Medical diagnosis on the internet (Choose Your Own Adventure)

I don't research anything before being given a diagnosis by GP, however once I know what I've got I will look it up to see how best to look after myself. I am Epileptic & have Type 2 Diabetes so any thing else is a concern. My previous GP was very good at printing off information for me to read at home.

I belong to a Facebook support group for the cancer that DH has. The first advice we always give to new members is DON'T GOOGLE! The problem being that a lot of the information they find is terribly out of date and makes them think they'll be dead within weeks.

My daughter's mother in law does this all the time, not something I would do, very silly and could be very dangerous.

I once did an NHS online symptom checker. I had all the symptoms and made an appointment with the Doctor. He sat at his desk and proceeded to ask me questions, I looked at his screen and saw that he was using the same symptom checker that I had been viewing! It didn't give me a lot of confidence! However, he gave me the expected medication. I don't use the internet anymore!

As a trained nurse I do think people should have as much information about their condition and how to keep as healthy as possible but for the patient/clinician relationship to work properly there has to be trust. I would recommend that if people are looking for more information firstly to ask their clinician for it and also to use the www.nhs.choices website which is up to date.

I have a BIL who was a Head Teacher which in his view seems to make him clinically qualified. He has multiple imagined ailments for which he regularly consults his GP demands second opinions right and left, looks everything up on every site possible and then challenges to the doctors. According to him they keep telling him how clever and how right he is!!! He is costing the NHS a fortune for numerous unnecessary investigations. Why no-one mentions Munchausen's to him is a mystery to me.