Internet nightmares
In his essay, The Median Isn’t the Message, Stephen Jay Gould recalled that when he was first diagnosed with abdominal mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, his consultant suggested that maybe he shouldn’t read too much about his condition. Gould, of course, ignored the advice, and headed straight for Harvard’s medical library. He soon discovered why ignorance can be bliss; his illness was incurable and the median mortality after diagnosis was only eight months. Happily, Gould beat the odds, and survived his mesothelioma, but not before he had terrified himself (though he has since died of an unrelated cancer).
Ivan Noble
This happened more than twenty years ago. Nowadays it doesn’t require a trip to the library to scare yourself witless; just a few mouse clicks will do it. Ivan Noble, who recently died of brain cancer, documented his two year struggle with the disease on the BBC Online website. His third entry, titled ‘Net Terrors’, written shortly after his diagnosis, tells how he was browsing the internet at four one morning, when he came across a site where a patient with the same tumour had asked a doctor how many people with their condition were still alive three years after diagnosis. The reply was ‘none’. Noble, quite sensibly, decided that, for a while at least, he was going to stay clear of medical web sites.
However, there is one group of people who cannot stay clear of such sites. They are the internet hypochondriacs; or, as they have been called, the cyberchondriacs. In the past, hypochondriacs would scour medical dictionaries and the like in order to track symptoms and self-diagnose; now they interrogate search engines and visit online forums. It’s a growing problem. An American study in 2003, found that eighty percent of adult internet users had at some time used the net to research illness related subjects; and some six percent use it for that reason everyday. According to Dr Trefor Roscoe, a GP and computer specialist, doctors are now being inundated by patients with cyberchondria or ‘internet printout syndrome’, as it is also called.
Of course, there is nothing new about hypochondria; the syndrome has been recognised since the days of the Roman physician Galen. But the problem with the internet is that it meets and fuels the hypochondriac’s obsessive need for health-related information in a way which no other medium has managed. Brian Fallon, the co-author of Phantom Illness: Recognizing, Understanding and Overcoming Hypochondria, is in no doubt that in this regard the internet has made things worse for the person suffering health anxiety.
The trouble is compounded by the fact that the information on the internet is unregulated. This is the perennial problem for anybody who uses the internet for the purposes of research. Information is frequently deprived of the authority which makes it reliable. Therefore, if you’re suspicious that the tingling in your limbs means that you have multiple sclerosis, it is a certainty that in time you’ll find someone on a health forum willing to confirm your suspicions; or, if you’re feeling tired, and suspect that it might be the sign of some serious illness, it won’t be long before somebody suggests that you have lupus or some other weird autoimmune disease.
Fallon advises his patients to stay clear of the internet: ‘In a loose sense, a hypochondriac becomes almost addicted to looking up information, examining himself, and getting reassurance from other people. Checking just makes things worse.’ Ivan Noble also struck a cautionary note:
It is wonderful that so much information is available and that patients can be as well informed as they want to be. But it is very difficult to filter that information. It is not possible to start to search the net and hope to see only encouraging news. Along with the details of therapies, diets and clinical trials, there is cold, clinical information out there about how many people die and how they die. Link leads to link and it is easy to terrify oneself like I did.
Hypochondriacs beware, then; the internet can seriously damage your mental health.
Related Post: I’m an internet hypochondriac.
Category: Ethics, Philosophy, Sociology | Tags: hypochondria, internet, mental health 7 comments »
December 26th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I’ve had symptoms that have baffled me for a long time and thankfully I was able to learn something about their cause through the internet. I’m definitely not a hypochondriac but if I hadn’t done my research on the net, I never would have had answers because the doctors that I saw could never put their fingers on the cause of my problems.
December 28th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Interesting post. I find many times I do internet research regarding health issues it scares the bejeezus out of me. I have learned to take it all with a grain of salt, as there is so much mis-information on the net nowadays
December 29th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I think looking symptoms up on the internet is a recipe for disaster, and surely will bring out the hypochondriac in you…
If you are suffering symptoms of any kind, go see a doctor
December 31st, 2009 at 5:22 am
20 years ago my daughter was sick and nothing the doctors could do (including an operation) could make her well. In desperation, I took her to a healer who used only energy for wellness. It might sound bizarre, but in about six weeks she was glowing with health and her health crisis was over. The healer told me emphatically not to give a name to any disease or to dwell on the details, but instead to concentrate on health. I have followed her advice ever since and have solved problems that doctors told me couldn’t be solved. So, staying away from frightening websites is excellent advice. The more frightened we are, the harder it is to heal.
January 1st, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I definitely agree with the above poster. There are a number of stories of people who had terminal diseases with a very slim chance to survive, who because of their positive attitude did survive. I think cyberchondria breeds negativity, and if you let it will bring negative things into your life.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Your point is well taken. I’ve had the experience where quite accidentally, I found an answer to a troublesome symptom online.
However, if I were given a diagnosis as you describe your friend’s diagnosis, I would take the same action as Bliss did – surround myself with healers rather than look for the medical authority online. I have more confidence in energy healing than I do in medical expertise.
The medicals can perhaps diagnose correctly, but, I do not feel they can heal or cure. Leave the healing up to the experts – alternative people who are in touch with something more powerful than drugs.
Margaret
January 1st, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Sorry, but this isn’t the place for alternative health lunacy. I’m closing the comments on this thread.