read the below post from Admin. You are posting about a lot of different things frequently. Perhaps start a thread where you can keep all of your worries in one place.


Can posters, especially those who are posting a lot about a variety of fears please confine their posts to one thread.

This helps others to build up a clear picture of what is happening and makes it easier to offer suitable advice.

You may not see the pattern but usually it is there, especially if you are posting frequently about different things.

Due to technical problems it is proving difficult to merge posts so for the moment any posts that we feel should be on a previous thread will be closed, allowing you the opportunity to re-post on your existing thread.

Your co-operation with this would be greatly appreciated.

Elen

[au Lait]

Try this trick to flip the googling habit in your favor. Whenever you feel the urge to google something, add the word anxiety in front of your search and see what kind of results you get. You'll start to see a pattern. A lot of our daily symptoms are byproducts of anxiety and not a serious illness. Instead of getting pages of results about diseases that will only scare you, you'll see pages of posts and articles by hundreds of other anxiety sufferers out there who are experiencing your exact same symptoms due to their anxiety.

Another trick I use is to think how a non-anxious person would feel if they experienced the same symptom. If it's something that they wouldn't think twice about, then that means your fears are most likely due to anxiety and not based in a logical reaction to the symptom. Sometimes I will just ask, "Is this something that would freak you out?" If the answer is no, then I let that be the end of it. (be careful with asking though, because if you're asking too often it then becomes reassurance seeking)

Another way you can tell if your fear is based in anxiety is to honestly think about how quickly your fear escalated. Say you have a headache that lasts longer than usual, and instead of considering the less dire possibilities (such as stress), your first instinct is to jump straight to brain cancer...welp, that's anxiety right there. Non-anxious people don't jump from headache to terminal cancer the way we HAers do. Sometimes simply being able to recognize this can help us put our fears in perspective.

I hope some of those suggestions can help you. Take care.