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Meet Web Hypochondriacs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the we're-all-crazy-on-some-level dept.

prostoalex writes "When Jerome K. Jerome in 1889 described going to the British Museum to read medical encyclopedia and subsequently finding symptoms of almost all diseases in his body, he didn't realize the problem would exacerbate more than a century later. Web hypochondriacs are calling up doctors with requests for prescriptions for all sorts of diseases, since they discovered some similar symptoms on the Web. Wall Street Journal quotes a doctor: 'My impression is that people believe more of what they read than what I tell them. It seems that traditional Western medicine based on scientific evidence is less and less trusted by the general public. Meanwhile, some dubious theory from the Internet will be swallowed hook, line and sinker nine times out of 10.' "

4 of 587 comments (clear)

  1. OMG! by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 5, Funny

    That sounds EXACTLY like the problem *I* have!!!!

    I hope there's a cure...

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
  2. A brief history of Medicine by XFilesFMDS1013 · · Score: 5, Funny

    2000 BC: Here, take this root.
    1000 AD: That root is for a heathen. Here, say this prayer.
    1850 AD: That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
    1940 AD: That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
    1985 AD: That pill is ineffective. Here take this antibiotic.
    2000 AD: That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.
    2005 AD: That root works! Read about it on my blog!

  3. Re:My wife is like this... by Wudbaer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't tell me about it. I'm an MD by training, and it was always hell learning for exams. You are going through this really really big book full of crippling and lethal diseases, and not only lethal, but painful-disfiguring-debilitating-disabling-finally -after-some-years-lethal diseases. It's fine at first, but then: Oops. That here, that funny itch I always... oh ok, only women can get that. Whooo. But THIS one ! OMG ! I'm gonna die ! Next page. Repeat. One finally gets used to it and stops dying for several times per chapter, but it shows that not only health Web sites are dangerous.

  4. Anxiety by quibbs0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm quite a hypochondriac myself. My doctor told me a few years ago that I had General Anxiety Disorder. When I told my girlfriend at the time she asked me "How do you feel about having G.A.D.?"

    I responded, "Quite frankly it makes me a little nervous."