I was talking to my mum the other day mid-way through a phase of thinking of had diabetes (I say "a phase" for a reason). She thought I was crazy. I told her of my symptoms and she just looked at me and said how the hell do you know what the symptoms of diabetes are?
Google mum, Google.
How she laughed.
Anyway, now I know a lot more about Google from my professional life. Google is brilliant technology, but for us Health Anxious people it's very, very dangerous.
Google works by "reading" all websites in the world. It then ranks them - according to number of times a keyword is mentioned, number of hints and the number of other sites that link to them.
The problem for us Health freaks is that 99% of the population aren't interested in Googling a symptom. For instance, if most people are tired, they'll lie down and relax. They'll accept it. They won't go to Google and type in "fatigue". Why would they?
There is probably lots of information on "fatigue" on Google. In fact, I just checked. 29 million results. The first thing I noticed is that both Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and ME are mentioned quite high up. Why? Because, apart from Health Freaks, the only people interested in reading about fatigue are probably those suffering from ME or CFS.
I'm slowly learning to accept bodily sensations again. I have a stiff calf muscle in my left leg. I haven't Googled it yet, because it'll probably point to a stroke or MS, neither of which I have.
The media are also to blame. Today, I went to the BBC Health homepage, and here are some of the stories....
"Snoring linked to Heart Disease"
"Vitamin E linked to Lung Cancer"
"In depth: Heart Disease and Strokes"
"Cancer: The facts"
Back in my mum's day (no offence mum) this kind of information wasn't available without going to see a doctor. When you saw a doctor, you tended to believer what they said. Now, it almost doesn't matter what a doctor say, or even if you can be bothered going to the doctor, because Google can diagnose you for free.
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