GOOGLE-ing Anxiety - Does it help relieve your anxiety or worsen it?

[stateofemergency]

The title says it all : Does google aggravate your anxiety or does it actually help calm you down?

[revolution724]

I find it at a minimum doesn't help, and often makes it worse (though I have sometimes found forums like this one helpful).  This may be partly because I am a hypochondriac in addition to having GAD, and symptom-surfing is bad news for me in general.

[KrissyNicole]

It depends on what I come across, usually instead of Googling I just come here and have others google for me, so they can filter the scary stuff.

[Carryon]

I don't Google for medical information. I may go to a site authored by a reputable medical facility, The Mayo Clinic, for one. You won't get hystrionics there; just information prepared by its medical staff with the goal elevating patient understanding.

[GenSec]

I use google regularly for many things.... however, i do not use it to perfrom self-diagnosis on myself.

Thats what my doctor is for and, in the UK, thats what i pay my taxes for.... so if i need something diagnosed or need more information on something medical that is bothering me, i simply make an appointment to see him/her. And i hang fire until his medical expertise has checked me over and i know what the real facts are rather than worrying myself over a (usually incorrect) self-diagnosis. 

Google is just a tool, and like any tool it can be used for either right or wrong reasons and purposes... the aftereffects you get from using it reflect this.

All the best.

[floridaguy65]

Yes, I agree I don't Google med stuff. As mentioned, The Mayo Clinic is a website that I can go to looking for info for OTHERS or general info...I do not want to Google my own symptoms, still. And, I am well down my healing path with regards to my anxieties:) I know how to use Google and refine it to stay within my boundaries of comfort...but again, I am well down my healing path:)

If you are in doubt as to where you are on your healing path, and have concerns over whether or not you'll find solace from your anxiety...then, IMHO, don't go Google fishin':)

But, you CAN have someone give you some links to positive well-being websites and websites that offer up info on anxiety alleviation and websites on good nutrition, etc. If you'd like I can post some of these:) No need to go elsewhere on a grand "panic hunt":)

Peace:)

[Gunsup44]

If I google I hope to find a write up that will make me feel better about whatever it is I am dealing with at the time. At times you can find that story that can take away the anxiety and make you feel better and at other times you read something bad and it makes whatever the issue is that much worse. I have stopped all google!!!! Google is evil. 

[Mr_Ben84]

I'd say that overall it makes things worse for me, but it's a habit that I'm not quite free of.

[stateofemergency]

Oh I forgot to put my own comment..
Google is a bittersweet thing for me.
Sometimes when I'm anxious in a certain way, google helps me alot in calming me down.
But I find looking at symptoms and reading negative stories to really worsen my anxiety.
The first time I had panic I was able to forget about it easily..but I kept googling about it and here I am 3 years later..still stuck googling about my anxiety

Oh well

[Starclipse]

Internet research does increase my anxiety since I tend to always pick the worse diagnose and believed/convince myself that I had correctly self diagnosed myself. My doctor told me to quit doing online research and just ask her instead. It was the single most hardest thing I ever had to do. It's like quitting a very bad habit. So instead of going online I wrote all my symptoms and beliefs and asked my doctor instead. It came to point were I felt embarrassed suggesting that I had unrealistic and clearly no chance in hell that I would have a serious illness. She just smiled and said that I didn't need to feel embarrassed at all and to just say whatever worried me the most. After a while I noticed that I stopped all online researches and suggestions of serious illness. I strongly suggest to stop it all and just wright it down and ask your doctor.

-Star

[forever dead inside]

It always worsens it for me!! 

[stateofemergency]

Oh and thanks to GOOGLE now I'm afraid of having OCD/Schizorphernia and going insane...hahaha

[pauly j]

For me, I am DONE googling!  It makes me think I have an illness and I obsess about it and it ruins my day, week, month, or longer!
Wish I never even started to google health symptoms!  However saying this, I think it is sometimes necessary to seek out information on our health to know if we need to seek medical treatment!  It is kind of a "double edged sword!"  Chalk up another vote for WORSEN IT!

pauly j

[stateofemergency]

wow can't believe 8 people voted the worst haha

[MistaVega]

I wish I would of just stayed ignorant of everything and let my doctor give me all the information.

I got myself in a hole with all this google crap. Everytime I feel something weird I automatically correlate it with something I read on google.
 

[drjekyll]

Google has made things much worse for me, at least as far as my health anxiety goes. That is why I have pledged not to Google again until I am over my current struggle with anxiety. From now on, I figure that if my symptoms are enough to worry me, I will ask real people on here directly, or see a doctor. And I am still trying to learn to not worry about other people's symptoms for them, as I have been doing for a long while now.

It hit an all time low when I went to a cancer survivor's support forum, and read a whole lot of horror stories. I don't know why, but it didn't occur to me until later that of course every story would end with "...and then I was diagnosed with cancer". Somehow I thought it would reassure me.

There is just too much information out there, and when you have an anxiety disorder it is hard to seperate the noise from the facts. It's kind of like that commercial for one of those search engines, where the guy asks a simple question in the grocery store, and the place erupts in chaos. To continue the analogy, people like me focus on the scariest person in the place when that happens.

[stateofemergency]

Google has made things much worse for me, at least as far as my health anxiety goes. That is why I have pledged not to Google again until I am over my current struggle with anxiety. From now on, I figure that if my symptoms are enough to worry me, I will ask real people on here directly, or see a doctor. And I am still trying to learn to not worry about other people's symptoms for them, as I have been doing for a long while now.

It hit an all time low when I went to a cancer survivor's support forum, and read a whole lot of horror stories. I don't know why, but it didn't occur to me until later that of course every story would end with "...and then I was diagnosed with cancer". Somehow I thought it would reassure me.

There is just too much information out there, and when you have an anxiety disorder it is hard to seperate the noise from the facts. It's kind of like that commercial for one of those search engines, where the guy asks a
simple question in the grocery store, and the place erupts in chaos. To continue the analogy, people like me focus on the scariest person in the place when that happens.

Omg u took the words right out of my mouth. And yes I also only focus on he most negative person in the room because I always think of t he worst case scenarios. It sucks so bad. U don't know how easily a simple negative story can discourage me. Like fr example if u told me that it's hard to get better I would believe you and think that it would take a miracle to make me better

[Lanie]

Googling helps me for the most part - mostly I look for resources that can help me. But there were times in the past where I would google things that only increased my anxiety by tenfold - nothing good ever came from that...so now I look for self-help tips, resources, and pieces of inspiration to help me through an anxious moment. Gotta ignore the bad and get to the good

[aloneinajeep]

the internet is a wonderful place filled w vast knowledge, but for me, a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. i blow it all out of proportion and before im done googling something, i have every disease its mentioned, including testicular cancer (fyi.. i dont even have the parts to have that kinda cancer) but if u plant the seed in my brain it grow. lol