Do you think the media is partly to blame for health anxiety?

[Jabberwoxx]

This isn't really seeking help for anything, more of a discussion point.

It seems to me quite obvious that the media and the internet are partly to blame for increasing health anxiety and hypochondriasis. I know we are probably more predisposed to worrying about our health in general (likely due to other disorders such as GAD, OCD, depression and stressful life issues) but I can't help feeling quite annoyed that the media can really make the most common and mundane or symptoms seem life-threatening and warranting an immediate doctor's trip.

It puts me in a difficult position because while I think it's excellent that we're now more alert to symptoms, it shouldn't be that every single possible symptom could automatically indicate cancer. For example, on the bowel cancer ad, the alarm symptom is 'diarrhoea or blood for more than three weeks'. For lung cancer, it's 'a cough for more than three weeks'. It seems that commercials such as these isolate one extremely common symptom as an extreme cause for concern which naturally makes people panic, especially us HA sufferers. Some adverts don't even take into consideration age, lifestyle or genetic predispositions.

Additionally, you hear stories all the time of how people are misdiagnosed as having IBS when in fact they had cancer, or had been dismissed repeatedly by their GPS, only to be undergoing life-threatening emergency surgery later. It is likely that we as anxiety sufferers focus our attention on these stories more than most, but I also think sensationalism is partly to blame as well.

I'm not sure I'm getting across what I'm trying to say clearly enough, but does anyone here feel that the media is partly responsible for their health anxiety?

[Agadch]

Yes, I agree completely! If I'm googling a symptom on my laptop, lets just say a pain in my right arm, before I've even finished typing the sentence google has a list of results up. Straight away I see a link about heart attacks and how they're a "silent killer." I thought heart attacks were associated with pain in your left arm? If I actually did have a pain in my right arm I'd probably be convinced I was having a heart attack right now! Another thing, I was sitting in the waiting room at my doctor's last week and saw a poster for bowel cancer. It said on it "the longer you leave it the bigger the problem." Straight away I started worrying about it. I started thinking what if i had symptoms but just wasn't noticing them. What if I was leaving it and soon it would be too late? Us health anxiety sufferers aren't safe anywhere, not even at the GP's office!

[Carnation]

Yes, definitely. Its in your face all the time, especially on the TV. Adverts about Cancer, Heart Attacks, Strokes, MS. Soaps like Corrie with Hayley Dying and Dramas with people dying. Programs about Doctors, Hospitals and a new one about Dentists. The News featuring Crashes, Deaths, War etc. And the constant reminder about pollution, Disease, Floods, and anything else they can scare the Life out of you with.
Years ago, you just got on and lived. Went to work, went down the Pub and had a good time. People don't go out anymore. They sit on their computers, generally on their own, stressing out about Life!

[Jabberwoxx]

Yes, I agree completely! If I'm googling a symptom on my laptop, lets just say a pain in my right arm, before I've even finished typing the sentence google has a list of results up. Straight away I see a link about heart attacks and how they're a "silent killer." I thought heart attacks were associated with pain in your left arm? If I actually did have a pain in my right arm I'd probably be convinced I was having a heart attack right now! Another thing, I was sitting in the waiting room at my doctor's last week and saw a poster for bowel cancer. It said on it "the longer you leave it the bigger the problem." Straight away I started worrying about it. I started thinking what if i had symptoms but just wasn't noticing them. What if I was leaving it and soon it would be too late? Us health anxiety sufferers aren't safe anywhere, not even at the GP's office!

I agree so much about the ''silent killer'' thing. Often you hear people have had cancer for years, but when they're diagnosed, it's too late. Generally I think heart attacks are associated with your left arm, but it's rare that a heart attack happens out the blue anyway, there is nearly 100% of the time a definite cause such as smoking, drinking, high blood pressure, etc.

I know someone who had bowel cancer and he definitely had some very obvious symptoms such as weight loss, abdominal pain, throwing up every time he ate, etc. That's just one person I guess, but I've known a couple of people with cancer and their symptoms have been very clear-cut.

Yes, definitely. Its in your face all the time, especially on the TV. Adverts about Cancer, Heart Attacks, Strokes, MS. Soaps like Corrie with Hayley Dying and Dramas with people dying. Programs about Doctors, Hospitals and a new one about Dentists. The News featuring Crashes, Deaths, War etc. And the constant reminder about pollution, Disease, Floods, and anything else they can scare the Life out of you with.
Years ago, you just got on and lived. Went to work, went down the Pub and had a good time. People don't go out anymore. They sit on their computers, generally on their own, stressing out about Life!

It's a shame really. Years ago, without the media, I think there was much less depression and anxiety. People know too much. Ignorance truly is bliss. :(

We've recently very sadly had Stephen Sutton die at 19 from bowel cancer. Although he is a role model and we should aim to adopt his carefree attitude if cancer does strike any of us, I find it served to fuel my anxiety because bowel cancer is so rare and to have it at 15 is just so cruel and unfair. I don't think I could have the attitude he had, I'd crumble. :(

Funnily enough, I've just noticed that both sides of my throat/neck are swollen and it hurts to swallow/move my neck. I know darn well if I googled it, I'd get something like 'cancer of the lymph nodes' so I'm avoiding it like the plague. Doesn't stop me being up at 2am though! :P

[KeeKee]

I definitely agree with this and my worst site is the dailymail as it nearly always has articles on the ultra rare and they were either ignored by doctors or had no symptoms until too late.
Also hate when there are articles with warning symptoms that we simply shouldn't ignore and the doctor says it's normal! I feel like us with anxiety need to determine for ourselves whether something is real or not which isn't fair.

[googler192]

I totally agree with this and with KeeKee. Daily mail is terrible for making me anxious! So is webMD! Yet I still look! I'm my own worst enemy!

[Humly]

Yes and the internet. I remember one time, in the days before we were all on the internet, going to the public library and looking in medical books to try and diagnose myself and it was so much better. There would be a brief no nonsense explanation and that would be the end of it. But now its just all in your face all over the place telling you that you've got to catch things early or you are going to develop some nasty disease and die! No wonder those of us who are anxious have such a hard time. I wonder how our kids will turn out having been brought up with all this information available to them via their phones etc. Instead of asking us parents they can just look on the internet and see all manner of scary stuff and inaccurate information and who knows where that will lead!

[Jabberwoxx]

I definitely agree with this and my worst site is the dailymail as it nearly always has articles on the ultra rare and they were either ignored by doctors or had no symptoms until too late.
Also hate when there are articles with warning symptoms that we simply shouldn't ignore and the doctor says it's normal! I feel like us with anxiety need to determine for ourselves whether something is real or not which isn't fair.

I totally agree with this and with KeeKee. Daily mail is terrible for making me anxious! So is webMD! Yet I still look! I'm my own worst enemy!

The Daily Mail has been a nightmare for me too. They might be exaggerating or distorting the stories though. I've read at least three articles such as the ones you've described. It's awful.

I have been seeing a haematologist for three years for neutropenia, and even though each time my blood indicates nothing wrong, they're keeping an eye on me anyway. Yet I've read articles where people have displayed very obvious signs of bowel cancer yet were dismissed because of age. Granted, a colonoscopy isn't a nice procedure to go through and I guess they shouldn't have to screen every single person with symptoms, but surely they must know.

Yes and the internet. I remember one time, in the days before we were all on the internet, going to the public library and looking in medical books to try and diagnose myself and it was so much better. There would be a brief no nonsense explanation and that would be the end of it. But now its just all in your face all over the place telling you that you've got to catch things early or you are going to develop some nasty disease and die! No wonder those of us who are anxious have such a hard time. I wonder how our kids will turn out having been brought up with all this information available to them via their phones etc. Instead of asking us parents they can just look on the internet and see all manner of scary stuff and inaccurate information and who knows where that will lead!

The media makes people believe that cancer is practically inevitable. That's how I see it anyway. I understand it's more common now than it ever used to be, but the media portrays it to be something that can strike anyone, anytime - which is true to a degree, but there are ways of saying things.

[unsure_about_this]

I agree with KeeKee Daily Mail is bad, some of those articles are very scary.

Before late 2009 or could have been 2008 I never searched anything on the Internet about health. life was good, than boom just one article just one article started it all off, and it was an important one, self testicular exam/penile cancer, than I just kept googling different types of cancer, reading daily mail online, cancer research, macmillan etc.
this followed my Dad doing a bowel screening because of his age in 2012, kept this one secret in 2014.

In the early 2000s cancer research ads did not scared me.

Now we got things like social sites where some people do post things (not mention these social sites/blogging websites to many to list)

[Deepthinker]

Yep, I agree! We are on information overload at times! Lol! The rare cases are what we hear about, but we have to remember that there are billions of people on the planet that don't have whatever the latest rare illness is.