The internet can be a hypochondriac’s worst friend

My nine-year-old came home from a day of skiing and said his eyes hurt. They looked a little red. He had been wearing goggles all day, but I felt a pang of worry: Could it be snow blindness? (He was fine.)

I’ve had similar experiences with my own health. I might have jaw pain, dizziness or a stomach flu that makes me vomit.

Before long, I’m wondering about heart attacks, tumours, even Ebola. Usually, I manage to rationalize away my fears, especially when symptoms go away — until a new problem arises.

Then, even when I try not to look, I end up online, searching for signs of my own imminent demise.

Health anxiety is extremely common if not universal, says Thomas Fergus, a clinical psychologist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. With so much health information available online, most people search their symptoms at some point. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The anxiety that often ensues may be short-lived or even helpful.

But sometimes the worry becomes its own kind of problem, leading to a preoccupation with illness that persists even after doctors offer reassurance.

The internet has become a potential breeding ground for health anxiety, according to researchers who use the term “cyberchondria” to describe the interplay between online health searches and health anxiety.

A 2013 survey of more than 3,000 American adults by the Pew Research Center reported that 59 per cent had searched online for health information in the previous year.

And 35 per cent said they had used the internet looking specifically to diagnose a medical condition. Fergus says other studies have shown that 60 to 80 per cent of people look online for health information.

In some cases, that kind of research can be helpful and a little dose of anxiety can motivate people to finally seek out the health care they need. Once in the midst of testing and evaluation, Fergus adds, it’s normal to experience a heightened state of anxiety.

But searching for health information can magnify the pool of potential problems to worry about, and studies suggest that people who are prone to health anxiety are most vulnerable to getting sucked in.

Anxiety levels also tend to be higher, Fergus says, when people think there is a higher chance that they have a problem and when the burden of having that problem would be particularly large — if, say, a family member was diagnosed with a disease or if the consequences of the disease would be devastating.

Health worriers share other features, too, says Karmpaul Singh, a research psychologist at the University of Calgary. Echoing previous work, his findings have shown that those with higher levels of health anxiety tended to be most uncomfortable with uncertainty. Instead of waiting something out or rationalizing it away, they went looking for answers.

“It’s really that discomfort with the unknown,” Singh says, “that draws them in to Googling a symptom at midnight instead of waiting to see if it disappears.”

People with health anxiety also tend to jump to catastrophic outcomes when symptoms arise, Singh says. They may seek out information that confirms their worst suspicions. They resist reassurance. Or they consider unlikely diagnoses, even if there is only a tiny chance of their being responsible.