Searching Social Media

[Leighs]

Hey friends, Is it just me or does anyone else use social media sites such as Twitter to search out noro/flu? I get extremely anxious this time of year and for some reason I torture myself looking to see how many people are infected.....and see there are lots There are other sites that actually track illness...why torture myself...I swear it might be so that I can feel in somewhat control.

[jadeshine]

I do it too. And look it up on Google News. Every day. :/

[Rls1994]

I used to do that but it made my anxiety 100000x worse, so I eventually stopped doing it. Easier said than done, I know, but I found other things to do. My anxiety has been better this year than it was last year when I was always searching who got noro and stuff.

[AnxiousCanuck]

I have e-mail alerts set up so anytime a news article mentions Norovirus, I get an e-mail with the links. About every three days I search various hashtags on Facebook, such as #stomachflu #noro #throwingup etc...then I creep those who have posted about it so I can get an idea how far away they are from me. I haven't used Twitter for this yet, since hashtags started on Facebook and we're able to just search for any hashtag, I don't need to.

I also watch a Flu Forum which posts daily about outbreaks of just about everything all over the world.

While yes, it does cause me a bit of anxiety at the time, I find that it often calms me down. I tend to go on the hunt for current outbreaks when I am having a significantly panic filled day, and seeing that there are few to no outbreaks even remotely near where I live allows me to chill out a bit. I also feel safer knowing this stuff so I can be better prepared as outbreaks move closer to me (which is rare).

So you're definitely not alone. As for why we torture ourselves, I have no idea. I think it is because the fear of not knowing is far worse than the fear associated with knowing where it is happening and how severe. At least that is the case with me.

[butterfly91]

I don't understand why people feel the need to broadcast on twitter/facebook etc that they have been throwing up all night, there's really no need, and it just making people anxious, and most of the time they probably over exaggerate anyway

[Rls1994]

Agree with you, butterfly.

But some people like to mention every little thing that goes on in their lives even if it's totally unnecessary. >_>

[butterfly91]

Agree with you, butterfly.

But some people like to mention every little thing that goes on in their lives even if it's totally unnecessary. >_>

​Got a few people on my facebook like that lol