self-diagnosis is kinda my thing.

despite being a bit of a hypochondriac i hate visiting the doctor. there are several contributing neurosis that i think cause me to actively avoid the doctor's office. partly it is due to my mother insisting on going into the exam room with me until i was 17 and then speaking for me when the doctor would ask what the problem was. additionally, on a couple of visits to the student health center the nurse not so subtly suggested i have an eating disorder. also, i hate sitting in the waiting room. i get anxious when i am sitting around so many other sick people, i'm afraid that if my immune system is already slightly weakened then i have an increased risk of catching something else. because of this, i self-diagnosis myself on web-md constantly. in the past week i've thought it possible that i have both pneumonia and thrush. rationally, i know there is very little chance i have either of these, let alone both. at the slightest symptom though my first instinct is to check every possibility on the web.

i am also prone to picking up the symptoms of the latest fad illness. in high school when the pope developed an urinary tract infection i was positive i had one, too. whenever the west nile virus started to spread through parts of the south i caught it, twice. and in 2006 when there was an e. coli outbreak reported in packaged spinach i woke up the day after eating a salad from the dining hall just knowing i had food poisoning. lucky for me most of my various self-diagnosed viruses/infections/illnesses cure themselves within 24-48 hours with a lot of napping on the couch and a little bit of self-loathing.