CosmicVisitor
Well-known member
Let's take this seriously here please. I have just responded to a post on a thread where I was telling a story of a fasciculating man who had not a care about his twitching. Until I mentioned ALS to him, he had never even thought of it. You see, he doesn't use the web..... I started to think about this ..... What would we all be doing right now if there was no internet? Here is what I think would be the likely answer; We (Men) would probably wait a few months before worry, and then present to our primary care doctor. Women would likely present sooner, or even visit the library to research their symptoms because they are more somatically focused than men. When we get to the primary care, they would likely run some basic neuro exam and labs, then refer us to a Neurologist if they had no findings. The neurologist would then confirm that our condition is benign and refer us back to the primary care for observation or to a psychatrist. Then we would likely go about our daily lives looking forward to the day we stop twitching, and over time they would disappear.. but this is not how it happened is it? Due to the advent of the internet, and more specifically the "search engine" we are able to access millions of documents, publications, message boards and chat rooms. It has become our perception that any and all information about anything is available to us "for free" by typing in search criteria and hitting the enter button, so we have actually developed a codependency to Google in the process. For years we have seen in the movies, a villain gaining access to secret plans to hidden information or the schematic floor plan of a prison to aid a break out. So the notion that the computer knows all has been drilled into us over that last twenty years every day in some fashion. Let's test it out.. Go ahead and Google the plans for the White House... Yes, you will see them, and if you visit there you will see that they are very accurate... but what can you not see? The secret passages? The bunker? The wiring diagrams for security? I think you must get my point.. The information on the internet is LIMITED and is not the be all to end all. Yet, we go to our Neurologist who has seen real ALS, real MS, real Parkinson and other ominous disease and turn from their diagnosis to Dr G or Google... All of the information must be there right, I mean; isn't all of those billions of dollars of studies and research available for free? not quite... So we look up twitching.... we see ALS ... we read about being slowly paralyzed and trapped in our bodies... it seems like the most horrible way to go.. and we identify with one of the MAJOR SYMPTOMS ... OOOOHHHH NOOOOOOO !!! What do you think that does to your mind? We are not alone... cybercondria is at an all time high... What is the symptoms for Meningitis? Fever, Body Aches, Lathargy, Dizziness, Headache? And I guarantee someone here has Googled their symptoms when all they had was a cold and thought they might have bird flu... I know I did .. LOL The good part about most illness' is that they are self limiting, and our resilient bodies God created will repair themselves over time.. even BFS... but if we get in the way of this process it can prolong recovery. I'll close with this... Stress/anxiety is not always something you can recognize in yourself. You don't have to feel it's presence for it to exist. So really, do you want to put your life under the control of an internet search engine or do you want to take it back?
