To: People with health anxiety who google their symptoms

[Catahrina]

Having a hard time to stop googling? I used to too.

This is one is for the google freaks with health anxiety (count me in!)

When you're about to get a panic attack because of your health anxiety/hypochondria so you pick up your phone/computer and you're just about to google the symptoms/find forums of the disease that you think you're dying from.

- 99% of the people with health anxiety has been in this situation! Worried about your health to the point where you think you're suffering from a deadly disease.

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Lets stop for a minute. Deep breaths.

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What do you think, without looking it up, will show up in the results if you type in

"bad headache" or "severe stomach ache" or "lump in breast" or "pain in chest" in google?

Thats right, we all know the answer! Google will say:

#cancer #tumour #lifethreatening #heartattack

"Are you having a headache? Probably a tumour!" Google said.

"Symptoms of cancer include...finding a lump in your breast..." Google said.

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We know, so why do we google? Do we want to panic?

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Alright. Google will always show the worst case scenario at the top. I think we all can agree on that. But WHY?

Now, let's not blame google. Let's blame ourselves!

What are we all looking for? Answers. The people with health anxiety will NOT look for a simple explanation for their symptom, because we need to be sure the symptom doesn't indicate on something more serious.

People will always look for the worst in everything which makes our google search results to come out as scary and worrying.

The things we search for, and the posts and links we click on that get the most views will count as the popular ones and will of course be at top of the page. But only because something is at the top doesnt it mean it is true/reliable!

And to be fair, more than half of the people that google their symptoms are us with health anxiety! Because a "normal" person would not google, instead they would go straight to see a doctor.

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A person suffering from health anxiety who's worried of having a brain tumour won't look for the good when he/she is googling. Automatically we want to reassure ourselves that our symptom is nothing serious so we will google until we find all of the information. And then get hung up on the one article we find where it says the bad news about your symptom.

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Remember folks! When we google, most times google will be wrong.

When we search for symptoms it's easy to think of how ill you feel and how many ill people there are out there, but it's even easier to forget how many more of us that are healthy and well.

And let's be honest. If you're having for example a heart attack, you will know. You wont sit around and be worried for days about your chest pains. You will know what's up. You're body will warn you at the clearest. There's nothing such as "pre heart attack"

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Don't get lost in 2018's googling! Get yourself an appointment with your doctor if there's anything worrying you. Your doctor will listen to YOU, directly and only focused on YOUR symptoms.

Google doesn't listen to you, google doesn't know.

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Thank you for reading! I wrote this especially for us who cant stop this bad habit of googling! Also feel free to message me if you're ever in need of advice!

[Ajrea2]

I stay off goggle! I definitely learned my lesson over the years!

[Catahrina in reply to Ajrea2]

Very good!

[Lm92]

I literally had to go to therapy to make myself stop googling! I still relapse sometimes, but for the most part now I only look up new information/breakthroughs about conditions I already have and check for drug interactions since some of the medications I take don't play well with others and I don't fully trust the pharmacy when they're super busy to answer my question. Research has a time and place, but when it becomes manic and fills you with fear and anxiety it's important to recognize and step back.

[Catahrina in reply to Lm92]

Indeed! You know you need to stop googling when it feeds your anxiety to get worse! Google should be used just as you're using it right now =)

[Matt3013]

I have made things so much worse for myself by googling stuff at 2-3am it’s the worst thing to do!! Good post 😊x

[Catahrina in reply to Matt3013]

Thats what i used to do too! Google is crap!

Thank you

[Matt3013]

It makes everything so much worse x

[Hidden]

Great words, really appreciate it!

[Catahrina in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much!

[Hidden in reply to Catahrina]

Lot of thought put into your words, nice to know others share the same challenges and also advocate advice

[Zombie7321]

But Google helped me to find this forum. 🤭

[Catahrina in reply to Zombie7321]

Did you google your symptoms and find HealthUnlocked?? I guess goggle is a friend to some people haha 😍

[Zombie7321 in reply to Catahrina]

Yeah! I Googled my symptoms and found HealthUnlocked. 😁