Cyberchondria and Reality Medical Shows

There are many different reality television shows that can provide use tips on how to stay in shape. While many of these tips are quite practically and provide audiences with the convenience of skipping a trip to the doctors, not all medical shows are as helpful as they may seem. Shows that are currently airing today include The Dr. Oz Show, Mystery Diagnosis, The Chew, and The Doctors just to name a few. With constant exposure to medical shows people “become more knowledgeable” and “therefore enjoy life less” (“Sick From Medical,” 2011).

Now it has not yet been proven if medical shows have a direct link to cyberchondria, however, this does not mean medical shows aren’t raising health concerns. An article that proves this statement is an article written by Rebecca Eckler called, “My 9-Year-Old Is A Hypochondriac Because I Let Her Watch Too Many Medical Shows.” (Ecker, 2013)  This title speaks for itself and is not a mere coincidence, in fact, it is not surprising a little girl would be influenced in this way considering the influence television can have on children.

While medical show’s can have an influence on children and adolescence, what about medical dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy and E.R? It is safe to say such dramas will also have an effect on the human brain. Likewise, when a viewer sees “characters’ treatments and tragedies it’s enough to pique anyone’s curiosity” (Sisson, 2010). Thus, one can assume that someone’s curiosity could lead to hypochondria or even cyberchondria given they consume these television shows on a daily basis.

Medical shows and even just medical talk shows provide a popular/celebrity aspect to certain diseases and illnesses by providing a larger opportunity base to understand and be aware of some of the most common serious illnesses and diseases that simple signs and symptoms can possibly be a part of shows like doctor OZ and the doctors draw attention to things such as that and make it almost nonchalant to be sick. By providing the most generic outlining of signs and symptoms it allows everyone to relate to the current issue which can become a breeding ground for hypochondriacs and cyberchondriacs, one sign or symptom can unfold a frenzy having people compare and research illnesses they do not even have. An example of a time where talk shows and television shows could’ve become an issue would be when there was a breakout of H1N1 when H1N1 became an issue absolutely everyone thought their common cold symptoms were the beginnings common cold symptoms were the beginning of a more serious current issue.

Eckler, R. (2013, April 25). My 9-Year-Old Is A Hypochondriac Because I Let Her Watch Too Many Medical Shows. Retrieved February 20, 2016, from http://www.mommyish.com/2013/04/25/kids-and-tv-medical-shows/

Sick From Watching Medical Shows? (2011, January 5). Retrieved February 20, 2016, from http://web.uri.edu/quadangles/sick-from-watching-medical-shows/

Sisson, M. (2010, October 15). Medical T.V. Is Bad For Your Health | Mark's Daily Apple. Retrieved February 20, 2016, from http://www.marksdailyapple.com/medical-t-v-is-bad-for-your-health/ 

Interesting Facts

Cyberchondria is a revolutionary new illness that has swept the first world by storm. It has provided many more issues with hypochondriasis, since the ability to find the reasoning and proof of your potential illnesses is unlimited due to the wonderful creation called the internet. The internet has provided a way for those who didn’t have legitimate proof or reasoning to get the test done that they wanted that legitimate proof.

Did you Know:

·         80% of American internet surfers have searched for health-related information online
·         50% of people experience a decrease in health anxiety as a result of ‘interactions with the Web
And approximately 40% experience an increase in anxiety
·         90% of hypochondriacs will become cyberchondriacs
·         Approximately 1%-5% of the United States of America are hypochondriacs
·         The average American apparently spends around 52 hours per year looking up health information online through different search engines
·         The second most commonly googled health issue is Diabetes

Because Cyberchondria is such a new phenomenon, there is not much to work with yet but after going through many different websites, I’m sure a conclusion can be made that the population of cyberchondriacs is only going to get larger and larger. It just became really recognized as something important in 2008, it has only been eight years and the amount of information has multiplied significantly and is only expected to continue. The more easily people can gain access to the information they want to be connected with the more problems it could potentially cause only more issues in the advanced technological ages.'

Barry, D., Fine, A., Frey, R., JENNETT, C. B., "Hypochondria." Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. 2001, "hypochondria." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.2015. "hypochondria." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. (2003). Hypochondriasis. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/hypochondria.aspx

Http://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IJB-V4No1-p158-166.pdf. (2014). International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) Int. J. Biosci., 4(1), 158-166.

Senelick, M. R. (n.d.). Cyberchondria: How the Internet Is Making Us Paranoid About Health. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-c-senelick-md/cyberchondria-you-can-cat_b_859085.html

Symptoms of Cyberchondria. (2013). Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/30/symptoms-of-cyberchondria/

Top 10 most-searched medical conditions of 2013:Inside Children's Blog. (2014). Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://inside.akronchildrens.org/2014/01/07/top  10-most-searched-medical-conditions/

The Internet and Its Affect on a Person’s Mental Health

Due to the easy access of the internet today, it is easily the first place that people would turn to when faced with a question or concern. This is also the reason why when people are faced with a concern regarding their health, the first place they would consult with isn’t their doctor, but the internet, and why not right? The internet has sources ranging from different blog posts, to medical sites, to various medical journals, which should be enough information for patients to diagnose their symptoms without them even having to step into a doctor’s office.

However, even with the ample amount of information out there, how many of the self diagnosis are correct? A research recently done by Harvard, shows that only 34% of patients who search up their symptoms will get the right diagnoses the first time around; that means 66% of the patients are getting wrong diagnosis. In many cases, getting the right diagnosis on the first try isn’t important. However, if a patient searches up something as simple as migraines, chest pain, twitches, etc. and they are constantly hit with results leading to brain tumours, Lou Grehig’s disease, heart problems then this would definitely effect the mental health of a patient.

According to the study done by Michele Ybarra and Michael Suman “(they) established that two of (…) five respondents try to diagnose themselves using the Internet and one in every three tries to treat [their] health problem” (Ivanova, 2014). This study comes to show that people want to get relieved from their problem and they would even go to any extremes to try and fix themselves. Some people’s mentality when finding out that they think they have a disease it’s not “I need help” but it’s “I should fix myself”; a person’s inner self is fixated on making them feel better on their own.  

Natalia Pletneva did a research on the percentage of people who felt anxiety after their online search to find out possible diseases that they may have and she found out that “30% declared (they had anxiety), 40% of users felt more anxious when searching (…), and claimed their health anxiety increased” (Ivanova, 2014). These results prove that merely searching up your symptoms online can spark anxiety in a single person as it can cause patients to fear the outcomes of what their symptoms could possibly mean. For example, patients will commonly feel anxious because they don’t know if something as simple as a cough can turn into cancer due to the vast amount of information online. However, a person’s curiosity and fear for the worse will always drive them to the internet to self-diagnose their symptoms, and a lot of times actually believing what they read, instead of just consulting a physician.

Aboujaoude, E., & Starcevic, V. (n.d.). Mental health in the digital age: Grave dangers, great promise.

Dr. B.V. Subrahmanyam (2014) CYBERCHONDRIA. Narayana Medical Journal, 3 (1), 33-35. 

Ivanova, E. (2014). Elaborating on Internet Addiction and CYberchondria- Relationships, Direct and Mediated Effects. Primary Teacher Update, 2015(43), 127. Retrieved February 20, 2016.

Reveley, M. (2014). Am I a cyberchondriac? BC Medical Journal, 56(9), 450-451. 

History Of Cyberchondria

Cyberchondria is the constant stress and anxiety concerning the state of one’s health brought on by visiting medical websites. Cyberchondria is a development of the previous issue, hypochondria. Hypochondria being the constant obsession and stress over potential health concerns that have not been diagnosed to them yet. 90% of all hypochondriacs will become Cyberchondriacs when given the access to the internet.

At first, the ability to figure out your own possible health issue was seen as a benefit, saving people both time and money from having to see a physician for their minor issues. But unlike a physician a search engine is not capable of taking in the medical history of the patient, it just takes your symptoms and brings up the more serious issues related to them. Turning a headache into an aneurysm, a muscle twitch into ALS, and a stomach ache into cancer. Cyberchondria became an issue during the technological age; the term became popular during the early 2000’s, due to the overwhelming amount of patients bringing in printouts of their possible health issues to appointments. Patients then started requesting extra tests and procedures that were not necessary wasting both the time and money of the physicians. Although it did not blow up until after about 2008, after Microsoft published an article describing the causes and consequences of Cyberchondria.

Some of the first patients dealing with cyberchondria originated from the United States of America, specifically California, they claimed to have Morgellons disease and majority of the patients who made those claims came prepared with significant proof that the doctors could not rebuttal, and so they did the necessary tests to do their duties as doctors, but when the tests came back negative, all of the patients had become confused. Which relates back to one of the largest reasons why this has become a big issue. Hypochondriacs only came to the doctors with “symptoms” or what they had thought were symptoms whereas now cyberchondriacs are coming to physicians with symptoms and related information to their specific symptoms requesting more than what is required.

Berle, D. (2015). Cyberchondria. Grave Dangers, Great Promise Mental Health in the Digital Age, 106-117.

Cyberchondria | HealthyWomen. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.healthywomen.org/content/article/symptom-search-hypochondria-internet-spurring-health-worries?page=2

Markoff, J. (2008). Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/technology/internet/25symptoms.html?_r=2

Starcevic, V., & Berle, D. (2013). Cyberchondria: Towards a better understanding of excessive health-related Internet use. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 13(2), 205-213.

The Spreading of Cyberchondria

With the rise of the popularity of the internet, the rise of cyberchondria will exist “U.S numbers of cyberchondriacs has risen from 54 million to about 110 million in the (…) past five years.” (Greenspan, 2002). Since people are accustomed to searching everything up online. People have become obsessed with the internet and obsessed of having everything at their fingertips, so their health is no exception.Furthermore, people have become lazy and don’t want to leave the comfort of their home. So what they do is search up their symptoms online and become comfortable with the results they get because they trust the information they have found.

            The common websites that cyberchondriacs use are mostly medical journals, commercial health pages and academic or research institutions websites. However, most of these websites often post most extreme information. For example, according to Horvitz and White’s research from the article “cyberchondria: The perils of internet self-diagnosis” brain tumours are often the first thing people see when they search up migraines on the internet. This is quite alarming because something common like a headache can be interoperated as cancer due to people being unwilling to go to the doctors to find out what their symptoms actually mean.

            Eight out of 10 people use the internet to find out information on their disease; furthermore, out of those eight people, 75% of them don’t check the source of the information that they are looking at. That means that around 80% of the world's population looks up their symptoms online, this means a huge population of people are relying more  and more on the internet for their diagnosis.

            Also, with the spread of new diseases, people become paranoid if they have it or not. For example, when H1N1 was first brought to life everyone freaked out, they all thought they had it. If people sneezed everyone freaked out because they thought, they had the disease. Furthermore, if people even started to realize they immediately searched the symptoms of the virus and associated it with themselves.  

            Overall the rise in the popularity of the internet is the reason why cyberchondria is so big today. The vast amount of information we have at our fingertips is astonishing and people can get carried away by it so fast.

R. G. (2002). Cyberchondria is Spreading. Retrieved February 20, 2016, from https://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1693085/cyberchondria-spreading

S. U. (2009). PDF complete. Cyberchondria: The Perils of Internet Self-diagnosis. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://129.195.254.33/Global/pdf/Press/independent.pdf