To wish Dr Google could be struck off

Never google medical issues, I use the NHS website.

The problem with Google is that the information is often being given out of context. Drs know to weigh up all sorts of things, make connections, rule things out on order to make a correct diagnoses and have a complete picture of the individual's medical history.

Advice on Google is going to be at best generalised and vague, at worst irresponsible as the writer is not taking a wider picture into account.

I google Doodle in situations like this to give myself as much control as I can when worried.

I think that it is human nature to use whatever information we can get our hands on when we are worried. Before Google, people went to the library to look up symptoms, and there were numerous 'textbooks' aimed at the lay reader - I remember their being very popular when those Book Of The Month clubs were in vogue.

I am currently waiting for tests that could turn out to show something very worrying, and I have Googled - of course I have. I know I shouldn't, but I couldn't resist, and no, it hasn't helped my state of mind at all.

I think that mostly we do it in the hope that we will find something that will reassure us that things will be ok. That's not what we are likely to find, of course, as most of the articles will be about the prognosis or management of conditions, not about false alarms.

I used MN for advice and information before I underwent a particular surgery. It was great - advice on post-op clothing, realistic recovery time, help in dealing with certain after effects - certainly much more informative and practical than the information leaflets I was given by the hospital ( as good as they were tbf)

Elegran your post is spot on. Like all sources of information, it’s how we are able to evaluate and use them that matters. That’s what some people need help with. When I think how we’ve moved from the doctor being god, the one who decided if and what you should be told about your own body - thank goodness we’ve moved on from that.

Yes you're right. Also we should probably be careful about what websites we use and whether the advice being given is from a properly qualified doctor or some quack.

I also hate, and you see this on mumsnet a lot, when someone posts about a health concern and in the midst of the reassuring and careful advice accompanied by encouragement to make a gp apptment, someone comes on and tells the op that their aunt had the Exact SAME Symptoms and was DEAD within the month. It's so irresponsible.

No, I don't think Dr Google should be struck off, only that young people should get education in risk assessment and logical thinking. It may be too late for many of the older generation, but if the young were routinely taught not to accept the most dramatic disasters or the worst-possible prognosis as the only and inevitable outcome, they might grow up able to better assess their own health risks, as well to weigh the results of political and financial decisions. Then the wealth of online advice, both useful and useless, could be filtered sensibly.

I never do, much to scared of what I might find.

I don't Google anything medical. Only for perhaps minor ailments. Googling can just lead to worrying yourself witless. I don't do it.