Are You A “Cyberchondriac?”
I’m late to the party on this word, but I think it’s a good one. Cyberchondria. In 2016, the New York State Psychiatric Institute defined it as “searching the web excessively for health care information.” Basically, a cyberchondriac is someone who Googles symptoms every time he or she feels sick.
According to Psychology Today, cyberchondria is a more severe version of what about 90% of Americans do regularly, which is searching for their symptoms online. With COVID-19 out there now, people are doing more at-home medical research than ever before. And you know your doctor just looooves it when you do that.
You really are better off consulting a licensed health professional over a search engine. New research out of Australia has found that if you’re using Google to self-diagnose an ailment, you’re more than likely getting incorrect information. Online symptom checkers are only accurate around 36% of the time. Talk to the person with the medical degree instead.
