There are many occasions wherein we may be having a little twitch, itch, rash, or something small and strange happening in our body. Majority of the time we brush it aside and forget about it. But sometimes, just sometimes we make the mistake of going online and googling our symptoms. Here are some of the common things that happen when we do so.
The beginning
Hmm, my arm is pulsating/throbbing, but it’s not paining. My eyelid is flickering, what’s happening? Open google, type in “my arm is throbbing”, hit the search button. A list of health related articles pop up and some graphic videos. You click on the first link and start reading. This is how it all starts. I personally deal with a lot of anxiety. The funny and annoying thing about anxiety is that if too severe, it can manifest itself in certain physical symptoms. During a particularly stressful time, I ended up googling some symptoms. Needless to say, a few articles in and I was convinced that I had a horrible disease.
What is that?
Once you’re reading the first article, you probably just skim through it. Yes, just speed read it or just look at the main points, UNTIL a certain word or a phrase catches your eye. It is usually “can be an indication of…” or “consult a physician in case of…”. This is when your heart drops and you scroll back to the top of the article and read every line in detail. As you read, beads of sweat start appearing on your forehead and your cheeks start turning red.
Do I have that too?
Once you’re doing your detailed read, you’ll often notice that no disease or symptom exists in isolation, there are a lot of other symptoms that can co-occur. These are often hyperlinked in case the reader wishes to know about them more in detail. Many times, these hyperlinks look so fascinating and tempting, most of us quite stupidly click on them only to have a panic attack. What our search began with was a harmless anxiety created muscle twitch which has now evolved into multiple sclerosis.
I’m going to die
After an hour or more of searching through most of the posts, videos, you turn off your internet, curl up in your blanket and start sobbing. Thoughts about death start entering your mind and you realize you have very little time left. Should you finally message your crush? Should you pursue your hobbies with more zeal? Should you be nicer to your parents? You call your friends and ask them to convince you that you won’t die. They try, and succeed to some extent, but the act of googling your symptoms leaves you scarred. Once you have, there’s no turning back. You just try to live life as well as you can now.
