No Googling support thread

[carriewriting]

2 days without Googling and my anxiety about the thing that shall not be named is still high, but I read this on Reddit and think it makes a lot of sense.

"Next time you feel anxious about your health and your mind is asking for that instant gratification seeking reassurance, do nothing. What will happen? Your mind will make you more anxious trying to persuade you that there is a danger and you must react by seeking reassurance. But if you keep on doing nothing about it, then your mind will think that there is no real danger and will stop asking you to google for symptoms."

Stay strong people.

[pulisa]

"Sitting it out" is hard but very worthwhile. Red flag symptoms need urgent attention but vaguer stuff can wait and often symptoms abate once the brain isn't constantly trained onto fixating on them.

You always know what you're going to get with Dr Google so why bother? Make your own judgements and be in charge of your own health.

[Phoenixess]

This was my cbt challenge not to google heart things last week, I did quite well and the same this week. Except I’m now severely depressed seems like my anxiety enjoyed reading and fantasising about spontaneous heart attack death/stroke/artery disease.....
I often wonder if my anxiety is a secret narcissist ??


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[pulisa]

I think a lot of people get a morbid fascination from googling and scaring themselves reading about sinister diseases. Also from comparing and discussing symptoms on here.

[pulisa]

Is anyone else currently posting on the HA board interested in trying to help themselves by joining this thread and getting support to stop googling symptoms?

[ankietyjoe]

Something I found useful was an experiment I dreamed up when I had HA.

One day I sat down and decided to google a symptom I DIDN'T have. At that time it was boob pain (because I knew that my boobs weren't actual boobs). I knew that it was a safe search. It took me about 30 seconds to find cancer.

I then did the same thing with knee stiffness. Again, not a symptom I was suffering at that point. Even something as benign as joint pain led me to an article about cancer in a matter of minutes.

What I was trying to achieve was the idea that no matter what I searched for, it was absolutely going to lead to a website telling me I was dying, so what was the point in researching anything?

In other words, whatever you search for on google is going to tell you about something terminal. Every single time.

The body can experience thousands and thousands of diseases and conditions, the vast majority of them not terminal. But...it can only show you a handful of symptoms to describe them...so it stands to reason that multiple diseases can share that handful of symptoms.

[NancyW]

ankietyjoe I SOOO wish we had a "like" tab... your post it great!

[pulisa]

Yes it's a great post, Joe. I'd like to know why people know this yet continue to google though? What's in it for them? What benefit do they get?

[ankietyjoe]

Imagine you were walking through the woods at night in the UK. We all know there is NOTHING dangerous that in the woods in the UK, worst case scenario is a startled badger.

Now, even though you know that, what would you do if you heard a twig snap in the trees? You would imagine the worst and think a bear was coming to eat you. It's instinct. You would have to check, you would have to know there is no bear there, even though you already know there can't be.

And I think it's the same with HA. You have to investigate the danger in order to feel safe, you have to check all possible scenarios. The trick is to intercept the subconscious moron and outsmart it with logic and biscuits.

[pulisa]

But the irony is that you don't feel safe after checking all possible scenarios..You feel worse...and then you repeat the exercise endlessly.

I'd love to see a "regular" join this thread voluntarily just to prove that he/she wanted to be able to manage HA.