Stop Dr Google is a blog dedicated to educating young adults on the facts of cyberchondria, the dangers of self-diagnosis online, tips for those who wish to self-diagnose, and real-life stories of people who’ve experienced cyberchondria.
But first…you may we wondering, WHAT IS CYBERCHONDRIA?
Have you ever experienced a bad headache?
You may have googled ‘bad headache’ if it carried on for a couple days. Within five minutes, you learn that you have a migraine…OR, you’re suffering from chronic headaches (which is hereditary)…OR WAIT, Google jut diagnosed you with brain cancer! You’re in a panic…screaming at your family to come to the computer and read this tragic news. You call your best friend to tell her you love her. Your stress and anxiety levels escalate as you realise you need to book in to see a neurologist immediately! You don’t have time to waste…Google just said you’re dying!
This is cyberchondria.
When Dr Google (our 21st century go-to genius technology) convinces someone they have a health issue or disease after searching medical websites and they experience heightened levels of anxiety.
You can’t deny it; we’ve all googled a health symptom at least once. BUT, what we seem to forget is that Google doesn’t have face-to-face interaction with us, nor does Google know our medical history. We forget Google is powered by search-engine-optimised websites, biasely designed to show us the most talked about, most search for, most interesting and most popular diseases.
Stop Dr Google is here to remind you… ‘Don’t let the web, get to your head’.
stopdrgoogle.wordpress.com 