Two of the focuses of my blog are Health/Wellness and Technology. One of the advantages of our current digital age is that the profuse amounts of information available and our access to it. The danger though is that not all of the information is accurate, and it is so readily available. In some instances false information about health can have harmful effects. The following contributed post discusses and is entitled, The Dangers Of Diagnosing Yourself Online.
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The internet is a pretty wonderful invention and one that’s changed our lives – mostly for the better. We have the ability to connect with people from all over the world with the touch of a button, can learn basically anything about anything, and really have so much knowledge and information at our fingertips than we’ve ever had before.
We can start businesses, organize our lives, make money, order things without ever leaving the house, and even get things like doctors to speak to us over the computer – basically we can do anything we want to do from our computers and smartphones these days, which is a good thing if you choose to look at it that way.
However, we can’t pretend it’s perfect. Like everything, there are always going to be downsides, and the internet certainly isn’t exempt from that.
One of the things that the internet is pretty famous for – especially since the rise of social media is the amount of false information “fake news” if you will, and basically a lot of misinformation that can cause feelings of fear and impending doom.
This is very commonly seen when it comes to our health. You will know yourself if you’ve ever had something perfectly innocent like a bad cough or cold and suddenly a Google search has you dead and buried before you’ve even opened the first link it produces.
The rise in things like health anxiety is directly linked to the amount of people now being able to access so much information without limits online, but the danger is that they’re attempting to self-diagnose themselves and this is a very dangerous practice.
Now, of course, this isn’t to say that you won’t find genuine medical literature online, but the fact of the matter is, if you’re genuinely concerned about symptoms such as a cough being something more serious, then it’s time to speak to a doctor and get a proper diagnosis. Even if it turns out to be something, then they will talk you through things like Lung Cancer Treatment if that’s what you need.
Googling your symptoms from questionable online sources is not going to lead anywhere good, and in this post, we’re going to share with you some of the real dangers of diagnosing yourself online.
It will make your anxiety soar:
If you’re already someone who suffers with anxiety – specifically health anxiety, then trying to look up symptoms online os going to make this completely unbearable for you, so it’s really not advisable.
It causes stress:
Anxiety is going to stress you out far more than you already are – add to that the ongoing worry from what you’ve just read and it will be a miracle if you can sleep or function normally.
You can miss a real health condition:
Diagnosing yourself online doesn’t always give the worst case scenario – sometimes it can tell you it’s nothing when it’s actually something that you should see your doctor about, but if you follow online advice then this could lead to a much bigger problem if you don’t actually go to the doctor.
