There is nothing worse for a hypochondriac than a disease he has imagined. There is no worse feeling of fear than when you are sure you are going to die again.
I struggled with hypochondria for a long time. I had my blood drawn every five days and at first, I was dying because of the fear of the needle. I was in chaos, fearing the results. Since I have spinal disk herniation, the doctors told me that I should go to Banjica, and have all possible blood tests, X-ray of the spine, magnetic resonance imaging, lung scan, etc. During that preparation for Banjica, I died alive, I thought they would find a tumour on my spine or lungs. I was tested for AIDS six or seven times. The thought of autoimmune diseases was the worst for me.
Hypochondria is a very tricky thing to deal with seriously. I needed reassurance. I got so sick of it all that I went from one extreme where I went to see doctors non-stop to the other extreme where I wasn’t allowed to go to the doctor anymore so that they wouldn’t discover my illness.
When I stayed in that second phase, I started using Dr. Google. It showed me his real stuff until I learned how to google. I type “pain under the right rib” and titles such as “signs, emergency”, this, that…
If you already have to google then do it in a smart and wise way. Google throws out the most viewed pages so that if you type stomach ache you will surely find something that scared many people and that’s why they came in to read that news. Don’t fall for Google, but use it wisely.
Now that you know that, for example, you have a pain under the right rib, then type: “pain under the right rib, harmless”. So you connect with people who write about it, but also about situations that are not terrible. If you don’t narrow down your search this way, you’ll make a mess. If you have a headache, you’ll get a brain tumour.
Do not use forums and other people’s opinions because there are many liars, evil people, psychopaths… Stick to professional advice, there are beautiful sites such as Your Psychologist, Doctor Forum, Natural Medicine, etc. If we look realistically, when would you join a forum and write about it because of some short-term headache? It probably wouldn’t even occur to you.
Also, those who write on the forums, they were driven by serious problems, the doctor did not help them, nor did alternative medicine, friends… Then they turned to the Internet, where they could make their ultimate diagnosis. Usually it’s something terrible, like a brain tumour, or they have seven days to live. I’m exaggerating a bit, but the point is to bring people who write on the forums closer to you. They are in despair because they can no longer find a cure. We connect with them through the words we type in the search engine. Beat Googling and type wisely.
Those people who write there, do it when there is no more medicine, and those who read are attached to the drama and increase the value of such pages.
