View Full Version : Does anyone miss the 90s when we couldn't search our health symptoms online?
This forum does help as it links people with health anxiety as a support group, but the main culprit of my health anxiety is googling and knowing too much about the "What ifs" of the diseases I'm worried about.
Not only that, but I feel when we weren't all connected to technology with the internet and social media, life was actually a lot nicer :weep:
I miss the simple life of sending letters to friends and talking to them on the phone and leaving a mystery to how we live our lives rather than spreading it all on social media and feeling depressed if you're not living a great life as some people portray.
Off topic, but I miss quality tv before all these channels appeared with trashy shows and rubbish music. I miss Top of the Pops, Friends, and The Big Breakfast. I miss comedy and lightheartedness. TV shows and movies are just too damn serious nowadays and everyone wants to kill each other. The last great movie I saw was The Intern starring Robert De Niro.
Of course I was a young teen in the 90s so maybe that's what I miss too, but I miss simplicity :weep:
BrokenGirl
09-03-18, 12:39
Totally agree with you. I was a teenager too in the 90's and I sooooo miss the simpler life. And definitely miss not knowing much about health and diseases. Since my HA started almost 10 yrs ago and I made my dreaded connection with Dr Google, I have learned so much about diseases, symptoms, causes etc and for my own sake I know way too much now. If I never had the internet I know for a fact that I either wouldn't have HA or if I did it wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as it is.
Advancement in technology is great but I really think sometimes that it's gone too far and life will never be the same again............
WiredIncorrectly
09-03-18, 12:44
I'm not sure because my anxiety was bad around 17 years old. At that time I wasn't Googling. There wasn't any easily accessible medical information online at that time.
I was just as anxious in the 90s, I used to spend hours in the medical section of bookshops and libraries. It took longer to find the information but at the end of the day, the obsessive thought and behaviour patterns were still just the same for me then as they are now.
WiredIncorrectly
09-03-18, 12:50
I was just as anxious in the 90s, I used to spend hours in the medical section of bookshops and libraries. It took longer to find the information but at the end of the day, the obsessive thought and behaviour patterns were still just the same for me then as they are now.
Ha! Yes. I can relate to that. I used to spend every day in the library in the medical section. It's the same anxiety, just a different method of accessing the information.
Anxiousamyj
09-03-18, 13:45
Yes! I was a young teenager in the 90s and I was still a hypochondriac. However, the difference was that I trusted doctors. When they told me I was fine, I moved on. I was totally ok most of the time. I’m doing loads better now after a course of CBT and I’m not googling anymore. I have definitely fallen into some deep rabbit holes thanks to dr. Google. I sometimes wish the internet would disappear. I do like paying bills online though. And playing candy crush saga. Lol
Definitely! I had no anxiety in the 90s I was fit and well and loving life carefree. Now I’m 42 and constantly thinking what if after every ache
While I never had this issue, I guess I'm getting old because I miss those times when people weren't glued to their phones and computers. We've become a world of people who observe as opposed to live life.
Positive and nostalgic thoughts
WiredIncorrectly
09-03-18, 15:26
While I never had this issue, I guess I'm getting old because I miss those times when people weren't glued to their phones and computers. We've become a world of people who observe as opposed to live life.
Positive and nostalgic thoughts
So true. I was saying this to the wife the other day.
Kids born today will be born into this. They know no different. We're just the grumpy old men. It's evolution I guess, but I feel technology is moving way faster than we can evolve and adapt. As a result the brain is thrown off-kilter. The virtual reality is more appealing than current reality, hence why we all love it. It's only going to get worse.
You've seen Black Mirror right? Most of those episodes predict the technological future.
I was just as anxious in the 90s, I used to spend hours in the medical section of bookshops and libraries. It took longer to find the information but at the end of the day, the obsessive thought and behaviour patterns were still just the same for me then as they are now.
This! I had a set of encyclopedias at home i looked up stuff in and was always at the library looking things up. Also, I used to call those "ask a nurse" lines all the time. So just because its easier now, doesn't mean I didn't do it then. I do miss the times when my mania was about stuff I didn't have though, and now I keep having real stuff happen. I was a teen in the 80s and though I wasn't as freaked about medical stuff back then, it was other things. My biggest fear as a kid and young teen was storms and tornadoes. I live in the midwest of the US and its common here. So I got over that and graduated on to medical stuff in my 20s.
I had a set of encyclopedias at home i looked up stuff in and was always at the library looking things up.
I remember encyclopedias! :D
Positive thoughts
Anxiousamyj
09-03-18, 20:31
I live in the midwest US as well, and storms and tornadoes were HUGE for me as a kid. I'm still a bit anxious during bad weather! I think it's all about lack of control. For me, the big 3 are: Health, storms, and flying. All lack of control situations. I am trying to learn to live with the uncertainty and uncomfortableness that all 3 of these things bring. I'm doing better than i have for quite awhile, with the help of CBT. I wish I could go back to just being scared of storms, though. That creepy voice that would come over the TV to announce a weather warning would freak me out as a kid!
I miss those simpler times so much , no mobiles or internet we just went out and talked to poeple , I had my first meltdown in the late 80s after magic mushrooms but had no way of knowing it was derealisation ( probably hadn't been invented) so I just carried on in my own personal hell until it passed , no googling to keep adding fuel to the fire , I doubt any of us could give it up completely now , it's the new drug of the nation .
The 70s 80s 90s were grrreat after that it all went down hill a bit , everybody is so angry and worked up all the time , or maybe I'm just showing my age and looking at the world through shite tinted spectacles :D
unsure_about_this
09-03-18, 21:34
In the 90s I did not look up health conditions after we did not get Internet at home to year 2000 after I left secondary school. The first thing I remember looking up before my anxiety hit badly, was when my Uncle got told he had crohns.
I remember having encyclopedias around the house and remember when I was child had books how my body works.
I've mentioned before that I used to ride my bike to the library to read the medical encyclopedias in the reference section. And the PDR. I've had a problem for a very long time.
On the other hand, being close to Blonde123's age, I too miss the 90s because I was young and fit. I still worried about stuff, but it was easier to think I was too young for most bad medical stuff to happen to me.
It's funny when people who were kids and teens in the 90s say they miss the 90s and I actually agree with them. When I was a young adult I missed a lot of things about the 70s, but nobody who was an adult in the 70s agreed with me!
I miss bike riding with friends (not to the library), but as a form of hanging out with friends around the neighbourhood. We used to ride to the local newsagents for sweets (I haven't had a curly wurly in ages!) and teen magazines. Children today act like slaves to their phones not even looking where they're going or properly interacting with each other. Their lives are about looking good online rather than enjoying the moment.
My pet hate is seeing families in restaurants all interacting with their phones and not talking, even the baby watching a video!
I definitely agree with being able to trust doctors before the internet.
Question to those who had health anxiety before the internet. Does the internet make you more anxious? Do you take more time thinking about it than just having an encyclopaedia? Or has it helped you lessen your health anxiety?
My pet hate is seeing families in restaurants all interacting with their phones and not talking, even the baby watching a video!
Arrrg! Mine too! I perform at a couple of resorts here and I see families sitting at the tables not even talking. They're all on their phones and yes, the little one on a tablet playing games or watching a video. It's sad!
I wrote a modern day parody love song I perform called "The girl with the iPhone glow". I'll have to shoot a video and post it.
Positive thoughts
I think the Internet has made me more anxious. There is so much more you can look up. Those books at the library were pretty limited and it was harder to search for a particular sympotom. Now you type almost anything into Google and get back some Dr. Oz article about the 7 reasons you should believe you have a life threatening illness. Plus a Daily Mail article right in the first page of the results about how NHS missed diagnosing somebody who had dragonpox or something like that.
YES! I can relate soooo much with the Daily Mail articles publishing how NHS misdiagnosed someone!
---------- Post added at 11:29 ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 ----------
Arrrg! Mine too! I perform at a couple of resorts here and I see families sitting at the tables not even talking. They're all on their phones and yes, the little one on a tablet playing games or watching a video. It's sad!
I wrote a modern day parody love song I perform called "The girl with the iPhone glow". I'll have to shoot a video and post it.
Positive thoughts
That would be gold comedy :yesyes:
oh yes I remember the times before we could turn to Dr. Google, I was so happy and I have never seriously been sick in my life, I have low risk for cancer, don't smoke, drink, hardly eat red meat, cut back on sugar and salt and lost 42 pounds, no one in our family has died of cancer, talking about blood relatives, my grandpa, who was my step grandpa, died of lung cancer, that was because he was a smoker since he was nine years old and he passed away at 79, I hate Dr. Google, Since I have had my first panic attack I worry about every little thing that I may have, I just put this on my computer start up screen https://i1.wp.com/www.medicalbrief.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DrGoogleWEB.jpg?resize=300%2C281reminding me do not google symptoms, also I tell myself, it's not accurate, it takes a bunch of articles and studies and throws them all together and uses the words, can, and may, it also does this little thing like could be a sign or symptom of this and this and this,causing you to spiral down the rabbit hole. I can relate to those Midwest tornadoes and storms, I too was a midesterner.
WiredIncorrectly
12-03-18, 08:44
I remember encyclopedias! :D
Positive thoughts
Remember Encarta on Windows 95 lol? Showing my age now.
Remember Encarta on Windows 95 lol? Showing my age now.
Dude... I remember getting a Dell with a 486 processor and thinking it was so fast! ~lol~
Positive thoughts
WiredIncorrectly
12-03-18, 12:44
Dude... I remember getting a Dell with a 486 processor and thinking it was so fast! ~lol~
Positive thoughts
God yes, the 486 was my first real computer. I had a compaq presario. Those were the days!
https://i.redditmedia.com/w60HuDmbRq_NiFROjN9vN75Ierot1vV6tbMDLbh4j-Y.jpg?w=1024&
https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/cp1.jpg?w=475&h=655&zoom=2
Wish I could un-read everything that I have read related to diseases and symptoms. So many of my friends have simple issues like twitching when nervous or diarrhea before exams. If I were to have that I would freak out and start googling for reassurance, but they don’t even think twice because most of them don’t know what kinds of diseases could cause those symptoms. One of my friends get super bloated from gluten, she doesn’t care, I would be terrified and link it to ovarian cancer because I’ve read so much on it. Bah. Wish I had never googled these terrible symptoms and diseases.
Also, I can understand and respect that those whom suffered from health anxiety in the 90s suffered from it to the same extent as those of us in 2018. It’s not a new ailment by any means. But I do agree that Google has made it worse and perhaps made it more prevalent. The biggest issue with Google is not proper websites like WebMD etc; The biggest issue is improper information or paranoia inducing information like, “Beware of these 10 symptoms”, “This lady’s doctors missed her cancer 20 times” “These 10 seemingly benign symptoms could potentially kill you”. It’s all of this crazy information that triggers already vulnerable minds and makes things worse.
Wish I could un-read everything that I have read related to diseases and symptoms. So many of my friends have simple issues like twitching when nervous or diarrhea before exams. If I were to have that I would freak out and start googling for reassurance, but they don’t even think twice because most of them don’t know what kinds of diseases could cause those symptoms.
exactly.. i just wish i didn't know any of these diseases too.. when i started twitching i was freaking out about als and my friends were like "what is that? are you crazy?"
same with brain aneyrysm and other dangerous diseases other people don't even know...
WiredIncorrectly
12-03-18, 22:07
It's like the matrix where you can either take one pill and live blissfully, or take the other pill and know too much for your own good. We took that pill.
It's like the matrix where you can either take one pill and live blissfully, or take the other pill and know too much for your own good. We took that pill.
That's exactly how I feel!
I saw your recent thread and I'm also going to try and stop myself from googling any health concerns or learning about diseases.
Let's do it! :yesyes:
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