My battle with.....Google!

[Lanesra]

I am...was...a stickler for Googling every little symptom that I have experienced for the past 2 years. I used to give myself the excuse that it would put my mind at ease although 80% of the time it didn't but I just had this obsession with instant reassurance and Google was the only way I could search for that....until I found NMP where I could relate so many of my symptoms to anxiety.

It seems to have only recently dawned on me that Google will make me feel worse, I knew it before but only now do I picture the more likely consequences of going on it and I can't face spending hours looking frantically at websites and feel my heart race every time I read something I don't want to.
I'm still tempted but the more times you force yourself not to, the easier it becomes.

My only problem now is that I read something on here that scared the life out of me. No offence to the poster of this comment as I am about to do what they did and write about the latest fear and I also hope this doesn't have the same effect on anyone as it did me - just need a bit of reassurance.
Last week someone wrote on here that they had read somewhere that itching is one of the first signs of Lymphoma. I've never had a fear of this before (mine's always been Leukaemia) Now I keep reading into every itching feeling I get and the more I think about it the more I keep itching.....just like when you think about nits! I have no swollen lymph nodes to my knowledge so why am I worrying about something so ridiculous and why have I been affected from something I read here the same way I do on Google?!
I am refusing to Google the symptoms of Lymphoma as I know I'll try in every way possible to relate the symptoms to me or look out for them.
This is so ridiculous it's actually laughable!!

[tinker_bell]

I no exactly what you mean. I go on it all the time thinking oooo if I find something to make me feel better it will help, but everytime I do I go on there and find something 10 times worse than what I was thinking in the first place.
As for the itching I regularly get that I didnt even no it was a sign of lymphoma although I have been told mine is allergies, but like you say the more you think about it the more you itch.
And what you need to think is there are properly lots of reasons why people itch and lymphoma is properly one of the very rare reasons. Like you said resist the urge to google it as it will only make you feel worse.
Try to distract yourself by doing something else and see how many times you itch when your mind is on other things ( I bet you dont have as much as you would thinking about it )

[Johnny17]

I've done this countless times and it just makes me worse every single time..it's kinda come to my concern that internet is going to take a BIG hit in the chin to future children of anxiety (im 17 feel crippled with panic)..there should be a law on sites for these symptoms unless there from legit doctors :P not like wiki or something