BrightPhoenix
02-12-21, 17:34
MyChart is an online dashboard for your medical record. It allows you to access stuff like your past visits, tests, etc. For normal people, it's great because you get to see a lot of information and have it all consolidated in one place. For those of us suffering health anxiety, please be careful on how you use this system.
Test results are often available on MyChart BEFORE your visit to your doctor. This makes sense, electronic results are normally faster than when the result gets sent to your doctor. However, this also means you have access to the test result before the doctor does. Unless you're doing some form of CBT-style exposure therapy under guidance from your therapist it might be a good idea not to read these tests.
For us, you may want to avoid reading these tests *before* your visit to the doctor. Because of our HA we will find one tiny thing in the result and over-analyze it. You will be tempted to Google it and it will lead you down a rabbit hole of anxiety, so you're probably better off waiting until you see your doctor.
On the other hand, most of the time your doctor, at the very least your PCP has a *messaging* function on MyChart. This is something you should use if you have a doctor that understands you have health anxiety - if you have a concern message him/her, be precise in your description about what you're feeling. My doctor told me this - he'd rather me message him than going to Dr. Google about it, and I think that makes sense.
Test results are often available on MyChart BEFORE your visit to your doctor. This makes sense, electronic results are normally faster than when the result gets sent to your doctor. However, this also means you have access to the test result before the doctor does. Unless you're doing some form of CBT-style exposure therapy under guidance from your therapist it might be a good idea not to read these tests.
For us, you may want to avoid reading these tests *before* your visit to the doctor. Because of our HA we will find one tiny thing in the result and over-analyze it. You will be tempted to Google it and it will lead you down a rabbit hole of anxiety, so you're probably better off waiting until you see your doctor.
On the other hand, most of the time your doctor, at the very least your PCP has a *messaging* function on MyChart. This is something you should use if you have a doctor that understands you have health anxiety - if you have a concern message him/her, be precise in your description about what you're feeling. My doctor told me this - he'd rather me message him than going to Dr. Google about it, and I think that makes sense.