when googling, people never recovered. Did you notice that?

[mahran]

Hi all,
Every time I google my symptoms in Google, it seems that people who have the same symptoms are not recovered and it makes you think that there is no cure at all for your symptoms. For example, I have neck pain for one month now and when I googled about neck pain all the threads that I have read so far NONE are recovered from their pain in the neck.

This would not help HA sufferers because recovery stories are important for our struggle. I'm not sure if I'm the only one here to feel this way. In my country, Google drives HA sufferers crazy by showing threads of rare diseases and information about them or showing threads about people struggling with symptoms for decades.

Any one can relate to this issue?



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[susie1]

I can't agree more. I know the temptation when we're over a health anxiety to walk away in relief but it would really help all if people would post their outcomes otherwise our imaginations go into over ride and it feeds our health anxiety still further

[anom]

What I found

with my "issues" I'd find a few people describing something that was quite close to my problems. Then I'd see the thread was made in like 2009/2010 and you'd go ahead and read it to the end and they would just disappear/stop posting.

Obviously you want to believe they finally found a solution and they didnt need to post online anymore...but its a bit annoying as you never seem to find out what/if anything they were diagnosed with!

[ktdid2000]

Yup! This happens all the time.

I honestly think the person just stops following up because whatever it was/is goes away and they eventually get better and don't bother posting to follow up for everyone else still suffering!

[Pkstracy]

This is how I remind myself not to, I see this when I open my computer, Dr. Google is not the best way to look for symptoms, I know I am bad at it as well at times, but so many things come up.

[lofwyr]

Googling anything is dangerous. The internet tends to attract stories of worst case scenarios. People who have serious, or even minor illnesses who post are not the people who have recovered and are doing well, more often than not. I know more people who have recovered completely from cancer than I know who have died from cancer. I doubt any of those who have recovered are wasting a lot of time posting on the internet.

The only time I allow myself to google health issues is when I am actually diagnosed with something. And even then, I discovered googling is a terrible idea. A much more useful tool in helping me cope with my aortic aneurysm has been social media support groups. People there are in the present, going through the same thing you are going through, and provide an entirely different, and current perspective on the issue.

Googling issues you *think* you might have, and symptom surfing leads only to despair and confirmation bias. Even if it led to reassurance, would that even be helpful? I think the absolute number one thing anyone who wants to recover from HA at all needs to do is NEVER google their symptoms. Not ever.

[bulan]

Totally agree with lofwyr. If I want reassurance from Google, I may search for my symptoms but explicitly exclude my fears from the search. If I fear cancer, then I would add "-cancer" to the search terms before clicking enter. This usually shows me more common causes and solutions for my symptoms. But I don't do this very often, and I agree about the tremendous helpfulness of social media support groups for my diagnoses. Since we're all in the same boat, we want to help each other get better. The tips I've learned there have been invaluable, and I try to pay it forward as much as I can.

[unsure_about_this]

When I google in the past I thought I had bowel cancer and a few others things, i dont google now, but still worried about my health and checking for signs and panic.

I don't even google about NF, I told one off on of my past job advisors years ago don't use Wikipedia try NHS or just ask me, just used google for the spelling because I can't spell the full word.

[ZiltoidtheOmniscient]

There's a pretty simple answer to this, assuming I'm understanding the OP of course.

When people go post about problems they think are serious and then either go to the store doctor or give it time, then it goes away. The last thing on their mind is to go back and update the thread. Normally the only people that stick around are the ones who's worst fears came true - which is a small minority of the whole. So you get a massively unbalanced result.

If only actually ill people keep posting on boards about illness then you'll only ever see bad news. See what I'm saying?