Good Googling

[Pleonastic]

Hey again, all. I had an awful fright this evening when I realised I had a black stool, but after googling, I realised it was due to drinking about a half bottle of Pepto Bismol last night and calmed down a llittle. So does anyone think there can be a positive place for Google and the like in the life of an HA sufferer?

[whataprettyworld]

Hey again, all. I had an awful fright this evening when I realised I had a black stool, but after googling, I realised it was due to drinking about a half bottle of Pepto Bismol last night and calmed down a llittle. So does anyone think there can be a positive place for Google and the like in the life of an HA sufferer?

In the early stages of Health Anxiety I would say Googling is a huge no no as we are often just not in the right frame of mind to seperate the good from the bad...we are also very predisposed to see the negative elements in pretty much any information.

As we develop along the Health Anxiety route many of us do reach a plateu, a point where we see through the tricks and games that are being played on us and we then begin to be far more responsive to things being the way they are other than an underlying organic disease being to blame...it is at this point that Google can be useful.

Google will always answer with what you ask you and you have to be very careful and selective with what you are researching...for example, do not Google 'what is tingling and buzzing a symptom of', a question like this will answer you with pretty much all neuro nasties known to man...instead ask 'why we get tingling and buzzing with anxiety', this will highlight on the specifics of what concerns us, we are on an anxiety forum and we therefore have anxiety so we should tailor our search accordingly...such a search will provide information that will be useful and will also show that hundreds and thousands of people who suffer from anxiety have the exact same sensations that we are currently having.

There is a load of really good stuff out there that can help hugely.  In many ways, I recommend giving the physical sensations Googling a wide berth but concentrate more on researching anxiety and most importantly looking into all the psychological theories surrounding OCD, GAD and Health Anxiety, there is so much stuff you can find that makes so much sense when you start to take it on board...the big thing here though is that all this is only of use if the person is ready to accept and give it a chance.

As with most things in life, be selective and go carefully.

[emma1816]

I would only point out that you can find that same information about black stools from reading the PB bottle, which includes a mention of it.  No need to go near Demon Google!