Cyberchondria - a new type of psychological disorder?

[zakiyatasnim]

Have you ever had a stomach ache and decided to look for the cause of the pain on the Internet? Most likely, you simply ate a spoiled product, but after reading medical forums, you found obvious symptoms of a tumor and other serious diseases and panicked. Millions of people around the world suffer from this bad habit, which is why it was even given an unofficial name - cyberchondria. According to the authors of The Conversation, excessive search for symptoms of diseases on the Internet can seriously ruin your life and even lead to stress, so they decided to figure out how to get rid of this bad habit.



Self-medication - good or bad?
According to statistics, every third person is engaged in self-medication. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, including high prices for medical examinations, low qualifications of some doctors and a banal lack of time to go to hospitals. It is much easier for people to enter their symptoms into a search engine, read articles or consult with unqualified forum users and be treated with the medications they suggest. But without the help of a professional doctor, you can start treating the wrong disease and cause even more harm to your health.

To prove this, a study was conducted in 2017 with the participation of British Internet users. Even at a time when the Internet was not as developed as it is now, 65% of British residents preferred to diagnose their spain number data illnesses themselves via the Internet rather than going to the hospital. Most of them sought information on forums where people complained of similar symptoms, and 46% of them were confident in their diagnosis. However, in reality, only 15% of diseases diagnosed via the Internet turned out to be correct.

Thus, the human tendency to search for symptoms of diseases on the Internet is a rather serious problem of our time, which can harm the health of many people. In general, this bad habit is a type of hypochondria - a condition in which a person is constantly worried about his health.

Signs of cyberchondria — a new type of hypochondria
There are four signs that indicate a problem:

too frequent and long search for symptoms of diseases on the Internet;
inability to stop searching even after finding the most possible causes of the disease;
concern about the information found;
the impact of this anxiety on daily life.
How to get rid of a new kind of hypochondria?
According to the authors of the publication, cyberchondria can be cured with the help of cognitive-behavioral therapy. This form of psychotherapy is based on the assumption that a person's psychological problems are associated with his illogical thoughts and ingrained stereotypes, by changing which all difficulties can be eliminated. The treatment uses a behavioral approach, in which new forms of behavior are encouraged and reinforced in ways that are pleasant for the person.