Cyberchondria is when .
1 Looking online
Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather? Most of us have at some point, and we've all discovered the dangers of the self-diagnosis which can follow. You type in a few words like 'painful headache' and 'dizzy', and suddenly you're reading about ear infections and diabetes, and wondering if you have an awful illness!
2_____________
Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new – the use of the term 'hypochondria' to describe this behaviour became popular in the late nineteenth century. Hypochondria can grow as the sufferer finds more medical information, which is why serious hypochondriacs in the past loved to collect medical encyclopaedias and magazines. It's also why some of the worst hypochondria has traditionally been found among medical students – in a recent study, three-quarters of first-year and second-year students in medical school said that they sometimes believed they were suffering from the illness they were studying. What's new is that the internet can now provide endless amounts of medical information, and this has turned us all into what is now known as 'cyberchondriacs'.
3_____________
Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell. You've got a headache again, but this time you're also feeling dizzy, a bit sick and you've got a stiff neck. Now, if you tell someone how you're feeling, they'll probably suggest you've got flu. But put those four symptoms into your search engine and the probability of flu has rapidly turned into the possibility of spinal meningitis, cryptococcosis and labyrinthitis – and you don't even need to understand what those mean to know that they're something frightening! Flu has been forgotten, and the fear you now feel tells you that what you have is surely far more serious. And as you read about some of the other symptoms of these terrible illnesses, you begin to tell yourself, 'Yes, it's true, I have felt a bit numb sometimes recently …' You might go the doctor now, and he'll tell you that you've got flu, but what does he know? He hasn't read the whole internet as you have! Or maybe he knows, but he just doesn't want to tell you the terrible truth yet …
4_____________
How does this happen to sensible people? Well, sensible people often think self-reliance is a good value to have, so they're the ones who avoid going to the doctor for as long as possible. Men are the worst for this, and teenagers are often especially embarrassed about telling someone their physical 'secrets'. But why do we get it so wrong when we do our own medical research on the web? The problem is that there aren't many documents on the internet about common illnesses such as colds and flu, because medical researchers usually write about far more interesting and serious ones – the ones which might affect only 0.002% of the population. Google doesn't know why we're asking the question, and chooses its search results depending on how many web pages are linked to a topic. The serious illnesses appear at the top of our search results, and many people make the mistake of thinking this means they must be common reasons for our symptoms. And because we recognize the first two or three symptoms, it's easy to imagine that the other ones in the list are also true, or we even manage to produce those symptoms over the next few days.
5_____________
This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education. Once you have found out what you're really suffering from, there are lots of forums where people discuss their illnesses and give each other useful advice. Some doctors say that the internet has made their patients more interested in their health, and that it can only be a good thing. But not surprisingly, many of them feel a little weary when a patient walks into their room carrying a lot of printouts …
1Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather?
2Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new.
3Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell.
4How does this happen to sensible people?
5This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education.
aThe reasons why we can all become cyberchondriacs.
bThe advantages of reading about illnesses on the web.
cThe disadvantages of cyberchondria.
dA history of hypochondria and cyberchondria.
eAn introduction to the idea of cyberchondria.
fA story of cyberchondria.
1 Looking online
Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather? Most of us have at some point, and we've all discovered the dangers of the self-diagnosis which can follow. You type in a few words like 'painful headache' and 'dizzy', and suddenly you're reading about ear infections and diabetes, and wondering if you have an awful illness!
2_____________
Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new – the use of the term 'hypochondria' to describe this behaviour became popular in the late nineteenth century. Hypochondria can grow as the sufferer finds more medical information, which is why serious hypochondriacs in the past loved to collect medical encyclopaedias and magazines. It's also why some of the worst hypochondria has traditionally been found among medical students – in a recent study, three-quarters of first-year and second-year students in medical school said that they sometimes believed they were suffering from the illness they were studying. What's new is that the internet can now provide endless amounts of medical information, and this has turned us all into what is now known as 'cyberchondriacs'.
3_____________
Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell. You've got a headache again, but this time you're also feeling dizzy, a bit sick and you've got a stiff neck. Now, if you tell someone how you're feeling, they'll probably suggest you've got flu. But put those four symptoms into your search engine and the probability of flu has rapidly turned into the possibility of spinal meningitis, cryptococcosis and labyrinthitis – and you don't even need to understand what those mean to know that they're something frightening! Flu has been forgotten, and the fear you now feel tells you that what you have is surely far more serious. And as you read about some of the other symptoms of these terrible illnesses, you begin to tell yourself, 'Yes, it's true, I have felt a bit numb sometimes recently …' You might go the doctor now, and he'll tell you that you've got flu, but what does he know? He hasn't read the whole internet as you have! Or maybe he knows, but he just doesn't want to tell you the terrible truth yet …
4_____________
How does this happen to sensible people? Well, sensible people often think self-reliance is a good value to have, so they're the ones who avoid going to the doctor for as long as possible. Men are the worst for this, and teenagers are often especially embarrassed about telling someone their physical 'secrets'. But why do we get it so wrong when we do our own medical research on the web? The problem is that there aren't many documents on the internet about common illnesses such as colds and flu, because medical researchers usually write about far more interesting and serious ones – the ones which might affect only 0.002% of the population. Google doesn't know why we're asking the question, and chooses its search results depending on how many web pages are linked to a topic. The serious illnesses appear at the top of our search results, and many people make the mistake of thinking this means they must be common reasons for our symptoms. And because we recognize the first two or three symptoms, it's easy to imagine that the other ones in the list are also true, or we even manage to produce those symptoms over the next few days.
5_____________
This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education. Once you have found out what you're really suffering from, there are lots of forums where people discuss their illnesses and give each other useful advice. Some doctors say that the internet has made their patients more interested in their health, and that it can only be a good thing. But not surprisingly, many of them feel a little weary when a patient walks into their room carrying a lot of printouts …
- MOVE
- A typical case
- The positives
- The reason for unreason
- An old habit
- Horrible illnesses
1 Looking online
Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather? Most of us have at some point, and we've all discovered the dangers of the self-diagnosis which can follow. You type in a few words like 'painful headache' and 'dizzy', and suddenly you're reading about ear infections and diabetes, and wondering if you have an awful illness!
2
Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new – the use of the term 'hypochondria' to describe this behaviour became popular in the late nineteenth century. Hypochondria can grow as the sufferer finds more medical information, which is why serious hypochondriacs in the past loved to collect medical encyclopaedias and magazines. It's also why some of the worst hypochondria has traditionally been found among medical students – in a recent study, three-quarters of first-year and second-year students in medical school said that they sometimes believed they were suffering from the illness they were studying. What's new is that the internet can now provide endless amounts of medical information, and this has turned us all into what is now known as 'cyberchondriacs'.
3
Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell. You've got a headache again, but this time you're also feeling dizzy, a bit sick and you've got a stiff neck. Now, if you tell someone how you're feeling, they'll probably suggest you've got flu. But put those four symptoms into your search engine and the probability of flu has rapidly turned into the possibility of spinal meningitis, cryptococcosis and labyrinthitis – and you don't even need to understand what those mean to know that they're something frightening! Flu has been forgotten, and the fear you now feel tells you that what you have is surely far more serious. And as you read about some of the other symptoms of these terrible illnesses, you begin to tell yourself, 'Yes, it's true, I have felt a bit numb sometimes recently …' You might go the doctor now, and he'll tell you that you've got flu, but what does he know? He hasn't read the whole internet as you have! Or maybe he knows, but he just doesn't want to tell you the terrible truth yet …
4
How does this happen to sensible people? Well, sensible people often think self-reliance is a good value to have, so they're the ones who avoid going to the doctor for as long as possible. Men are the worst for this, and teenagers are often especially embarrassed about telling someone their physical 'secrets'. But why do we get it so wrong when we do our own medical research on the web? The problem is that there aren't many documents on the internet about common illnesses such as colds and flu, because medical researchers usually write about far more interesting and serious ones – the ones which might affect only 0.002% of the population. Google doesn't know why we're asking the question, and chooses its search results depending on how many web pages are linked to a topic. The serious illnesses appear at the top of our search results, and many people make the mistake of thinking this means they must be common reasons for our symptoms. And because we recognize the first two or three symptoms, it's easy to imagine that the other ones in the list are also true, or we even manage to produce those symptoms over the next few days.
5
This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education. Once you have found out what you're really suffering from, there are lots of forums where people discuss their illnesses and give each other useful advice. Some doctors say that the internet has made their patients more interested in their health, and that it can only be a good thing. But not surprisingly, many of them feel a little weary when a patient walks into their room carrying a lot of printouts …
1In the past, hypochondriacs had to get their medical information from doctors.
2A majority of medical students say that they sometimes suffer from hypochondria.
3Fear makes us believe that we are more ill than we really are.
4Teenagers avoid going to the doctor because they are self-reliant.
5Google chooses the most interesting pages when we do a search.
6If we have some of the symptoms of an illness, we think we also have the others.
7Internet forums can be a useful way to get some advice from other patients.
1 Looking online
Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather? Most of us have at some point, and we've all discovered the dangers of the self-diagnosis which can follow. You type in a few words like 'painful headache' and 'dizzy', and suddenly you're reading about ear infections and diabetes, and wondering if you have an awful illness!
2_____________
Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new – the use of the term 'hypochondria' to describe this behaviour became popular in the late nineteenth century. Hypochondria can grow as the sufferer finds more medical information, which is why serious hypochondriacs in the past loved to collect medical encyclopaedias and magazines. It's also why some of the worst hypochondria has traditionally been found among medical students – in a recent study, three-quarters of first-year and second-year students in medical school said that they sometimes believed they were suffering from the illness they were studying. What's new is that the internet can now provide endless amounts of medical information, and this has turned us all into what is now known as 'cyberchondriacs'.
3_____________
Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell. You've got a headache again, but this time you're also feeling dizzy, a bit sick and you've got a stiff neck. Now, if you tell someone how you're feeling, they'll probably suggest you've got flu. But put those four symptoms into your search engine and the probability of flu has rapidly turned into the possibility of spinal meningitis, cryptococcosis and labyrinthitis – and you don't even need to understand what those mean to know that they're something frightening! Flu has been forgotten, and the fear you now feel tells you that what you have is surely far more serious. And as you read about some of the other symptoms of these terrible illnesses, you begin to tell yourself, 'Yes, it's true, I have felt a bit numb sometimes recently …' You might go the doctor now, and he'll tell you that you've got flu, but what does he know? He hasn't read the whole internet as you have! Or maybe he knows, but he just doesn't want to tell you the terrible truth yet …
4_____________
How does this happen to sensible people? Well, sensible people often think self-reliance is a good value to have, so they're the ones who avoid going to the doctor for as long as possible. Men are the worst for this, and teenagers are often especially embarrassed about telling someone their physical 'secrets'. But why do we get it so wrong when we do our own medical research on the web? The problem is that there aren't many documents on the internet about common illnesses such as colds and flu, because medical researchers usually write about far more interesting and serious ones – the ones which might affect only 0.002% of the population. Google doesn't know why we're asking the question, and chooses its search results depending on how many web pages are linked to a topic. The serious illnesses appear at the top of our search results, and many people make the mistake of thinking this means they must be common reasons for our symptoms. And because we recognize the first two or three symptoms, it's easy to imagine that the other ones in the list are also true, or we even manage to produce those symptoms over the next few days.
5_____________
This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education. Once you have found out what you're really suffering from, there are lots of forums where people discuss their illnesses and give each other useful advice. Some doctors say that the internet has made their patients more interested in their health, and that it can only be a good thing. But not surprisingly, many of them feel a little weary when a patient walks into their room carrying a lot of printouts …
self-diagnosis
infection
stiff
sensible
common
linked to
weary
printouts
- often found
- paper with information taken from the internet
- connected with
- your own opinion about what is wrong with your health
- difficult to move easily
- an illness caused by bacteria or a virus in your body
- not stupid
- tired of seeing the same thing
1_____________
Have you ever visited 'Dr Google' when you've felt under the weather? Most of us have at some point, and we've all discovered the dangers of the self-diagnosis which can follow. You type in a few words like 'painful headache' and 'dizzy', and suddenly you're reading about ear infections and diabetes, and wondering if you have an awful illness!
2_____________
Feeling anxiety about symptoms which may be imaginary is nothing new – the use of the term 'hypochondria' to describe this behaviour became popular in the late nineteenth century. Hypochondria can grow as the sufferer finds more medical information, which is why serious hypochondriacs in the past loved to collect medical encyclopaedias and magazines. It's also why some of the worst hypochondria has traditionally been found among medical students – in a recent study, three-quarters of first-year and second-year students in medical school said that they sometimes believed they were suffering from the illness they were studying. What's new is that the internet can now provide endless amounts of medical information, and this has turned us all into what is now known as 'cyberchondriacs'.
3_____________
Imagine this scenario: you're feeling really unwell. You've got a headache again, but this time you're also feeling dizzy, a bit sick and you've got a stiff neck. Now, if you tell someone how you're feeling, they'll probably suggest you've got flu. But put those four symptoms into your search engine and the probability of flu has rapidly turned into the possibility of spinal meningitis, cryptococcosis and labyrinthitis – and you don't even need to understand what those mean to know that they're something frightening! Flu has been forgotten, and the fear you now feel tells you that what you have is surely far more serious. And as you read about some of the other symptoms of these terrible illnesses, you begin to tell yourself, 'Yes, it's true, I have felt a bit numb sometimes recently …' You might go the doctor now, and he'll tell you that you've got flu, but what does he know? He hasn't read the whole internet as you have! Or maybe he knows, but he just doesn't want to tell you the terrible truth yet …
4_____________
How does this happen to sensible people? Well, sensible people often think self-reliance is a good value to have, so they're the ones who avoid going to the doctor for as long as possible. Men are the worst for this, and teenagers are often especially embarrassed about telling someone their physical 'secrets'. But why do we get it so wrong when we do our own medical research on the web? The problem is that there aren't many documents on the internet about common illnesses such as colds and flu, because medical researchers usually write about far more interesting and serious ones – the ones which might affect only 0.002% of the population. Google doesn't know why we're asking the question, and chooses its search results depending on how many web pages are linked to a topic. The serious illnesses appear at the top of our search results, and many people make the mistake of thinking this means they must be common reasons for our symptoms. And because we recognize the first two or three symptoms, it's easy to imagine that the other ones in the list are also true, or we even manage to produce those symptoms over the next few days.
5_____________
This doesn't mean that the internet is all bad for our medical education. Once you have found out what you're really suffering from, there are lots of forums where people discuss their illnesses and give each other useful advice. Some doctors say that the internet has made their patients more interested in their health, and that it can only be a good thing. But not surprisingly, many of them feel a little weary when a patient walks into their room carrying a lot of printouts …
1It's very unlikely that you're suffering from angina – it's not in young people.
2I'm of seeing politicians appearing on TV, making the same old promises.
3You should only take antibiotics if you are sure you have an .
4Yesterday's workout at the gym was my first for two months and my back feels really today.
5Have you never thought your headaches might be the amount of coffee you drink?
6Click here for more of games and puzzles, both colour and black and white.
7We hope you'll be with these chocolates and not eat them all at once.
8Don't rely on , go and see a doctor and make sure what the problem is!
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