Hypochondriacts Using the Internet

My sister is a hypochondriact. She has been one since she was about 8 years old. I don't think the internet even existed back then, but now that there is internet she can look up and pretend to have any disease that she can reasearch. This is a serious psychological issue that many people have. Since illness becomes a part of a hypochondriacts identity they need to allways find something that is wrong with them. They read up on the information and pretty soon they are bought into the idea that they have this horrible ailment. One thing that people need to be careful of when searching the internet for information is that not all sites on the internet are valid. If you truely think something is wrong instead of sitting down infront of your computer, you should go to the doctor. Remember just because you can read does not mean you are as educated as a doctor. http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/internet-makes-hypochondria-worse
Alot of people may use the internet just to look up simple issues that they think are going on, but then they get scared when they read information that may be misleading or false for their particular case. This could cause a lot of anxiety in someone. "About 6 million Americans go online everyday for medical advice every day!"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/2002/06/24/cyberchondria.htm
The message that I want to get across to people is to be carefull when using the internet to look up symptoms or to even try to refrain from using the internet in replace of a doctor.