You know what’s great about the Internet? Besides cat memes, Things I Fear, and the fact it has the answer to every question you didn’t even know you had, of course. The Internet has this uncanny ability to diagnose both simple and even the most complex medical conditions with just a few clicks. What you might think was just a paper-cut from opening an envelope is actually leprosy. Look it up. The reason your feet turn red after a hot shower? Most forums agree it’s a precursor of smallpox. Fortunately, the Internet has all of this information your doctor never even tried to learn during their 15 years of education. However, the Internet is also full of sarcasm and misinformation which can lead to incorrect diagnosing of medical conditions and inaccurate ways to manage the very conditions you don’t have. Hence a Fear of Internet Self-Diagnosis.
Early Symptoms of Fear of Internet Self-Diagnosis
Did you know Google was originally created by a disgraced doctor who wanted a way to digitize and search for their research papers? That’s probably not correct but this is exactly the type of information that is easily disseminated across the Internet and Social Media. Usually in the form of click-bait titles like “you won’t believe what this doctor is warning people about” or “find out what celebrity your uncle reminds you of the least”. A common misconception is information found on the Internet can only get there by people with college degrees and subsequent years of experience in their respective fields. Like how all of the comments of a post from your favourite professional sports team are by former athletes sharing their thoughts on how to play better. Or how all horror movie reviews are written by longtime producers who critique the work of their peers to help improve the quality of the industry as a whole. The same can be said about the medical industry which relies on doctors, nurses, and dentists to be able to diagnose any medical issue as long as it’s uploaded to a site beginning with at least 3 Ws.
Most people begin their online medical condition search based on something weird or unusual their body did one time. Like if you were staying at a bed & breakfast and were fumbling across the room in the dark trying to find the light switch and you stub your toe really hard on something. Then, while hopping around in pain, you fell and hit your head on an old, rusty piece of furniture which caused a cut that didn’t stop bleeding. That might lead to a search like “why can’t I see anything in the dark?” which will reveal the 15 different forms of the plague you definitely have. We’ve all been there.
Fact-checking Your Fear of Internet Self-Diagnosis
Full credit to the Internet for being a fast and easy way to discover answers to questions while being accessible virtually everywhere. It is super impressive and convenient. However, every single piece of Internet information needs to be read with more than just a grain of salt. Even though having too much salt can lead to an increased life expectancy and/or death, it’s important to understand not everything you read online is accurate. In fact, many websites actually allow or even encourage just about anyone to submit their own ideas or information on a given topic. Yes, that’s right. It’s entirely possible your favourite Wikipedia article was just written by some random person with a medical degree. However, you can use the Internet to find support or additional medical information about a particular concern a licensed professional told you about. For example, I regularly meet with a nutritionist who I would strongly recommend as I’ve learned a lot through her wisdom and knowledge. Of course, I would never ask her to perform surgery on me no matter how easy Yahoo Answers makes it look. The information itself is extremely helpful though! Then that information can be brought to ask more specific questions to a doctor or specialist. Here, your doctor will be able to offer more insight to answer your questions or concerns. They might even be able to cure you right then and there as long as you smash that Like button on their YouTube channel first.
