Does googling make us worst?

[madcowmonty]

Was wondering if the internet (googling) has made our condition worst. I know i was not this bad before i was hooked up to the net. Does too much information more dangerous than being naive? With me, if i get a new medication, I google, find horror stories about side effects, scare myself and don't bother taking it. Any new product, I google, same thing. I suffer from Hypocondria. So my question is - has the net made us more anxious about our health? And if there was a name for google phobia what would it be called?

I know have learnt not to google. One good thing has come from googling though, I found this site.

[justdontknow]

Oh yes, it makes us worse.
Not because we wouldn't have the fears without Google, but because we use the results to reinforce them. Selectively!

[lorac]

You are so right justdontknow, I used to google all the time and made my self so worried. I don't do it anymore because I now know it doesn't help and since joining this site I feel I have no further need to google.

Carol

[Cico]

Absolutely.

I think the internet causes a lot of my anxiety because I am always trying to self diagnose what could be causing a lot of my symptoms.

But I can't seem to stop myself from checking. I need the internet for other things and when I'm on, something will crop up in my mind and I'll go googling and 9 times out of 10, send myself off into a major panic.

[justdontknow]

Alas, I still do it occasionally.
But isn't that the whole thing about HA - we KNOW it's wrong but we still can't stop ourselves?!
The problem is, whilst the results are there and we should interpret selectively (just as any other search results) when it comes to HA we are unable to do so.
I am a web designer and whilst I can easily 'filter out' adverts etc (I don’t even 'see' them when I'm Googling - my brain successfully ignores them) I cannot 'filter' selectively when it comes to HA.

[Little Miss Anxious]

Hi, my husband has threatened to go & smash google because of the mind melts I get after browsing certain things (how he would actaully smash google I have no Idea ???...it might just be easier to confiscate my laptop, lol).

It makes me so much worse than I would be without net access. You can guarauntee that whatever symptom we google we will find one page with a simple harmless explanation & 30,000 pages containing worse case scenareos & horror stories. Before we had the net he threw my medical book away for the same reason, I would spend hours looking up what was wrong with me then convince myself any pains were due to life threatening illness instead of something simple like an infection or muscle strain !!

I cant help myself though, I spend hours looking stuff up & find out loads I really didnt want to know !!

[snowdrop]

It definetely makes me worse and I also feel its become a bit like an addiction and I have to force myself not to look!! As soon as I look I have this weird sense of dread that I cant explain and then hate myself for looking!!

I was doing really well until tonight when I googled 1 symptom which of course turned into me having about 6 symptoms and the worst illnesses known to man...

Am done with it, not looking anymore!! :doh:

[justdontknow]

I'm a complete IT geek (but in a nice way!) and completely understand and subscribe to the speed of access to information being 'A Good Thing'.

E.g. (without wanting to get into a discussion on religion) I find it heartening that the more we are educated the less we believe in god(s). The faster the access to education the better as far as I am concerned.

The irony (the problem) - rapid access to unfiltered information (any Tom, DICKH... or Harriet can post anything they like) means that we have to be more sophisticated in our interpretation of data. No problem - we're all clever people. And I believe that is true - to recognise our HA problems means we are intelligent.

However, our HA completely gets in the way of our rational interpretation of data. Catch-22.

[daniela]

Yes, in my case it makes me worse. More is not always better. My anxiety started 15 years ago and at that time I didn't not have a computer. My anxiety would be more manageable and would disappear faster. Since I have a computer (10 years) I google and research everything, it only makes things worse for me. I always go digging deaper and deaper till I find stuff that gets my anxiety through the roof. I sometime wish I was more ignorant.

[Richard2009]

Google = not good.

I've done it myself and have almost convinced myself I have all sorts of problems.

Here's a tale which may help. My sister felt poorly last year and went to hospital. They told her she had an elevated platelet count. She Googled, and read things like cancer, nasty, nasty, nasty etc.. At the bottom of the list - common cold.

She's still here :)

I'm not knocking Google - just what we use it for. Try searching for some nice things which will make you feel better. Even look at pictures of a place you went on holiday which you like. It helps me!

We WILL get better!

Regards,

Richard

[marfen]

Yep, Googling definitely makes me worse too. I nearly always end up finding something much worse than what I was worried about in the first place. I have to say though with my Google medical knowledge (albeit not all of it is accurate!) I wouldn't have much theory to do if I decided to become a doctor!

[MissChampers]

Yes it's definitely made me much worse. Since having the internet I've diagnosed myself with all sorts of illness' and have become totally neurotic. These days I try to keep away from it if I can otherwise my anxiety levels will go through the roof.

[shaunyboi69]

Haha I have had every illness when checking up my symptoms truth is its no good diagnosing yourself because you don't have the gear to test yourself and find what is really causing the problem.

DONT GOOGLE!

[KOKO23CAT]

i try to use google to reassure myself by typing in things like 'tension headaches' rather than 'brain tumour' or just 'headaches' which always comes up with brain tumour! i can always find all my symptoms on IBS pages and Tension headache sites, just like you can on anxiety sites.

Works most of the time lol

much love

[yanksforever]

I use google everyday. I love google. But since my health anxiety began like 8 months ago, I've had to struggle to keep away from googling illnesses, symptoms, and WebMD. I HATE WebMD GO TO HECK WEBMD!!

Sorry, mini-fit. WebMD convinced me I had bowel and colon cancer just cuz back when my anxiety began I got severly constipated and when I did go for #2 there was some blood.

Google is a great site. But for health anxiety sufferers it can be a curse. We need to learn to control ourselves and what we "Google".

[Stacers1985]

I blame google for 95% of my panic attacks.
If I didn't have a computer I wouldn't be able to check symptoms and I might be a little less paranoid then I am now.
Instead everytime I have the slightest headache, toothache, and any other kind of symptom I am right on google, and of course I go right to the worst case scenario and convince myself I am dying.

[Kaybee]

When it comes to illness, I find google and the NHS website, some of the first places I will go for consultation. It isn't good. My other half gets really annoyed when I tell him what I think is wrong with me but I honestly can't help it.

It does indeed make the problem worse, but I dunno how to get away from it! I too found this forum after googling some symptoms, but that should not reinforce my need to do it! :)

Sometimes though, I really feel that I would rather be over cautious with my health and symptoms than be caught short. And that annoys me to no end!

[Cococj]

Ignorance is bliss.

Google should have a health warning like cigarette packets.

[alfisback1]

Well it's bitter sweet... Because I found this site through google, and it has helped... But I've also had sites telling my my sore throat is cancer... So I guess it's a push eh?

[helen_1]

it makes me worse but yet i still do it which i know is silly i get a symptom i never had before and there i am googling away which i know i should stop, at the moment i have weird head pains and weakness in my left leg and what does google say its signs of a stroke so i have scared myself silly stupid i know but google helped me find nomore panic so i guess it does come in handy for some things but other things i think its just out to scare people

[indiechick]

Google's great for reinforcing the negative!!! and also for sucking hours out of our lives when we culd be practising come cbt or relaxation or distraction techniques! I hadn't done it for ages till yesterday had a bit of a relapse about a particular HA related to painful sex, which according to my research is obviously a precursor to vulval cancer:wacko: fortunately I managed to stop myself and do a bit of thought challenging. Still had a sleepless night but at least I'm convinced that :
- I can manage my symptoms and/or go back to my very good gp to discuss them
- much of the anxiety I'm feeling is due to a new relationship and fears about rejection after divorce last year

There's always a reason why we have a setback, and there will always be times when we are less than healthy. When the two coincide.......KEEP OFF GOOGLE and get back into maintenance mode!

Good luck everyone, this site's great and has helped me a lot over the past few months

[koqie]

Google is horrible, that is how my anxiety got worse and worse.

[miss_moose]

It does make it worse and yet I can't stop using it. Using NHS Direct is bad too especially as i've been looking at chest pain, i panic when it flashes up red and tells me to call an ambulance.
The thing with that one is theres too many questions, it will ask you "are you having chest pain" "are you short of breath" "are your lips going blue" all in the same question when you know you only have a slight pain in your chest but you have to click yes.

My other half is always telling me off for googling my symptoms and tells me that they only show up the worst case scenario.

[xAprilx]

Google is pretty much the reason I have health anxiety in the 1st place. I never use to be worried health wise, then I googled a symptom a few months ago out of curiosity and it all spiralled from there :mad: