Gilly

Dr Google - Don't do it!

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I'm guilty, too.  I guess because 90% of the time, I find reassurance or something that eases my mind.  But, then there is that other 10% that sends me off into a frenzy and then my anxiety takes off. 

I wish I could block the sites, too.  I know it's not good to sit for hours searching for information. :(

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I Googled last night for the first time in many months and fell to pieces!  Here it was, midnight, and I'd suddenly developed a horrible type of skin cancer.........  and Google giggled as I shook and was sick with fear!  

Dr. Google is my enemy!  

 

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I'm very guilty of this.  I normally don't Google and I did it tonight and I have no idea WHY I did it when it's not my norm.  Of course it only made my anxiety worse and thus I posted a question on here a few hours ago pertaining to my stomach issues.  I'm usually the one telling everyone not to google and I just crossed over into that world tonight.  

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8 hours ago, Ihadcancer said:

I Googled last night for the first time in many months and fell to pieces!  Here it was, midnight, and I'd suddenly developed a horrible type of skin cancer.........  and Google giggled as I shook and was sick with fear!  

Dr. Google is my enemy!  

 

Yes!  This was me a couple hrs ago.  Google told me I have stomach cancer.  Lucky us.

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My derms PA said 'Google always thinks Zebras'. 

If you hear hoof beats in the distance, think horses not Zebras' 

Disclaimer:  Doesn't work for Australia, etc. 

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omg this is absolutely genius, those memes in the beginning.   I had to look up something real basic & non threatening a few months ago, can't even remember what it was, & it had me six feet under and I just had to laugh at it

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Hi, I’m new to this and a self diagnosed hypochondriac! I’m freaking out this evening as I have a bad earache and headache and I’m tired and now thanks to google all I think is I have meningitis! What should I do 

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1234495855_Dr.google.jpg.4c8458d74476f436215908125e742cc1.jpg     Messages like this one what gets you to have anxiety in the first place.  I need my chill pill 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                http://bit.ly/2FfthkW

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Also very guilty of Googling my symptoms - I'm afraid to go to the doctor if I have a concern because I know that I'm being paranoid and don't want to trouble them or take time off of work to go.  It's horrible.  I actually wondered earlier what people did before internet - if they thought they had something I guess they had no choice but to go to the doctor or just wonder.

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Well I grew up before the internet and the thing is we didn't worry about everything because we couldn't read everything we weren't overloaded with information.  A headache was just a head ache, a stomach ache was just a stomach ache . Anxiety existed , but people got over it faster at least the majority of people. You couldn't have all the diseases because you didn't know all the diseases. So if you had a panic attack it was heart problem that you focused on...mainly it was the heart and then when the internet came in when I was in my late twenties is when you started to hear about all these different illnesses and diseases. If you just mentioned something was bothering you someone was always there to say " you should get tat checked out, you never know it could be blah " in the eighties you did hear those things and as young kid in the seventies you only heard about a disease when someone contracted it or died and you still didn't know what the symptoms were.A far less complicated time.

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Posting here to remind myself that Google does not help me. I know this. I do, and yet I Google and lose my mind. 

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On 4/24/2019 at 9:40 PM, Anonymous333333 said:

Also very guilty of Googling my symptoms - I'm afraid to go to the doctor if I have a concern because I know that I'm being paranoid and don't want to trouble them or take time off of work to go.  It's horrible.  I actually wondered earlier what people did before internet - if they thought they had something I guess they had no choice but to go to the doctor or just wonder.

No, we with HA went to the bookstore medical section, or the library, sad to say.

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I would have to say - after my issues in July 2016 - Google at least helped me get to a doctor, despite not knowing what I was going through. 

I had a really bad sinus infection.  People noticed that half of my face was distorted.  I just felt like I had a sinus infection.  Well, I get home from a men's group meeting and am watching television.  In that side of my face (the left), I start losing the vision in half my eye (the lower half).  It would fade in and out - from normal, to a half snow-pattern to black.  It happened twice and I start looking up what is going on.  I also had half my tongue swollen.  It said I was having either allergies or a heart issue and it said - go to a doctor.  Well, it was 1am at the time....I ended up going to the ER since they were the only ones open.  I couldn't let it slide.  I had a sonogram done and the fade happened a third time resulting in an eye hemorrhage (burst blood vessel).  Numerous tests (I will probably post about this more when it comes up), but all they found was an elevated blood pressure.  Long story short, I ended up getting a general doctor, put on blood pressure meds, and the whole episode was due to allergies from a bad electronic air purifier.  I turned it off and within 24 hours, everything was gone but the hemorrhage in my eye.  That took time to disperse. 

That would be a legitimate reason to go to a doctor.  If you think the symptoms are mild and will pass, there is no reason to worry. 

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Yeah!!! Googling should be a big NO NO. They rely on adverts for their revenue. If they can sell you something they will. People with anxiety are very vulnerable and wide open to suggestion.  On TV in the UK we get adverts from the Health Ministry about heart attacks, strokes etc.  Anyone with health anxiety will be triggered by all this and a lot of harm can be done. We need keep away from any reports about illness or any programmes related to illness. Now this is difficult these days. We are having talk of disease and sickness thrust under our noses daily. These are not good times for HA sufferers. Suggestion plays a very big part in HA, far bigger than we may realise.  One of the things that used to trigger me was when I met someone who said 'you don't look at all well'. For a start it's a stupid thing to say to anyone who may be suffering. But then most non sufferers are insensitive. You have to have been there to know!!

To me anyway the doctor is the person to answer questions. We are often loath to go to the doctor for fear of them finding something wrong. But surely it is better to do that than leave a problem until it gets worse. But common sense and logic are almost non existent with HA sufferers. Invariably they will find nothing wrong and put it all down to 'nerves'. But at least we can get reassurance, that's if we believe them! Five years at medical school, three years internship and maybe many years of practise does give them some authority to diagnose!! Believe them, because what is the alternative? Googling? 

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