If Dr Google's making you sick with worry, there's help

Thursday, 14 November 2019 00:26 Jill Newby, Associate Professor and MRFF/NHMRC Career Development Fellow, UNSW Press Releases - The Conversation
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imageYour twitching eye is more likely to be due to staring at a screen for too long rather than some serious illness.from www.shutterstock.com

It’s a busy day at the office and your left eye has been twitching uncontrollably. So, out of curiosity and irritation you Google it.

Various benign causes — stress, exhaustion, too much caffeine — put your mind at ease initially. But you don’t stop there. Soon, you find out eye twitches could be a symptom of something more sinister, causing you to panic.

You ruin the rest of the day trawling through web pages and forums, reading frightening stories convincing you you’re seriously ill.


Read more: Curious Kids: why do some people worry more than others?


For many of us, this cycle has become common. It can cause anxiety, unnecessary contact with health services, and at the extreme, impact our day-to-day functioning.

But our recently published research, the first to evaluate online therapy for this type of excessive and distressing health-related Googling, shows what can help.

I’ve heard of ‘cyberchondria’. Do I have it?

The term “cyberchondria” describes the anxiety we experience as a result of excessive web searches about symptoms or diseases.

It’s not an official diagnosis, but is an obvious play on the word “hypochondria”, now known as health anxiety. It’s obsessional worrying about health, online.


Read more: Health Check: how do you know if you're obsessed with your health?


Some argue cyberchondria is simply a modern form of health anxiety. But studies show even people who don’t normally worry about their health can see their concerns spiral after conducting an initial web search.

Cyberchondria is when searching is:

If this sounds like you, there’s help.

We tested an online therapy and here’s what we found

We tested whether an online treatment program helped reduce cyberchondria in 41 people with severe health anxiety. We compared how well it worked compared with a control group of 41 people who learned about general (not health-related) anxiety and stress management online.

The online treatment is based on cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), which involves learning more helpful ways of thinking and behaving.

Participants completed six online CBT modules over 12 weeks, and had phone support from a psychologist.


Read more: Explainer: what is cognitive behaviour therapy?


The treatment explained how excessive web searching can become a problem, how to search about health effectively, and practical tools to prevent and stop it (see a summary of those tips below).

We found the online treatment was more effective at reducing cyberchondria than the control group. It helped reduce the frequency of online searches, how upsetting the searching was, and improved participants’ ability to control their searching. Importantly, these behavioural changes were linked to improvements in health anxiety.

Although we don’t know whether the program simply reduced or completely eliminated cyberchondria, these findings show if you’re feeling anxious about your health, you can use our practical strategies to reduce anxiety-provoking and excessive online searching about health.

So, what can I do?

Here are our top tips from the treatment program:

And if those don’t help, consult a doctor or psychologist.


If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, check out resources about anxiety from Beyond Blue, the Centre for Clinical Interventions Helping Health Anxiety workbook or THIS WAY UP online courses.

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Jill Newby receives funding from the Australian Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). She is affiliated with UNSW Sydney, and the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD), which operates THIS WAY UP online treatment service. She is a member of the Australian Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Eoin McElroy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Authors: Jill Newby, Associate Professor and MRFF/NHMRC Career Development Fellow, UNSW

Read more http://theconversation.com/if-dr-googles-making-you-sick-with-worry-theres-help-125070