5 Tips to Stop Compulsive Googling Your Symptoms

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Why Do I Feel That in my Body? Explanations of Bodily Symptoms Due to Anxiety, Stress and Panic

Health anxiety, formerly referred to as hypochondria is diagnosed as Illness anxiety disorder, somatic symptom disorder or sometimes panic disorder. It behaves like OCD due to the cycle caused by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors like reassurance seeking, body symptom checking, ruminating, excessive googling and avoidance and safety behaviors.

Common physical compulsions for health anxiety include googling symptoms, physically scanning your body, monitoring or checking body symptoms with different devices, checking where the local hospitals are if you travel, excessive doctor visits and testing, and seeking reassurance from loved ones.

While some can stop compulsive googling cold turkey, others find this is difficult because the urge and habit have been going on for some time.

Remember that your job is to tolerate your anxiety when you have the urge to do any compulsion, including the urge to google health information.

People enrolled in my health anxiety course have reported decreased anxiety after only a few days of stopping their excessive googling of health symptoms.

Here are 5 tips to help you to resist the urge and stop googling health symptoms:

1. Write down your health worries and document what you want to google and why. Sitting with the anxiety and the urge to find answers. You may even try answering your own questions in a rational voice. This exercise can move your brain from a seeking mode to more of an acceptance mode of the uncertainty we all must tolerate.

2. Make a new rule to help keep you accountable. Perhaps a rule might be that instead of you googling, ask someone else to google something for you and summarize the answer. This keeps you from getting hooked in the compulsion.

3. Delay your googling. When noticing the urge, set a rule to delay googling activity for 2 hours. Eventually work your way up to 24 hours. You will find that your ability to tolerate the urge will improve with practice.

4. If you are googling social media sites and forums, ask yourself, “What am I looking for? What do I really want?” If the answer is reassurance, answers, certainty, or anything to calm your anxiety, then stop and resist the urge.

5. Shift your focus in the moment. If you notice that you are on your device or computer and you immediately catch yourself in the act of googling, use the opportunity to shift your focus. You can use the I. A.M. method to help you. Identify that you were seeking reassurance, Allow the urge and that angst to be there, just floating in your mind, and Shift your focus in the Moment. It helps to have something to do to shift your attention to and away from the urge to google those symptoms.

Health anxiety can hook your attention and reel you in. It can convince you that something may be seriously wrong, and can activate your fear response. It pulls you in and away from everything else that’s important to you.

Health anxiety thrives on your vulnerabilities and catastrophic thinking, where minor symptoms are blown out of proportion, leading to thinking of the worst case scenarios. But, health anxiety is a treatable condition.

#healthanxiety, #hypochondria, #illnessanxiety

Until next time, I will see you in session,
Paige

(Although Paige Pradko is a licensed psychotherapist, the views expressed on this video and this YouTube channel including comments or any related content should not be taken for medical, psychological or psychiatric advice. Always contact your physician and mental health provider before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.)

[PaigePradkoTherapy]

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Thank you for watching. Please leave me your comments and questions. I would love to know how you are doing and how I can help you.

[patriciapablos]

This woman is an angel on earth. She has helped me so much

[rachelduncan]

What a great video. Thanks for your work

[thehoop]

Health anxiety is what caused my panic disorder. And that stems to my fear of death. I Google every single time. And I literally can't stop. It's the waiting for the appointment, then waiting for the tests then waiting for the results. I Google to give the Drs what to look for. They're looking for horses when what I have may be a zebra. September last year I literally convinced myself I had ALS because I had weakness in my legs out of nowhere and my cousin died from it earlier last year. So I had to go through the neurology tests etc. I've never been able to stop. It started in 96 and it is still going strong. I don't think I can ever be cured.

[ananddayal]

A great lone support in the difficult time of suffering.

[ThinkPositiveDude]

I needed this, thank you ma'am <3

[mohannedishaq]

Can i ask. I have 247 symptoms in body and keep shift everyday and i keep check my bp. Oximeter many time. Visit doctor. Tests all started with symptoms uyes i feel relife for while but one symptoms shifts i need check bp.. And go anorher doctor.. Maybe if i never had symptoms i wouldnt do these things. So wht im suffering from. Illness anxiety or wht and i have panic atrack and fear of goibg outsite even if i go mall i sit with fear thn run awayvand i canmot drive far away.