health anxiety and the internet

[phantoap]

Does anyone else feel like the massive amount of information on different disorders than can be found on the internet makes anxiety about physical symptoms so much worse?

Recently I had some rectal pain and constipation and when I looked up the symptoms on the internet all kinds of different problems have symptoms like this. Some were not serious and some were very serious (ie colorectal cancer, even though I am 23 and have no family history of it making the probability of that exremely low) but, of course, I only focused on the possibility of the serious ones and how i might need to go to the doctor and get surgery. I obsessively looked at all the information i could find on the many bowel disorders in an attempt to narrow it down but it just made me insane. Maybe I would have been going insane anyway.

Eventually I just had to go see a doctor and they said it was probably an internal hemorrhoid. I'm sure a lot of you know how much an inconclusive diagnosis can help with anxiety (not that much). I do feel somewhat better now but still some anxiety remains because of the possibilities I have in my head from everything I read on the internet. I know in my head that the doctors were almost certainly correct and that i shouldn't worry, but,again, probability does not seem to mean much to me right now even though I normally think I am a very logical person. Right now I just can't help it!

[twanger]

I know what you mean. I do alot better when I am busy and can't get near my computer and read symptoms. Before the Internet, if I had a sinus headache, I called it that and went on with my life until I felt better.

Now, I look up headache symptoms on the Internet and declare that I have a brain tumor and start obsessing about it. It' bad.

[sydneysmommie]

The internet has done wonders for my anxiety NOT!

I wish I did not have a computer at times. I hate to say it but sometimes even when I read side effects on this site I get anxious also.{REMOVED}

[unadventurous]

I know exactly what you're talking about... I've been there so many times. I have an inner ear disorder which is undiagnosed, and it's been that way for almost 4 months now. I've spent way too many hours trying to figure out what it is on my own after 2 doctors told me it would go away on it's own.

What I've done to avoid some of the anxiety is limit my time searching, because it's very easy to caught up in it for hours. I also try to end every session of my research on a positive note, which this message board has helped me with. I found a lot of people who have symptoms similar to mine and they're getting better all the time.

I basically treat my researching like caffine (when I used to drink it); limit my intake, don't do it if I'm too strung out already and never before bed!

[santo]

i completely relate. i do the exact same thing- whenever i have some ache or discomfort, i look it up in a search engine and come up with all sorts of sites for some really serious disorders and i think i have them all. try to remember that if it was anything serious you'd most likely have many more symptoms and would feel bad enough to go to the doctor before relying on info on the internet. what helps me is to remind myself that i have yearly physicals and that the chances of me having whatever turns up on a search engine is slim. you're so not alone though- i've been on many doctor's visits and one ER visit just because i was so worried that i had to go get myself checked out for peace of mind (and nothing is wrong with that, if you've done it or are thinking about it- it's a good thing, if it makes you feel better.)