Although not a medically recognized term, cyberchondria is a term that is being coined
as people who act out their hypochondriac tendencies by using online resources to selfdiagnose.
There usually is one friend who thinks he or she is deathly ill all the time. The buddy who sneezes once and is convinced he or she has cancer or gets a paper cut and thinks an amputation is needed.
Although these people traditionally have been classified as hypochondriacs, a new breed of classification has recently come into play — the cyberchondriac.
Cyberchondriac is the term being lent to those individuals who have the tendency to display their hypochondriac qualities by using Internet resources to self-diagnose themselves either before or instead of going to see a physician.
Dennis Martell, health education services coordinator for Olin Health Center, said using the Internet in this manner doesn’t shock him at all.
“It doesn’t surprise me that people are finding all kinds of ways to use the Internet for reinforcing hypochondriac (tendencies),” Martell said. “More and more physicians are finding that students on and off campus are coming in for appointments equipped with information from the Internet.”
Although many students might be bringing their own theories to doctors, not all Spartans feel this is an appropriate way to deal with medical issues.
“I can certainly see it becoming a problem,” political theory and constitutional democracy senior Kaitlin Utz said. “People maybe won’t go see their doctor and try to self-diagnose and they’ll get it wrong.”
Zoology senior John Harrington agrees this could potentially cause a huge problem for individual health.
“I think some people would be arrogant to think that (they know better),” Harrington said. “But I hope that most people would go to the doctor to get a proper diagnosis.”
Despite the term not being recognized by many institutions as an official medical condition (such as hypochondria is), its prominence is continually growing, and use of the term is becoming more frequent.
“We have been concerned for some time that more and more students are using the Internet excessively, and in that excessive use more of them are looking at medical sites,” Martell said. Martell added that he believes the Internet is another way of feeding those individuals with hypochondria, while also creating new cyberchondriacs out of those who are not ill.
Although Utz said there is always the chance people are correct in their diagnosis, she prefers to veer on the safe side.
“There’s always a possibility that they do have a serious condition and misdiagnosed it, but because they think the Internet is going to give them everything, they don’t have to go see a doctor, so I think it could be very much a problem,” Utz said.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
