I must be dying. What I thought was a cough must be lung cancer. And that simple muscle twitch might be a nervous system disorder. Holy crap! And I go through this stress every time I decide to self-diagnose with Google.
Trust me, I know about what I speak. After going through a particularly nerve-wracking time, my husband joked that I’m only aloud to Google about how I’m going to die for a half hour a day. This Googling can be addictive.
It’s all fun at first.
It all starts with an innocent curiosity. Or maybe a twinge of worry. Or perhaps a full blown panic. But search engines at first seems like your friend. They appear to have answers. And they give you the illusion of clarity. But can they truly give any of this when they’re just providing generic information?
As someone who has been there and done that, all I can say is DON’T GOOGLE YOUR SYMPTOMS!! Trying to self-diagnose with the internet is a really bad idea. Such a bad idea, in fact, that I came up with 5 reasons you 100% don’t want to do it.
5 reasons NOT to self-diagnose with Google
Number 1
Every innocent symptom can also be a sign that you have a dread disease. Seriously, every single one. Diarrhea can mean you have colon cancer. It can also mean you had a bad food reaction, you’re nervous, you’re getting your period, or you have a food sensitivity. Or about a million other things. But somehow the most catastrophic pops up first. Or maybe it just more easily catches the eye. But you will end your internet session thinking of the worst disease out there.
Number 2
Stress is dangerous. When you self-diagnose, you can put thoughts in your head that are super stressful. Only to likely learn later that everything is fine. And while none of us know if we’ll develop a serious illness, the stress from worrying about it can be as harmful as anything we eat or put on our bodies. So surfing online and stressing about it doesn’t do you any good. And it actually does harm.
Number 3
You might not notice all the symptoms. I’m very fair skinned and I got quite a few bad burns as a kid. So every year I go to the dermatologist to make sure nothing sinister has developed. And one year when I thought everything was fine, I learned that I had something called actinic keratosis. Which is benign, but can develop into skin cancer if left untreated. I had thought it was just a very large freckle. So my self-diagnosis was wrong. Thank goodness I saw a professional.
Number 4
You might treat the wrong illness. Hey, I’ve done this with my dog. I saw her frantically scratching and licking. So I rushed her to the groomer thinking for sure she had a visit from an unwelcome flea. Only to be told that she didn’t have fleas. She was suffering from allergies. Poor little thing. But this is what happens when you jump to conclusions. And you may end up suffering needlessly as your untreated symptoms get worse.
Number 5
Google doesn’t know your health history. Technology is pretty amazing. My computer knows me so well that it can turn on from reading my fingerprint. So it’s easy to forget that it doesn’t really know you. Yes, it can just spit out random statistics. But you for sure are more than a statistic. And this is why search results can be so confusing. And why you don’t want to self-diagnose.
There are some exceptions
There are times when using the internet might be a good thing. For instance, when your doctor gives you a clean bill of health, but your gut keeps saying there is something being overlooked. Or when you’re dealing with something for which your doctor is struggling to provide answers. Or when you’re faced with choices and want to get feedback from others who’ve been in your shoes.
These days, there are many online services that actually let you communicate with a physician from your home. How amazing is that? The fact that we are so connected to others can be an amazing thing.
And certainly there are people whose lives have been saved by taking their health into their own hands. But it’s just important to remember that there are many more times when you shouldn’t be using Google to self-diagnose. So these internet searches for answers should be more of an exception than a rule.
Use technology to connect with your doctor
It’s so amazing that we live in a time when we can just email our doctors. I totally hate bothering people. So it can be difficult to speak up. But this is so much better than doing random internet searches.
And while physicians certainly can’t diagnose you via email, they can probably tell you that it’s OK to wait a few more days to see if the symptoms go away before setting an appointment. Or that your symptoms warrant you coming in right away. So you don’t have to worry about wasting anybody’s time. Or even your own.
I love this so much! I have been guilty of doing this myself, but I have learned from my mistakes and leave it up to the professionals now.
Oh, I am so guilty of doing this myself. Everything is at your finger tips and it’s hard not to. I am ill at the moment and when Googling my symptoms, a ton of scary looking diseases and conditions pop up, when in reality, it is probably nothing to worry about at all. Great to have a reminder about how we should not be using Google to try and get a diagnosis!
For sure. Any symptom can mean something scary. But thankfully, it usually isn’t
I always look things up on Google before I call the doctor (although I don’t know why since I never treat myself), but to but seriously, what is their obsession with cancer? I can’t even take them seriously if their first diagnosis for “toe pain” or “eye twitch” is cancer.
right? The crazy thing is that when my mom was diagnosed with cancer, she felt just fine.
You’ve gotta love Dr. Google. One minute you just have a scratchy throat, the next he says you are dying. I try to stay off google for illness, but I will say when my mom was in the hospital I could not keep off and kept looking up information on cerebral hemorrhage and hemorrhagic strokes and it really did nothing more than freak me out more than I already was.
I agree! Google makes me nervous all the time, results always show cancer, tumor and other serious diseases. That’s terrible. So I told myself, when something’s wrong, I should go and see a doctor and avoid asking Google.
I am always trying to diagose every ache, pain and itch and so far I don’t have anything. This is a good post for people like me who get a weekly scare to just calm down.
I need to send this post to everyone I know. We all do this. Every time one of my BFF’s or I get sick, we google our symptoms. These are the perfect reasons why we shouldn’t do that.
I always use Google when it comes to trying to figure what may be going on. Of course I also know that just because it’s screaming cancer/dying/some other crazy scary thing…there is less than a 1% chance of it being any of those things. Google can actually be a good thing to use. For instance, my daughter, is 18, and had a pimple on her forehead. She kept picking at it, it scabbed over, picked again, and well, repeat a couple of times. She was spending the night at a friends house, and I get a text at 2am. She has self diagnosed her self with impetigo (thanks to Google), and went to the dr that morning. Sure enough, thanks to Google, she knew that she needed to see a dr, and not skip out on a dr’s trip. The dr confirmed that it was impetigo. Google isn’t always bad. You just have to weed out the scary, and use your brain.
I definitely agree that it is good to use the internet if it helps get someone to see a professional who wouldn’t otherwise. Teens often feel invincible. So perhaps that age group might need the kick in the butt to get a professional opinion.
Guilty! LOL I am a new mom and every time my son cried, I was on the laptop reading forums and googling symptoms. Luckily, the answers I got were very mild like, “try a weak tea for an upset stomach” LOL.
I couldn’t agree more. We should never rely on google to find out what we’re having issues with when it comes to our health. It’s only going to be confusing. It’s always best to see a doctor.
I will admit that I am guilty of self-diagnosing with Google but I agree that it is not a substitute for proper or professional healthcare advice.
Haha! It’s so true! I used to be the worst at it. Then I got married and my husband mocked me mercilessly. Probably because his family is full of nurses and doctors!
Haha thank you for posting this! My partner is forever telling me off for self diagnosing myself!! A google search can really give you some absolutely wrong answers and there isn’t any better advice than that of a doctor!
Yeah I try to stay away from self diagnosing. I believe one time when I tried to google, I was pretty much on my death bed, or so said Google.
Google the symptoms and you’re going to be shocked that you’re about to die, lol. Google is not a good replacement for a doctor! It’s always better to set an appointment than to google your symptoms.
LOL, I have to admit, Google is my first thought when my doctor tells me of a “possibility” when we are trying to figure out what is going on with me! I’ll stop, because you are right, the stress is awful.
I find it dangerous for the opposite reason. I am forever the optimist when it comes to illness ‘I’m sure it’s nothing!’. So if I Google my symptoms I look for anything that is harmless and non threatening and assume I have that and ignore everything else! Luckily, touch wood, I’ve never had anything too serious!
Good advice, Erica. I’ve found that it’s better if I take my diagnosis and research what the doctor told me so that I can understand whatever it is better. Doing the diagnosis myself though–yeah, a bad thing.
So very true. I completely agree with you but often we resort to the means that’s available to us at our finger tips. But we should never rely on these resources.
According to google I have died or should have died about 10 times. I have learned to ignore most of it, but it doesn’t stop me from looking!
Essentially with Google you will find out from your symptoms that you are dying. Of course, curiousity always gets the best of me and I search symptoms anyway!
Oh my gosh, YES! I was just telling someone the same thing. I’ve completely traumatized myself looking up symptoms before. Never ever use Google or WebMD to self diagnose
This post is so true!!! I always self-diagnose and will convince myself I’m dying of brain cancer when I just have a cold!
I try not too self diagnose with Google because like you said it can make you sound like you are dying when you are not. Thank you for the confirmation x
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve done this when I first got pregnant! I drove myself back and forth to the doctor because of what google told me. I’ve learned my lesson though! This time around I’ve controlled my urges to see what google thinks 🙂
Yeah, using Google to help me figure out whats wrong just adds another 3 layers of anxiety I didn’t need! I always end up telling myself I have some rare disease no one has been in 120 years hahaha
This is such a great reminder. It’s too easy to get sucked into everything you can learn online by trying to self diagnose. But in many many times you are reading very incorrect information!
I used to tell this to one of my friends all the time. Step away from WebMD and Google. Go to a doctor who is trained to identify the problem. The web has a lot of misleading information.
I think it’s good to go on Google to REPUTABLE sites to get ideas about what might be wrong and support. But a lot of people just don’t think critically when they are researching online.
I am super guilty of doing this… In fact right now I have some stuff going on and Dr. Google has been my worst enemy. I’m going to relax and let the professionals handle it. I think this post was truly providential.
Hi Erica, your post is brilliant! I think everybody googles symptoms right away – and when they do, they might start thinking they have the most bizarre exotic maladies 😀 symptoms are so vague…. and Google does NOT have all the answers – especially when it comes to something so serious. Thank you for sharing this.
I had to visit your post because I have most of my traffic coming from googling what is 22q11.2 deletion syndrome since I blog about my rare disorder. I share the journey about mine and my daughters struggles and you are so spot on people google and something so small can turn into you need to go to the ER asap!
Going to a doctor who specializes is not always something that is easy when it comes to rare genetic disorders a lot of doctors teachers and nures have not heard of what my daughter and I have.
It does help to have a reference for later but googling at 3 am is never a good thing. Thanks for the post I loved it
I definitely appreciate the struggles of experiencing a rare genetic disorder. That does create extra challenges and frustrations. I can definitely see why so many people would be turning to your site in a hope for answers when information is so hard to find.
Haha, I always use google to look up my symptoms first. It’s really just being smart about what is and isn’t really feasible. I’ve never had google tell me I’m dying from innocent symptoms lol.
That’s great! Sounds like you’ve picked smart sites to go to.
I myself have done the Google self-diagnosis thing regarding my longstanding tinnitus problem (which I’m pretty sure is a result of listening to loud music through headphones over many years). Tinnitus is a notoriously intractable condition and I wasn’t expecting to find a cure for it, and I didn’t, but I did come across Web sites that warned me to be wary of certain tinnitus products of dubious efficacy, so at least my search was positive in that respect.
My dad got tinnitus when he was just a year or two older than I am now. So every time I hear any ringing, I become wary, though I don’t have it yet. Anyway, it sounds like you’re using Google the right way. My opinion is that feedback on products online can be so valuable.
It is sometimes hard not to look towards the internet to get an instant diagnose nowadays. You can just have a headache or just tired and you put that in and come up with something that not even related and get yourself into a frenzy.
I definitely agree with not diagnosing yourself with Google. You can get some general ideas and questions to ask your physician based on some research but never diagnose yourself.
I’ve also made the mistake of self-diagnosing using Google. It’s really counterproductive and can make you worry more for nothing.