If you’re the type who turns to Google the minute you have a slight headache, websites like WebMD and Mayo Clinic are probably your drugs of choice. Unfortunately, like most drugs, these sites also come with side-effects like worry, panic and mistaken self-diagnosis.
If you’re the type who turns to Google the minute you have a slight headache, websites like WebMD and Mayo Clinic are probably your drugs of choice. Unfortunately, like most drugs, these sites also come with side-effects like worry, panic and mistaken self-diagnosis.
Back in the day, we turned to doctors for medical advice. Now though, we have a very easily accessible know-it-all for immediate answers – the Internet. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. There’s always a chance our web-guided self-diagnosis is wrong. So why are we more inclined to keep paying Dr. Google a visit?
From waiting room to website
Clinical Psychologist Dr. Stephanie Soh says the urge to look up symptoms on sites like WebMD stems from a fear of the unknown: “Having a diagnosis – knowing what one is suffering from – can be immensely relieving because it usually means some form of treatment is available. For worriers, finding out what they might be suffering from can be more tolerable than not knowing.” There’s also a strange sense of comfort knowing that others have had the same concerns as you. So for the same reason that people skip ahead in mystery books or thriller films, we turn to the Internet to find the cause of our symptoms.
Going online is also far less time consuming than visiting a clinic and eliminates time spent filling up forms and sitting in the waiting room. On top of that, a visit to a GP isn’t cheap and can result in nothing more than instructions to take Panadol (and getting an MC, of course!), so why bother?
Is everyone a doctor now?
Dr. Wang Feifan, a Specialist Registrar, believes that, “People are increasingly educated and confident of their own intellectual abilities, [and their] ability to garner information.” This could explain why we feel just as equipped as doctors to assess our symptoms and determine their causes. Dr. Wang has had patients who insisted they had throat cancer just because the Internet stated that their two-week long cough is a symptom of the disease. Their beliefs aren’t unwarranted; most medical sites claim to be mediated by healthcare professionals, so the information seems credible.
The perils of seeing Dr. Google
The thing is, if you’re a borderline hypochondriac, Google may drive you into becoming a full-fledged one. Before medical websites existed, hypochondriacs excessively worried about symptoms, but the information needed to fuel the condition was less readily available. When we’re searching for answers about what could possibly be wrong with us, we are setting ourselves up for a confirmation bias, where we are more likely to find things that confirm our suspicions. For example, if you believe the cough you had is a sign of something serious, you’re more likely to relate to symptoms that confirm this.
According to Dr. Wang, “Doctors typically form a clinical picture by going through the different symptoms a patient has. Depending on the combination of their symptoms, and the varying severity of each, [they] shortlist possible diagnoses.” This ability to weigh out symptoms in light of years of real-world experience is not something Google can do. Searching the causes of persistent coughing results in suggestions ranging from the cold to pneumonia – and since the Internet has no way of discerning the severity of symptoms, you won’t be able to get a conclusive answer.
Health IRL
At the end of the day, speaking to a physician is the only way to get a definitive answer.
But obviously knowing this doesn’t help the time/ financial burden. To balance that, ask yourself how you’re feeling and get to know your body and how it reacts when it’s unwell. This should help save you a few trips to the doctor, and a few scares from the Internet.
Images 123RF.com Text Claire Soong.
