Dr. Google

How many of us have a direct correlation between Dr. Google and our TMS symptoms blowing up to a high degree?

For me, I typically have a pain in my back, shoulder, wrist and just dismiss it and t goes away. It isn't until I have visited Dr. Google has the Mind-Body connection been established. What I mean by that is the Mind association to all the negative thoughts based on all the negativity on the web around what it could be, forms of people crying out in pain, all the cookies that start popping up ads for back pain help or MS support since it tarcks what you ahve been searching for.

I just wonder how many of us would be experiencing TMS to the degree we are without the web? The repressed emotion is still there but like Dr. Sarno suggested, back pain is an epidemic in our current culture where it wasn't in the past so much.

While the web has helped us all find this site...has it been a primary reason for some of us to actually add the last ingredient to the TMS soup which is allowing our minds to see all the negative associations to the pain we feel?

If that is the case, what is it about our past the we didn't learn to trust our own judgement but were so easily swayed by the random thoughts placed on the internet?

 

I had TMS long before there was a Dr. Google. I think the unconscious brain is pretty creative at finding things to distract and scare us with when that is its intent.

 

Dr. Google can give us a lot of bad or worthless advice.
I thought my dog had a stye in her eye because that's what Dr. Google said it was.
Yesterday at the vet's he said it wasn't a style but something else that wasn't really bad.
Dr. Google said to apply warm water on a tea bag over the eye so I did for several days.
The vet said that does no good but no harm, either. Just warm water on the eye to keep it clean.

If we believed Dr. Google, we'd be in the cemetery. Same with tv ads for health products.
They're written and then acted by actors who are expert at selling us on the idea that a pill or back brace
or a new mattress will cure our back pain. What does is TMS.

Now when I see a commercial for a health product I laugh or switch channels.

 

Pingman, I too had TMS before Dr. Google. But yes, he does like to assist with my imaginings, etc. And for me, nursing school opened my eyes to all sorts of issues…most imagined.

This has been especially pesky as a mom. My kid doesn't *just* get a bloody nose ….NOoooooooo! It's leukemia! And OMG…I wonder if I'm a compatible bone marrow donor….and what about the…. And ALL this can take place in about .002 seconds.

But I'm learning. I avoid Dr. Google mostly now and no longer do I click on the links to the heartbreaking stories of medical drama that tug on my heart strings. (Ie, the brave little 10-year-old battling a rare disease.) I have enough drama in my circle of friends and family and I need to be present here.

When I do find a new symptom popping up. (And omg…the creativity of my brain!) I try to sit, deep breath and ask myself if I HONESTLY thing it's an issue. Usually, the answer is a big fat NO. And then it fades away.

My other mantra lately (and this changes depending on what I feel like I need from day to day), is this is HARMLESS. I have a gum issue that was biopsied several years ago ("It's harmless and usually is activated by stress" the oral surgeon said) but I will still start to fret over it because Dr. Google has strident warnings about these things. So, I tell Dr. Google to shut the h*ll up. (Yes, I swear at times. It just feels right. )

 

Interesting.....there is an article on the NPR website today about Dr. Google helping parents avoid surgery for their kids born with clubfoot.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...d-the-internet-transformed-clubfoot-treatment


So Dr. Google can be a force for good, as well. It's all what we do with it....

 

Absolutely, Ellen! It can be an enormously helpful tool for research!

 

I would obsessively google symptoms all the time, I have no doubt it makes my symptoms worse, even helps my mind to create new ones.

Sometimes I would lose hours, just reading forums of people crying out for help in chronic pain, people that have been to countless doctors and are at their wits end. Every now and then I would come across some posts stating they were cured with a few sessions at a physcologist or once they got their anxiety/depression treated they were cured.

Then a few weeks ago I stumbled on a link to this wiki in those same forums. I had always kinda known my mind played a role in my problems, I had already witnessed headaches being brought on just by the mere thought of how inconvenient it would be to have one right now. I had worked out long ago that stressful situations triggered my gastro problems but without Dr Google, I would have never known there was a diagnosis for what I have and what so many people are going through!

I found TMS at the perfect time because i feel i was ready to embrace it and am grateful I have found a diagnosis at only 23 and I have google to thank for it.

I still am tempted at times to visit Dr Google with my symptoms, but lately i've realised you'll have a much better time putting those symptoms into the search bar at the top of this forum!

 

Hi Braden,

I knows it's early days for you, but as you progress you will realize how important it is to try and take your focus off your symptoms , that and losing fear of symptons is the key to healing. The symptoms are a distraction and a habit, once your attention shifts from them they are redundant.

Stick with it, you can do it

 

Ah, I've been diagnosed by Dr. Google many a time. The problem with a firehose of diagnoses is that, eventually you find one that mostly fits you.

Of course, I find swearing profusely is great for pain. I believe there was a study done that showed it helps with pain, although it doesn't work as well if you swear very often, so ration them out

 

Braden, it's wonderful that Dr. Google led you to Dr. Sarno and TMSWiki.
I admit I still ask Dr. Google about things, but I do try to be careful not to take advice that may be
off-track or just not good. We can get answers from other people on Dr. Google and they may all differ,
as do doctors differ about the cause of our symptoms.

I swear sometimes even when I'm not in pain, jazzhands. I just have to be careful my dog
doesn't think I'm swearing at her.

I agree that it's good to ration swearing. But don't ration laughing. That really helps me.

 

Yes, if you swear too much the value of a good expletive is diminished. Cuss inflation. hahahaha