You’re feeling a bit more tired than usual. You’ve muscle twitches in unusual places. Sometimes, there are sharp, stabbing jabs in your chest. Over time, the symptoms worsen and you’re convinced that there’s something wrong with you but you’re either overworked or doctor-shy and don’t visit the hospital. What do you do? You turn to the internet.
Even if you are not a hypochondriac, the internet is definitely not a friend to rush to with health woes. In fact, it’s the perfect way to exacerbate the anxiety you already feel about your health and that anxiety ends up causing more symptoms, thus perpetuating the problem. Then, every headache is a brain tumor and every bout of indigestion is either stomach cancer or angina. Basically, every minor pain you suffer from is invariably incurable forms of terminal terror.[break]
The internet convinced Surabhi Malla, 31, mother of a cute two year old girl, that she had breast cancer. “I had tender breasts and I decided to look up my symptoms online,” says Surabhi who entered the key words “breast tenderness” and came up with a list of possibilities from pregnancy and hormonal imbalance to cysts and maybe even breast cancer.
“The “maybe” was enough to make me nervous. I panicked and that led me to notice the unusual spots around my breasts. Gradually I had more symptoms, so I went back to researching,” she says adding that in a matter of a few days she was sure that she, in fact, was suffering from breast cancer.
Rabin Sayami
She travelled to Delhi, India for treatment along with her husband leaving their two year old under her mother’s care. “I wanted her to have the best possible treatment and since we didn’t want to consult doctors here, we thought it’d be best to go to Delhi,” says Anup Malla, Surabhi’s childhood sweetheart for eight years and husband for five years.
Anup mentions how all their worries and fears turned out to be baseless when tests confirmed that Surabhi was only suffering from mild hormonal imbalance.
“We were first shocked then relieved. How could all that research on my part have been so wrong?” wonders Surabhi admitting that all the symptoms were cooked up in her head after she misdiagnosed herself.
Before we laugh at Surabhi, it’s best to remember that we’ve all done it at some point in our lives – feeling edgy or upset, we’ve turned to the internet and googled our symptoms; typed in “sore throat” in our browser’s search box and reached the conclusion that we could possibly have a particularly rare and incurable case of throat cancer.
A lot of people today get their health information online and a majority of those decide whether to see a doctor based on what they find. Sometimes, it leads to a series of misdiagnosis and subsequent health scares. Overactive imagination coupled with panicked self-diagnoses almost always lead to such extreme apprehension that earlier absent symptoms slowly surface.
Bandana Shrestha’s story is no different. “Once I had terrible stomach cramps. According to several sites, I either had colon cancer, rectal cancer, colitis, irritated bowel syndrome or was pregnant. I decided I was pregnant according to the list of symptoms under pregnancy,” says Bandana who quickly became one hundred percent sure that she was indeed pregnant.
Next up were bouts of morning sickness and episodes of depression that she blamed on hormonal changes as a result of the pregnancy. Bandana could even feel the tightening of her belly. When she finally got a pregnancy test kit and the results came out negative, she had a difficult time persuading her mother-in-law that she hadn’t had a secret abortion.
“I had spent weeks trying to decide whether to keep the baby or have an abortion and my whole family had been counseling me. It was all in vain,” says Bandana the embarrassment still evident in her voice.
“It’s is an era of self-diagnosis,” says Dr Kamal Raj Thapa, MD resident at Bir Hospital adding that people should avoid ‘googling’ their symptoms because of the wealth of inaccurate and misleading information on the web.
With information readily available at the click of a mouse, it isn’t much of a surprise that many people resort to online help for their medical problems however trivial or severe. Without a proper examination, the fine nuances of your symptoms are overlooked and what you get is a broader, more general diagnosis since the information you enter online isn’t tailored to your history and the environment you are subjected to.
“A lot of patients today visit doctors after they’ve wrongly diagnosed themselves and while some are relieved to find out that they aren’t as sick as they assumed they were, some are rather confused and no amount of convincing from the doctor will make them feel better,” says Dr Thapa.
“It’s like they’ve made up their minds about their illness based on what they’ve read,” he adds mentioning that people are getting an unhealthy dose of misinformation by relying on advice and anecdotes from anonymous sources.
“Don’t freak yourselves out by doing your own medical research. Rely on an expert’s opinion,” suggest Dr Thapa.
While an internet search of your symptoms might seem like a simpler and quicker solution than waiting for an appointment with your physician, you’re often swamped with stories that raise false alarm and cause much stress. So head to the doctor to check out what ails you even if you’re convinced that you’re part of the 0.01% of people who have that rare disease. You can use the internet as a reference after you’ve been properly diagnosed but until then get your hands off that keyboard!
While it’s easy to be your own doctor and pop a painkiller when you have a headache or take antibiotics every single time you have a slight throat irritation, medicines should not be used so recklessly. Consult a doctor if the symptoms persist. Don’t rush to the pharmacy and randomly ask for drugs.
The Week brings you some commonly abused over-the-counter medicines and their potential side-effects.
Pain killers
Pain killers are drugs used to relieve pain. Most of them belong to a class of drugs called Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDS], which control inflammation, fever and mild pain.”Taking them without consultation, taking a double dose for quicker relief or using the left-over medicines later for similar symptoms can put people in trouble,” says Dr Kamal Raj Thapa, MD Resident at Bir Hospital.
Possible side-effects
• Can cause ulcers and bleeding in the stomach.
• Can cause acidity, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, dizziness, rashes, and headaches.
• Boost blood pressure and can counteract the effect of some blood pressure medicines.
• Cause kidney and heart problems in case of prolonged use.
Cough syrups
There are two types of cough syrups. Those used for dry coughs are called cough suppressants or anti-tussives, while those which help coughs with phlegm are called expectorants. Since a lot of them are alcohol-based, people can get a high with the use of these medicines.
Possible side-effects
• Mouth dryness
• Ringing in the ears
• Nausea, stomach pain and constipation
• A pounding heart or uneven heartbeat
• Dizziness, blurred vision, drowsiness
• Restlessness, confusion and reduced concentration.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Our immune system can fight bacteria and stop them from multiplying enough to cause an infection. But, there are times when our immunity is low and the body is unable to control an infection. That is when you need an antibiotic. Those who take antibiotics unsupervised are mostly unaware of the proper course of the medicine and have a tendency to stop taking it as soon as they feel better. “If you don’t complete the full course of the antibiotic or use antibiotics too often, the bacteria may become resistant and the drug will become ineffective,” says Dr Thapa.
Possible side-effects
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness.
• Inflammation of the large intestine especially in the elderly.
• Allergic reactions like swelling of lips, face, and tongue.
• Certain antibiotics can reduce the effectiveness of oral contraceptive pills.
• Vaginal infection caused by growth of fungus due to suppression of good bacteria.
Related story
Internet hacks that are actually useful
