Cyberchondria 294
Makarand writes "According to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle the ever-expanding
wealth of health information online is keeping hypochondriacs constantly worried. With websites devoted to every major and
esoteric illness and search engines coming up with many disease possibilities
when you type in a symptom, it is becoming very easy for the health-anxious
to believe that they have a disease. Many continue poring through the easily
available medical information even after their doctors have given them
a clean bill of health."
I have Firstpostitus! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I have Firstpostitus! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh man (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh man (Score:3, Interesting)
Look at the bright side... (Score:4, Funny)
See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Funny)
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking of peace of mind...set your mind at ease. The rumors are true. Click on the link in my sig.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Interesting)
DON'T just put out symptom lists, also put out comprehensive anti-symptom lists
DON'T tout statistical inprobability as likelyhood of having or not having a disease, since statistics don't show YOUR chances of having a disease they only show the amount of people out of a sampled set who have the disease (don't even get me started on other misinterpretations of statistics)
DO provide an open forum for discussion with doctors specializing in the field online, to allow people who still have questions to post them in a channel where they won't break the bank
And as far as the frequent doctors visits, I don't think it would be half as big a deal if there was just some way to just talk to a MD over the phone or something. I personally hate going to see doctors. But as far as I'm concerned, when my body tells me I'm feeling horrible (whether misconceived or otherwise) I go to a doctor to get answers.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Funny)
"IANAD, but I think you have Graves' disease."
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Funny)
So when I had a pain in my balls, I went to the doctor after a week, who prodded around, and pronounced me absolutely fine.
Hmmm, were they really sore, with a faint bluish color perhaps? Yes, I think I see the problem. Don't worry, it's quite common. There's a very simple treatment. Even better, you can apply it yourself. Sort of a holistic approach, as it were.
Iatrogenic? (Score:2, Interesting)
Also check out the ranking of "medical misadventure" in morbidity/mortality tables.
Increase automated diagnostic technologies and remove the doctor as gateway to pharaceuticals and we can take control over our own health.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Interesting)
The Nature Of A Hypochondriac (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure I agree with that either. I think most hypochondriacs would prefer a certified medical treatment (a pill, some chemotherapy, whatever) that would convince them that they are cured from whatever illness they imagine themselves suffering from rather than sympathy. I mean, surely part of the problem -- from the hypochondriac's point of view -- is that not only are they sick, really, really sick with some -- probably -- life-threatening disease, but their doctor(s) is/are refusing to acknowledge that 'fact' and no treatment will therefore be received?! Sympathy be damned: what a hypochondriac wants is some surgery and a whole lotta pills!
Finally, and parenthetically, I don't think the Internet has managed to add very much to the hypochondriacs' lament. Jerome K. Jerome published his Three Men In A Boat some 100 years ago: in it the narrator J. comes across a medical textbook and manages to persuade himself that he suffers from every ailment in the book (quite literarily) save housemaid's knee. Upon seeing his doctor he receives the following prescription:
Which only shows that it was perfectly possible to be struck by hypochondria even without the use of electronics. Now, if only every hypochondriac were to receive such sensible advice.
I blame literacy! (Score:3, Funny)
Nicely said! I am sure back in the 15th century (BC) there were people wandering around tut-tutting "...this literacy thing will be no end of trouble, this new technology will have people reading things on those bits of clay tablet and imagining that they have all sorts of illnesses..."
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Interesting)
It may seem unprofessional, but it also seemed to work. It calmed the fears of these people, and made sure that they didn't put pressure on the doctor as hypochondriacs often do when rejected.
as a hypochondriac... (Score:3, Funny)
I don't see the doctor because I realize that half the time I feel like crap, it has nothing to do with doctor-worthy stuff, yet I worry about it anyway, and blow it up. Sometimes stress from work and school will put me out, and my brain works over time trying to categorize it. Maybe some things are uncatagorizable. Maybe some things aren't worth catagorizing. But I do it all the same, and come up with dubious explanations for this and tha
Incorrect (Score:5, Informative)
One of the keys is that they seek out care... with the extreme example being Munchausen's syndrome; patients who seek out the sick role so avidly that they fake illnesses, have unnecessary surgeries done, etc... they often harm themselves just to get medical care, and eagerly submit to any and all tests/interventions, including risky surgery.
Along that same continuum are the hypochondriacs... they often seek out care for imagined or fear illnesses, but it's different from a Munchausen's patient... hypochondriacs see doctors out of fear/anxiety rather than a desire to assume the sick role.
Besides their tendency to seek out medical care, they also have in common (all the somatoform disorders) the characteristic of being very resistant and difficult to treat. You can't confront them, you can't reassure them... they are utterly convinced they have a serious disease. Every doctor has a handful of these patients, particularly hypochondriacs (Munchausen's patients are much rarer), and they can be very frustrating to treat, primarily because they virtually never get better.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Doctors vists are a great way to get [peace] of mind, which IMO is well worth the cost/hassle.
Whilst that's undoubtedly true, a lot of (mostly male) people are reluctant to visit their doctor, for a number of reasons. For men it usually comes down to macho "I'm fine, really" attitudes, whereas for women it's often due to them being uncomfortable discussing certain issues with (perhaps) their male doctor.
Personally I did research a minor health issue I had before visiting my doctor and was gratified to find I was right with my own amateur diagnosis. That doesn't mean I sit in my darkened plastic bubble breathing filtered air and spend all day on the internet finding exotic and fascinating diseases I can convince myself I have.
I believe this "cyberchondria" is like all other internet-afflicted problems. Those who are already prone to certain mental attitudes will simply use the internet to go overboard. Whether that's researching health matters, looking at porn, or surfing Slashdot all day is largely irrelevant. There will always be a small percentage of people who have an addictive personality. The rest of us will continue to find the [health information/porn/Slashdot] useful without getting psychotic about it.
Re:See a doctor (Score:3, Funny)
Those who are already prone to certain mental attitudes will simply use the internet to go overboard. Whether that's researching health matters, looking at porn, or surfing Slashdot all day is largely irrelevant...
Well, I guess two out of three ain't so bad.
Re:See a doctor (Score:3, Informative)
Very much so. And the "I'm fine, really" attitude can be a major problem. Checking whether a pain in your gut should be there or not can be an important factor... it may be the website says "All clear." It may also be that the spot you've indicated means "Get to the damn hospital now."
Two particularly scary probl
Re:See a doctor (Score:3, Interesting)
My grandfather died needlessly because of this. He was 81, but in great health, still fishing all the time, taking long walks, completely mentally with it(he was a HAM, constantly designing a
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Interesting)
While this is true, I do not trust a doctor to not make mistakes. For instance, my reading online has caused friction between myself and a doctor I used to visit. He gave me a presciption, I looked it up online, found the dosage he gave me was far smaller than anything I had seen written. Upon asking him about it, he advised not reading websites when it comes to drugs. What about the drug company's website? What if you are curious how the drug works or how it was tested before coming to the market? How about the LD50 and side effects in animal testing? What about alternative medications? Ah yes, the doctor isn't making a profit if he's not pushing sheepish patients out the door as quickly as possible, with no questions.
I will tend to take a doctor's advice, but no doctor's opinion is absolute. I would like to know why he chose a particular drug and dosage. I would also like to know some things about the medication that most people would prefer not to think about. While I wish I could find myself in a stupor of feeling comfort in what other people tell me, I can not escape the need to verify information given to me from multiple sources.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Could you have thought that maybe, just maybe, he really did care about making you feel better, and perhaps that's why he was doing his job?
So his dosage was low, maybe in his experience such a dosage works fine, or whatever you had was unique enough for him to lack an encyclopedic knownowledge of. He's only human and can't possibly know everything or keep up with every drug out there.
Seriously, not everything is a conspiracy, people are just human.
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. Humans that like golf, boats, and big houses.
I do not trust a typical doctor any more than an auto mechanic. I'm sure my mechanic doesn't want me getting online and reading about the quality differences in his OEM parts versus brand named ones, either.
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
It's like this. A Lian Li is a fine case. Much better than the POS I'm using for my teacher's niece's computer. But she won't be opening the case or showing it off, so it's very likely that she also wouldn't appreciate my spending a third of the cost of the machine on a fancy case.
As to your doctor, many drugs have uses they haven't actually been tested for, and so the drug company doesn't officially mention them, but most doctors know about them. A bad example would be Prozac for kids: It seems to work, and we don't see immediately why it'd be a problem, but I for one don't think it's safe. A good example would be the use of birth control to supress the menstrual cycle, which was recently approved, buthad often been done prior to that. Your doctor may know more than you do. It's hard to believe, but he did spend years and years studying. Rather than telling him his dosage is wrong, just ask him about it.
I'm like you. I'm curious, and I don't like the way medical folk don't tell you what's going on, but I've found that with an application of curiousity and a demonstration that I can keep an even keel, they'll tell me. What they're worried about mostly is that when I find out they're giving an electric shock(!~!!!!1) or prescribing a drug that hasn't been tested exactly like this, I'll freak out and call security or whatever. Most likely, your doctor saw a lawsuit in the making when you start acting like you've trapped him, so he stonewalled.
Next time, try just asking. 'Doctor, I read that the usual dosage for this is higher, so I was curious. Can you tell me a little about it?'
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, the whole of *society* is a vast conspiracy to screw you out of money.
Oh hang on, no, its called 'capitalism'
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll go ahead and answer those questions for you. (It doesnt matter what the drug is)
According to the drug company's website, the drug is the best thing ever. According to the company's pre-market testing, it went better than ever.
The reason he told you not to listen to the Internet when trying to get informed about drugs is because the drug companies are in SERIOUS competition with each other and will do just about anything to get you to take their's. You go online and become concerned your doctor didnt prescribe you enough of the drug? Well then you are exactly the kind of person that this article is talking about.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure what you are trying to prove. There are plenty of independant studies of drug effects online. Not that they are any more factual than anything a particular doctor's word, but when I present a doctor with a question about my dosage, then get a blanket answer to not read online, I assume he doesn't have a more intelligent answer and find services elsewhere.
I questioned my dosage after continuing to worsen in my condition, which took a U-turn as soon as I was on the recommended dosage.
So what's your point again? So I saved myself further pain and frustration by finding out my particular doctor was making up his own dosages, then giving to me without explanation. Perhaps you and 30 other trolls could inject further wisdom about how wrong I was. Right.
Amen. (Score:3, Interesting)
Years ago, my son was having a bad reaction to poison ivy. He was about 6 at the time. My wife took him to the doctor, and the doctor was puzzled about how bad the reaction was. He has very very white, delicate skin, and I knew he was just susceptable to stuff like that.
But the Doctor, oh no, he sent him to a skin doctor, who didn't want to deal with it, so he perscrib
Re:Amen. (Score:4, Insightful)
No. (Score:5, Insightful)
You DID know that poison ivy is a hypersensitivity reaction, didn't you? Your own immune system causes the rash and symptoms. The rash of Poison Ivy is caused by a delayed, type IV hypersensitivity reaction (cell-mediated) to the oil of one of several species in the Toxicodendron genus. There is no way to treat poison ivy, except to temporarily suppress that particular immune response, often with steroids or other drugs. Then again, you could just wait... as you discovered. Poison ivy goes away if you give it enough time... but I can't tell you the number of people I see who demand that I do something about their symptoms right now.
If your son had a bad enough case that he was sent to a dermatologist, then your doctor may have been right on the money.
You have every right to do what you did... but don't accuse your doctor of malpractice; you're indicting him on an issue you clearly don't understand. You are exactly the type of person they are referring to in this article.
Then again, if we didn't have AC's talking smack, this wouldn't be slashdot.
Read the parent post (Score:5, Informative)
he perscribed a drug I'd never heard of. My wife called and I told her I'd look it up on the internet.
It sounds to me like the poster wasn't even present at the doctor's office, so he doesn't have any idea what was discussed or not discussed. Why do you think doctors document everything? I can't tell you how many patients forget everything I told them five minutes after they leave... printed discharge instructions are a Godsend for us, and they prevent people from coming back on us, claiming "he never told me that!" I've had patients do that many times, and when I get an irate phone call from the administrator/spouse/family/doctor, I read it right back to them straight out of their chart. I don't like doing that, but it's the only way I can protect myself.
What a moron. It verged on malpractice. But what could you do? Doctors stick up for each other, and I would end up looking like the idiot
He said it, I didn't. Then again, I don't know what else you call someone like that, who attacks his doctor without even a basic understanding of the disease process or its proper treatment...
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
It's just like security -- security is better when there are humans involved to make rational decisions. It's the same with your health.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Doctors can also be (pick several):
1. Only Human, not Omnipotent AllSeeing DemiGods.
2. Overworked.
3. Reduced to a 15 minute visit per person, max - when the average visit used to be a much larger figure only 20 years ago.
4. Not always up on the latest research and/or information.
5. Quick to dismiss other possibilities after arriving at a single conclusion, even if other evidence presents itself.
Analyzing the data effectively can give you an edge over a doctor. You know your body. You know how it should work. Just be comprehensive in your analysis, and don't leave anything out.
I was once diagnosed with tendonitis. The actual cause of the problems I was experiencing was a small boil in my armpit (due to using antiperspirants). The lump was pressing against a nerve, giving all of the same symptoms as tendonitis (the nerves are quite exposed there). Several visits later, and I diagnose the problem myself. A short course of antibiotics later, and the problem was completely gone.
Another example:
I was diagnosed with borderline sleep apnea by a sleep medicine center. I was waking up with severe headaches every morning, and had a wildly variable sleep cycle. The idea would have been to go on a CPAP machine, and see if I got better.
What was the real problem?
I'm sensitive to caffeine. I don't get the jitters or get hyper - I just get anxious. I metabolise it so quickly that in my sleep, I'd be undergoing caffeine withdrawal. That was what the headaches were. I cut out caffeine, and everything's fine now. I'm much more confident, happier, and have *no* headaches when I wake up.
Doctors aren't infallible. If they were, they'd be magicians. They're not - they're just human. Treat them accordingly.
Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget the extremely vague and universal symptoms listed in the advertisements:
If you've ever felt depressed, disappointed, been discouraged, or have in any way failed to any extent in any endeavor you have ever attempted, ask your doctor about Lobotomol.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Funny)
Depression is caused by neurochemical imbalances that result in you being a social outcast and a freak. But don't worry! Help is here! New Placeboflexin is designed to treat these symptoms, so you can resume your regular life. Ask your doctor if Placeboflexin is right for you.
In clinical trials, subjects reported headache, dry mouth, and nausea in about the same proportions as those taking placebos. Placeboflexin might not be right for you. Ask your doctor.
No Cure for ER (Score:3, Funny)
Of course there's something wrong with him -- something seriously wrong, that could haunt him for the rest of his life.
He's on ER.
-kgj
Obecalp & pricing (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Funny)
I... didn't... get...
my... last... comment...
modded... up...
to... +5....
I'm a... failure...
will... Lobotomol (TM)
help me?
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Funny)
UNLESS YOU TRY WITTICOMEBACKINISOL(tm)(r)(c)(patent no. 7,799,842).
Recommended dosage, 14,000mg. Ask your doctor for details. You loser.
Heh, extreme pharmaceutical ads. Sorry you were the victim, orth... I'm sure you're very kind and funny.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Interesting)
And thats not even my favorite part... It's crazy how most of those ads show 'happy images' for like 60 seconds while listing off the potential side effects.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:5, Funny)
Please discontinue use if you have or will have the following side effects:
Blood clots, coronary heart failure, tumors, deepened depression, leukemia, warts, common cold, severe vomiting, minor vomiting, toothaches, headaches, migraines, vision problems, ear ringing, hair loss, genetic mutations, muscle tension, athletes foot, jock itch
Pharm advertising phenomenon (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is certainly true, and there are many instances of big pharma promoting drugs for unlicensed usage, or made up [bmjjournals.com] diseases [bmjjournals.com]
The problem is not just big pharma per se, but also the way it funds special interest groups (e.g. Multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis) to campaign [bmjjournals.com] for wildly expensive drugs of dubious efficacy. This is the malignant end of astroturfing, and many of these supposedly educational sites have a message "this drug works and your doctor better give it to you".
Unfortunately these sort of '
please help me (Score:3, Funny)
I just found out I suffer from slashdoticus postlotticus a rare disorder include me in your mailings for future medications. If and only if you're paying .10 for pill and charging me $10.00 thank you.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying that migraine, acid reflux disease, depression, and social anxiety disorder aren't serious diseases, but because of their similarities to far less serious but more common probl
mis-diagnosis (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:mis-diagnosis (Score:2, Insightful)
For a second opinion, one should consult another doctor--not the Internet! The only use the Internet has in a situation like this is for researching information after one has received a formal diagnosis from a doctor. People without medical degrees should not go Willy Nilly,
Re:mis-diagnosis (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:mis-diagnosis (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably in the last few years I've had anxiety related problems and occasionally look up information on the medication I'm on (I've been on a few types). It's not hard to sometimes get the symptoms from just something you read about.
I had an ache down my left arm which in the end turned out to be from a pulled muscle that eased up, but I read all about heart attacks and convinced myself I was having one one night. Off to hospital in an ambulance all night to be checked and needled just to make sure. Everything was fine. Now I'm in the habit of rubbing my arm in that spot, and of course that triggers the nerve there which brings about chest pains, little stabbing pains in my back and side of my ribs.
Of course then reading about heart attacks I came across information on why they're caused, one being blood clots in veins caused by sitting still, so now any ache in my legs I get guilty feelings of having clotting, then I'll get a twitch in my eye or head, and think "OMG IT'S A STROKE". It's freaking weird how carried away my mind can get.
Looking at it logically, I visited my sister for a week, and forgot all about the problems, and the symptoms were gone. I came back home, no problems at all, then came across an old email from a heart attack forum. Suddenly my symptoms reappear!
This must make it terrible for doctors, as just by reading about problems I've been tested for blood clots, heart irregularities and heart attacks, blood pressure and beating monitoring 24 hours a day, blood sugar and you name it it just goes on.
I know most people don't have the tendency to anxiety and worry that I do, and really it's a middle sized problem in my life, but something I can mostly deal with and my doctor too, when there's nothing else on top, but with a large percentage of the population anxiety prone like me, and a large percentage of THOSE online, this has to be making some incredible extra work for doctors, while making them all the more skeptical of the genuine patients who do present with heart problems, etc.
Why bother with google? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why bother with google? (Score:5, Funny)
I assume that you're not worried about the pending legal action against you since probably have less than six months to live?
Ignorance is bliss (Score:5, Interesting)
"Because of the internet's recent collapse because of massive slashdotting, the whole world was left to wonder how they would ever find out how to get from their house to the nearest blockbuster without Mapquest or how to do a research project without Google."
Perhaps people who can't handle too much information should stay away from the internet before they freak themselves out. One hundred years ago, someone could have written how a Library had the same effect, bringing all that information in one place to freak people out who are easily freaked out.
Matt Fahrenbacher
They ought to be checking something else... (Score:3, Insightful)
Medical students syndrome (Score:5, Interesting)
You don't have to be a hypochondriac to experience it. It's also known as medical students' syndrome, where perfectly normal and reasonable medical students self-diagnose themselves with diseases and illnesses that they are studying about. It's also been known as psychology students' syndrome for obvious reasons.
Re:Medical students syndrome (Score:4, Funny)
I felt my forehead and yup, I had a temperature and fever.
Re:Medical students syndrome (Score:4, Interesting)
Mind you, this doesn't address the issue of whether they went into the field precisely because they wanted to figure out the mess, or if they were messed up before they started. But it seemed to be universal, and it brings up a lot of questions about the stability and effectiveness of a lot of the working shrinks out there.
I guess the real problem is that if you apply theory to yourself, you have to be really careful to maintain some perspective, and not assume it all applies perfectly to you. And that's not easy, I can tell you.
Gloom and doom. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's easier to figure out you don't have a disease online than to be convinced you have one.
Life imitates satire? (Score:5, Funny)
There are also advantages to this online DR. (Score:4, Insightful)
Like everything else... (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, with all we know, it's hard for any doctor to just say "you're fine!" and know that it's a fact. I'm sure many of us have had a problem (and please, let's not list them on
Most information is neutral--blame the users of that information.
So true.. (Score:2, Interesting)
An office mate in his late 20's was always reading online about various things.. About a year ago he started having bad coughs. Looked it up online and said he had "Adult Onset Asthma." After a few weeks that self-diagnosis changed to "Walking Pneumonia." The last self-diagnosis was "Congestive Heart Failure" and he may need a heart transplant.
I kid you not.
So he finally
Bottom line, all this sickness happened after a bad job review. Now he's on disability milking the system. That pisses me off as it mean
Stumping doctors too (Score:5, Interesting)
A patient walks in and immediately tells the doctor he thinks he has Berringer-Klopp syndrome. The doctor then excuses himself for a moment and has to dig up one of those rare diseases books. A few minutes later, he tells the man that he probably just has a case of warts.
That's the problem with Medical school students as well; people will immediately think of the rarest diseases. It's probably just a cold or a early flu, but people suspect that they have a case of Tularemia. It's the equivalent of hearing hoofbeats and thinking that its Zebras.
Re:Stumping doctors too (Score:3, Funny)
this has nothing to do with internet/www (Score:4, Informative)
So I'm OK? (Score:2, Funny)
Keep away from doctors and hospitals (Score:5, Interesting)
Insurance plays a role in this (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not saying insurance is a bad thing, but insurance that says "yes, you can have open heart surgery for $5" is going to affect patient behavior, no way around it.
Personally? (Score:4, Funny)
File suit! (Score:3, Funny)
The hypochondria pill... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, that's a GREAT idea! I need to become a marketing guru for Pfizer...
oops, time for my soma...
Doctors (Score:4, Insightful)
And they should, because doctors can't differenciate a Headache from Meningitis if they caught it contagiously and then they died from it. Seriously, a 2 minute talk with a doctor and i can get out of there with about any brand of pills i actually researched a little. For example.
"Hey doc, i'm having panic attacks, do you think i should get Rivotril? My friend's friend used to have those, and she said it works well."
"Sure, here have these, take X per X hours/days"
"Thanks doc"
2 minutes. Only 2. It's come more to social charisma contests than actual diagnostics. Not to mention about doctors who dont even try anymore. You have panic disorder? Try some Morphine.
the fearful always suffer (Score:5, Interesting)
I know, the hypochondriacs in the readership will say they have a special mental condition and need lifelong treatment, and there really is no cure. Well that just proves my point, doesn't it?
As for the impact of Google on all this; I recently suffered some kind of respiratory impact, and after two weeks of coughing woke up in the night feeling I could not breath. A call to the hospital assured me that I was in grave danger and I should call emergency aid. After thinking on this and listening to my body a while I decided to tough it out, and finally slept the rest of the night. Later the next day I had an exam and x-rays, which x-rays came back abnormal (metastatic cancer indication) which I didn't buy at all because I didn't fit the profile for metastatic cancer. I Googled some things and based on sound evidence decided I had a rare respiratory fungus. More x-rays and some consultations and the doctor said that OK I didn't have cancer, and he didn't know what I had, and it might be a rare respiratory fungus (!) and he would need to cut my chest open to see, which would land me in the hospital for 3 days (at a time when I am needing to find a job). I declined, of course.
Still have a cough of sorts, but getting better. I think the clue to health is to insist on being healthy despite the continued pressure to be otherwise. In this regard Google (and a clear head, and some experience working in a hospital X-ray lab) gave me the resources to stay on my feet at a time when I really needed to.
Like every other kind of tool, using the Internet takes skill and sometimes courage. And no I still don't have a job, so every day still counts.
Re:the fearful always suffer (Score:3, Funny)
Re:the fearful always suffer (Score:3, Interesting)
That may be true about some people, but certainly not about all cases.
As a sometime hypochondriac, the last thing I want to do is confide in anyone about my fear; I don't derive any pleasure, destructive or otherwise, from fearing that there's something wrong with
Yup, I'm one of those... (Score:5, Insightful)
If something is wrong with a person, the internet can serve as a useful tool during the initial information-finding phase. The unguided nature of the internet does carry the risk of misidentifying or imagining diseases or conditions. It should therefore never be used as a substitute for professional help!
Yet another reason... (Score:5, Funny)
Newsflash! (Score:4, Funny)
OCD sufferers report rise in symptoms due to abundance of light switches and sinks with soap nearby!
In unrelated news, schizophrenic patient spends 4 hours yelling at convenience store security camera about CIA stealing his brain waves!
Another trend... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think there's a wrong trend that sites that should not give this kind of information are the ones that are listed on top in a Google search. As usual on the internet, apply common sense first... but a lot of people read it, and if it's on a popular site... well, it must be true then of course. I did check with my uncle later on (he's a doctor) and he confirmed my research, diagnosis & cure. He also confirmed that the trend I noticed is a pain in the butt for most doctors, because a lot of people tend to think they have something dramatic (bragging rights on a tea party perhaps?) while they don't. He says consult times have a longer duration now because not only does he have to diagnose & write out a prescription if needed, but he also has to tell the patient his or her issue is not that grave.
Another source of reliable information (Score:4, Informative)
The government doesn't have everything out there, but when it does have studies, it usually puts them out there on the Internet, publically available. It's your money that paid for said tough standards and hours of someone shifting away bullshit. I'd suggest taking advantage of some of that.
Maybe there should be a page called "Healthy" (Score:5, Insightful)
Today's editorial: "That's not a wart."
Relying on that for med advice is bad anyway (Score:4, Interesting)
Besides, you can't make a diagnosis without seeing the problem for the most part, unless it's painfully obvious (Nail in the hand? Well, obviously you have a nail in your hand!).
Worse - Misdiagnosis from alternative therapists (Score:3, Insightful)
IMO, misinformation is much worse than information overload. I know a few people who go to alternative therapists pretty much exclusively and get told an amazing load of bullshit. Sure, doctors don't have all the answers and their judgement is often skewed by the pharmaceutical industry peddling new expensive drugs. But I'll take their advice over the alternative snake oil salesmen any day.
Alternative medicine kooks (Score:3, Insightful)
It's really amazing how fraud is illegal, but alternative medicine gets a special pass -- and medicine is an area where one
Re:Alternative medicine kooks (Score:3, Funny)
100% natural, no perservatives, no harmful "chemicals"
Thank you, Mr. Hume (Score:3, Interesting)
Suggestion for the cave dwellers watching the shadow-play on the back wall - stay there, we don't need you.
New parents (Score:3, Interesting)
When I was a new parent, i'd look stuff up online.
Then there would be any thing from cold to certian and immediate death.
Of course getting two different ways to trweat something fom two different peidotritians didn't help either.
"Hypochrondria" can be a misdiagnosis, too (Score:4, Informative)
In my own experience, an orthopedic surgeon--the only one my HMO would agree to cover at the time--dismissed my osteoarthritis as lack of exercise, poor posture, and worrying. He agreed that my hip was malformed, but told me that I would not need to see him for at least another twenty years, and then only as a precaution. I took his advice seriously, gritted my teeth and toughed it out; and if I had pain, I tried to exercise more. Ten years later, I was almost completely unable to walk, and the "new" doctors found that my hip socket was almost completely gone. I needed a total hip replacement with arthroplasty because I didn't have enough bone left to hold the implant. By this time, I couldn't hold down a job, and I had become such a pain-stressed freak that my family and social life was in ruins. I learned my lesson, and never again will I rely on a doctor to be my only or primary source of information.
Books have fueled hypochondriacs for years (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't exactly a new problem. People have books full of diseases and stuff that can convince them they're about to die.
Loads of people in England have books like these [amazon.co.uk] which are ideal for the budding hypochondriac! A lot of them are full of flow charts that let you start out with a symptom and answer questions to find out what disease you've got. You can start out with a slight headache and be dying of diphtheria before you know it!
So basically, the problem isn't really limited to the internet, but maybe it's easier to surf the net than to crack open a book when you feel ill.
This got me pretty badly... (Score:4, Funny)
When the doctor told me it was Mono, I threw both my hands in the air and said "ALRIGHT!"
The doctor said that was the first time he's ever seen someone so excited to have Mono.
Stop Protecting Idiots From Themselves! (Score:3, Funny)
On the other hand, it can be good. (Score:5, Interesting)
I discovered after 21 years of operations with organ difficulties of all kinds that my birth defects had a name, that there was a great support network online, and wonderful new treatments. Nobody had ever told me what it was, because doctors focused on one malfunctioning organ at a time. I only learned because I was bored one night and typed the name of a procedure into a search engine. I learned about a new operation in the discussion groups about two years later, went through 6 layers of doctors to convince my HMO to let me have it -- and now for the first time in my life, I can go away from my house overnight, I don't have to worry about medical mishaps, it's amazing! All because *I* looked up info on what I had, instead of relying on authority figures that (all the way until I reached a surgeon) had never even *heard* of what I needed.
Similarly, it was a couple of years ago that I was searching for information on my delayed development/maturity and for the first time in my life found out what it was I'd had all along. I was skeptical at first, but I did fit the exact profile and asked others that were diagnosed in the online support community, eventually finding that I was more like them than anybody I'd ever met in real life. I've since been formally diagnosed, as has my partner (who went through the same self-dx process) though we learned in the process that the amount of ignorance in the psychology field when it comes to our neuro-issue is absolutely horrifying. This is after we'd each spent quite a bit of time being grossly misdiagnosed and drugged senseless based on that -- it was due to *our* research that we were finally given a diagnosis that made sense and were able to obtain guidance that improved our lives instead of making things worse.
it works both ways (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but I don't buy that. People with anxiety disorders always could go to the library or worry about something else.
But there is real and useful medical information on the Internet. If you worry about your risk of HIV after a sexual encounter, for example, you can find data quickly that lets you assess your risk rationally on the Internet, and that may well reduce more people's anxiety than increase it; in the past, you might have had to go to the library and go through stacks for many hours to find a simple answer, something most non-hypochondriacs would never have bothered with.
Furthermore, doctors themselves are so prone to making mistakes that having access to such a wealth of medical information on the Internet can actually save your life. I think doctors are quite unhappy that they are losing the information monopoly they traditionally enjoyed. Patients are now questioning their judgement, pointing out their mistakes, and generally are more informed. Perhaps that is the real reason why the medical community keeps raising this non-issue.
And I live with one (Score:3, Interesting)
Since she moved in with me (I have high speed internet), she has developed:
The disease this week (which coincides with an article in some magazine):
All of these are real problems, with real discomfort, and real effects. Unfortunately, many do not have any concrete, widely accepted test, diagnosis, or treatment. Many also have more than their fair share of quack doctors who are entirely willing to try their pet theories on my lady as though she were some kind of lab rat with a blank checkbook.
The web is an amazing resource, with more information and pseudo-cures than can be digested or tried by an army of sufferers. This also makes for self diagnosis gone amok.
I really don't know where I'm going with this, except to underscore my extreme frustration with whaever it is she's got. I just hope it doesn't morph again next month.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (Score:4, Funny)
I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment of which I had a touch - hay fever, I fancy it was. I got down the book, and read all I came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves, and began to indolently study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first distemper I plunged into - some fearful, devastating scourge, I know - and, before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms," it was borne in upon me that I had fairly got it.
I sat for awhile, frozen with horror; and then, in the listlessness of despair, I again turned over the pages. I came to typhoid fever - read the symptoms - discovered that I had typhoid fever, must have had it for months without knowing it - wondered what else I had got; turned up St. Vitus's Dance - found, as I expected, that I had that too, - began to get interested in my case, and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started alphabetically - read up ague, and learnt that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight. Bright's disease, I was relieved to find, I had only in a modified form, and, so far as that was concerned, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I plodded conscientiously through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid's knee.
I felt rather hurt about this at first; it seemed somehow to be a sort of slight. Why hadn't I got housemaid's knee? Why this invidious reservation? After a while, however, less grasping feelings prevailed. I reflected that I had every other known malady in the pharmacology, and I grew less selfish, and determined to do without housemaid's knee. Gout, in its most malignant stage, it would appear, had seized me without my being aware of it; and zymosis I had evidently been suffering with from boyhood. There were no more diseases after zymosis, so I concluded there was nothing else the matter with me.
I sat and pondered. I thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view, what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to "walk the hospitals," if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and, after that, take their diploma.
Then I wondered how long I had to live. I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating. I have since been induced to come to the opinion that it must have been there all the time, and must have been beating, but I cannot account for it. I patted myself all over my front, from what I call my waist up to my head, and I went a bit round each side, and a little way up the back. But I could not feel or hear anything. I tried to look at my tongue. I stuck it out as far as ever it would go, and I shut one eye, and tried to examine it with the other. I could only see the tip, and the only thing that I could gain from that was to feel more certain than before that I had scarlet fever.
I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.
I went to my medical man. He is an old chum of mine, and feels my pulse, and looks at my tongue, and talks about the weather, all for nothing, when I fancy I'm ill; so I thought I would do him a good turn by going to him now. "What a doctor wants," I said, "is practice. He shall have me. He will get more practice out of me than out of seventeen hundred of your
it's just information... sometimes useful (Score:3, Informative)
I had what was initially diagnosed as possible carpal tunnel syndrome. I'd heard plenty about the standard carpal release operation from people who'd had it. When I run across 3 out of 3 dissatisfied customers (YMMV, of course, this might be your best solution), I decided I'd better look into alternatives REAL fast.
So I googled, and I found something. The something was on the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons site, for A new procedure to alleviate carpal tunnel syndrome uses a balloon catheter to stretch and expand the ligament and relieve pressure on the median nerve in the carpal tunnel of the wrist. [aaos.org] It also mentioned a 95% customer satisfaction rate.
Well, the chief of Orthopedic Surgery who was examining me was very interested, this was new at the time and new to him as well, and the URL was from a source he was extremely unlikely to dismiss, given that he was probably paying them membership dues.
He referred me to a lab test, an EMG (electromyogram) checking nerve conductivity that showed I did not have carpal tunnel, and when the results came back, sent me to a physical therapist who essentially, taught me how to use my wrists and hands on the keyboard so as to reduce the specific actions that led to the problem. That was 8 years ago, and I've had no problems past minor wrist pain since then, and the use of ice several times and wrist braces once or twice took care of it.
While this did not help me directly other than getting more respect and perhaps better care than I might have otherwise, I'm sure that any patient who the doctor might have considered standard carpal tunnel release surgery for was well served because the doctor knew of a less intrusive alternative.
I think this is how doctor-patient interaction for the common purpose of getting fixed is supposed to work. Use common sense, listen to the doctor, and if you want him to listen to the information you've found, find sources he is unlikely to argue with because he, too regards them as authoritative..
If he suggests alternatives to surgery or medication, LISTEN, this is his field of expertise. He'll probably listen to you if the question is Linux vs OpenBSD.
You've got the time to google, use sources like Medline, etc. ... time a doctor frequently doesn't have. If you're here, you might be even better at using websearch and possibly even searching medical databases than she/he does. You can use this time to give a doctor information he doesn't have time to get. Your common purpose is getting your ass fixed.
If you have a doctor that won't work with you towards this common goal, find another doctor.