Danger of online health forums?

[jumpwomble]

Have any of you guys experienced this?

You think you have a health issue. You go and post (or just look up) your symptoms on an online health forum. You find a poster who describes a situation very similar to what you have, and then you find out a few posts down that they were told they were incurable, had a month to live, or some such frightening thing?

???


jumpy

[fozzy is crying]

Nope I see my Doctor.

The internet is just like the Bible if you look at it you can justify anything, find different interpretations, inaccuracies and misleading information. Using search engines to get anything like a reasonable feedback is something that requires skill to word the search properly.

[jumpwomble]

Yes, I am aware of this. It's the reason that many of us end up having so much health anxiety.

For example, one of us might seek reassurance by searching for a particular condition in a health forum. Then we read some answers or posts, saying that they had this-or-that tumour or awful growth (when what you were searching was rather less serious to begin with). And then you start to worry about having that instead, and your mind has another crazy thing to focus on!

Sometimes I think we should have internet-free days just to give our minds a break!

jumpy

[kirstynic]

Hi jumpy

Yes I do exactly this too much, it's the trying to seek reassurance but ending up feeling worse part of my health anxiety.

[fozzy is crying]

Yes, I am aware of this. It's the reason that many of us end up having so much health anxiety.

For example, one of us might seek reassurance by searching for a particular condition in a health forum. Then we read some answers or posts, saying that they had this-or-that tumour or awful growth (when what you were searching was rather less serious to begin with). And then you start to worry about having that instead, and your mind has another crazy thing to focus on!

Sometimes I think we should have internet-free days just to give our minds a break!

jumpy

Very true. What I think makes it worse is when it is down for anxiety and people have had the all clear from the medical profession they often seek via the internet something to disbelieve it. Anxiety for some reason fosters a level of not trusting the experts. Even worse in a panic situation why do some people spend so much time looking for the answers on-line instead of doing the logical thing and going to see the Doctor. If someone is panicking and in so much fear the systems are in place to get NHS medical help 24/7. We are not living in a third World country.

[Annie0904]

I always seek advise from my doctor about symptoms and if I see a thread and think that it may be a trigger for me, then I don't read it. I have learnt not to look up my symptoms online.

[jumpwomble]

Annie, I would love to know how you avoid reading some posts that you know will trigger off anxiety.

For me, I am drawn to those posts, I can't ignore them because if I do, I obsess endlessly about what they might say and what important info they might hold for me!! I actually start to feel like I am in denial unless I read those posts.

I am my own worst enemy?

Jumpy

[Annie0904]

The only one who can diagnose you is your doctor, he is the only one who can examine you and test you so why look elsewhere? Would you ask a gardener for advise on what is wrong with your car or would you ask a mechanic for advise on plants? No...so why ask people with no medical background and do not know you for advise on medical issues. xx

[fozzy is crying]

The only one who can diagnose you is your doctor, he is the only one who can examine you and test you so why look elsewhere? Would you ask a gardener for advise on what is wrong with your car or would you ask a mechanic for advise on plants? No...so why ask people with no medical background and do not know you for advise on medical issues. xx

Very well said. I could not have put it better myself.

[almamatters]

I'm afraid goggle is responsible for most of my HA. Diagnosed myself with a brain stem tumour earlier this year, even told the GP and that the prognosis was 3 months to live. I regret this so much as have not really been taken seriously since then by them. My MRI scan was clear, but still I feel they may have missed something. I have not learnt my lesson as still goggle now and then, despite best efforts not to. Currently have bowel cancer, liver cancer , lymphoma and possibly inner ear trouble due to google matching my symptoms up.