‘A review in the British Medical Journal publication “Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry” from 2003 says cyberchondria was used in 2001 in an article in the United Kingdom newspaper The Independent to describe “the excessive use of internet health sites to fuel health anxiety.” The BBC also used cyberchondria in April, 2001. The BMJ review also cites the 1997 book from Elaine Showalter, who writes the internet is a new way to spread “pathogenic ideas” like Gulf War syndromechronic fatigue syndrome. Patients with cyberchondria and patients of general hypochondriasis often are convinced they have disorders “with common or ambiguous symptoms.”
Cyberchondriac, “a hypochondriac who imagines that he or she has a particular disease based on medical information gleaned from the Internet” was a word of the year in 2008 for the Webster’s New World Dictionary. Webster’s shows a list of uses for cyberchondriac on publications and the internet.
Former American Gladiator Jonathan Byrne says he struggles with serious cyberchondria and has considered professional psychiatric treatment for it.’
IN ADDENDUM: In the last 6 months, I have diagnosed myself with no less than three memorable and terrible diseases based on long hours spent sifting through symptoms:chat forums:robot-MDs:bullet-pointed-check-boxes a la Internet, that Web-Based Vixen of Mega-Information. Followed up by long hours of semi-nude-and-casted-introspective-and-melancholy-window-gazing.
