简介：
Anxiety Increases with Online Health Searches
别把百度当“医生”
A study of so-called cyberchondriacs finds that those who are uncomfortable with uncertainty only feel worse the more they search online for health symptoms.
对于那些稍一觉得不舒服，就非常想知道自己到底得了什么病的人，上网搜索自己的症状，往往会有雪上加霜的效果。
撰文/翻译 克里斯蒂•尼克尔森（Christie Nicholson）
翻译 李轩
A hypochondriac can turn indigestion into a heart attack faster than you can say myocardial infarction. And thanks to the Internet’s unlimited supply of medical information, there’s an online version of the condition—call it cyberchondria.
比起一般人，神经过敏症患者更容易把一次消化不良误认为心脏病发作。现在，网络上无穷无尽的医学信息，更造就了“神经过敏”的网络版——所谓的“上网神经过敏症”。
Now a study has identified which people are most at risk of becoming victims of serious cyberchondria.
现在，一项研究已经鉴定出了最容易患上严重“上网神经过敏症”的人群。
More than 500 adults were surveyed about their ability to handle uncertainty, and their levels of anxiety about their current health. They were also asked to rate how much they felt online health searches affected their anxiety.
超过500名成年人接受了一项调查，测试他们处理“不确定性”的能力，和对目前健康状况的焦虑程度。调查同时还询问了他们“在网上搜素与健康相关的问题”是否会对这种焦虑造成影响。
The results: those volunteers who were poorest at dealing with uncertainty did the most searching about symptoms and illnesses. And as they searched, their levels of anxiety significantly increased. The study is in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.
结果是：那些不善于处理“不确定性”的志愿者，在网上搜索症状与疾病的次数更多。并且，当他们进行搜索时，焦虑感也会跟着增加。
The researchers say that people with an “intolerance of uncertainty” can alleviate anxiety by using cognitive strategies—for example, reminding themselves that it’s doubtful they will find a definitive explanation for their ambiguous symptoms. After all, although Google says that the throbbing in your head might mean you have six weeks to live, it’s much more likely that Arnold is right: “It’s not a tumor! It’s not a tumor, at all.”
但研究人员也表示，无法容忍“不确定”之感的人，会使用认知策略减轻焦虑感，比如不断地自我安慰说自己那些模糊不清的病征，是很难在网上找到确切解释的。毕竟，虽然谷歌说“脑袋一抽一抽”的感觉意味着你只剩6星期的活头，但施瓦辛格的话才更可能是正解：“这不是肿瘤！这完全不是肿瘤！”
（题图来源：http://thehoopla.com.au/cyberchondriac/）
