This week at I Am Here, we’re asking: What is cyberchondria, and could it be making health anxiety worse?
- What is cyberchondria, and have we ever recognised it in ourselves?
- Does searching our symptoms online usually leave us more reassured, or more worried?
- What would it look like to sit with uncertainty for a few minutes longer, before reaching for a search bar?
Two-thirds of us experience some form of health anxiety. For a lot of us, that shows up as a quick search the moment something feels off: a symptom checked online, an ache run past an AI tool.
There’s a name for it now—Cyberchondria—when searching for reassurance ends up feeding worry instead of allaying it.
Being Real about this means noticing the pattern for what it is: a very human response to living with uncertainty, not a personal failing.
This week, we’re looking at where that instinct comes from, how we can make ourselves more aware of what it is, and what drives it.
What Are We Watching This Week?
This week, we’re watching Two thirds of Brits experience health anxiety – is AI making it worse?, an ITV News report.
The report follows Vicky Chandler, who spent three years convinced she was seriously ill, waking each morning simply relieved to still be here. She’s not alone: an IPSOS poll reported in this video found that two-thirds of people experience health-related anxiety. For many, however, searching symptoms using AI only makes the anxiety worse.
Dr Amir Khan points out that AI tools aren’t designed to reassure us. They surface whatever gets clicked on most, which is rarely the least worrying explanation. Interesting efforts, however, are underway to help people address health anxiety.
Watch the video here (4-minute watch)
What Are We Reading This Week?
This week, we’re reading Do you have cyberchondria?, by clinical psychologist Dr Bonnie Zucker, in Psychology Today.
Zucker explains why searching symptoms online so often backfires. It offers a short burst of relief, then pulls us straight back into the cycle of worry. We never get the chance to learn that our anxiety would have settled on its own.
Her suggestions are refreshingly practical. Delay the urge to search, even by a minute or two. Notice when you’re scanning your body for signs of something wrong, and turn your attention to something outside yourself instead.
Read the article here (4-minute read)
Who Are We Quoting This Week?
“Fear is a messenger. What is it telling you about your deeper frustrations, unfulfilled longings, and emotional pain?”
– Rick Hanson
This quote reminds us to treat fear as information, rather than an alarm that we need to silence as fast as possible. When a quick symptom check turns into an hour of scrolling, the fear driving it might be about more than the symptom itself. It could be a workload we can’t get on top of, or a change we haven’t fully processed. Sometimes it’s simply a longing to feel in control of something, right now.
At I Am Here, this sits close to what being Real means to us. It means getting curious about what a feeling is actually telling us, rather than reaching straight for the nearest search bar or distraction.