Social media causing health anxiety

[goatinthekitchen]

I'm thinking of quitting social media. It's not that I don't care but I have awful health anxiety at the moment and today alone I think I've seen 2-3 articles of people under 40 being diagnosed or dying of cancer. Then the video reels always contain something about some young person with cancer.
It's not that I don't care I very much do but I feel like it's all we see and hear about and it makes me feel as though it's inevitable that I either already have or will get cancer. Tbh I'm terrified. Does anyone else feel this way?

[Problemnumber99]

Yes! Algorithms have me pegged as a cancer super fan, especially kids with cancer. Like you I feel for them all deeply, but equally it's too much. I feel sad for them, and worried for my dd. I come off social feeling so depressed. You can see how youngsters get consumed.

[EveryoneJapan]

I don’t feel that way but as noted above, it’s the algorithms that get you - click on one story and you get another 100 of the same vein.

Given that it’s worsening your anxiety I’m unclear why you wouldn’t come off social media.

[KateMiskin]

Obviously you must stay on social media because otherwise people will think you don't care about young people with cancer.

[dancingdaisies]

I suffer with crippling health anxiety and I concur with everything you said. Because I spend much of my time googling cancer symptoms naturally it comes up in my ads, feeds, etc. triggered of course by me, but further fuelled by the algorithms.
If RV tried to set myself challenges of googling less a this has helped. Also journaling,

What is my fear?
How likely is it?
What evidence do I have to support it?
What is the alternative outcome?

[beanbagluv1]

Definitely stay off social media if it heightens your anxiety. Alternatively I believe there's also the option to teach the algorithm to not show you those posts by clicking "not interested" when they do pop up and you'll get less similar posts in the future.

[AstralSpace]

It's good to quit it. It will enhance your life.
If you start looking at other stuff, the algorithms change so you could make it work for you if you want to see happy stuff, cute kittens, or whatever.

[beanbagluv1]

@dancingdaisies

I suffer with crippling health anxiety and I concur with everything you said. Because I spend much of my time googling cancer symptoms naturally it comes up in my ads, feeds, etc. triggered of course by me, but further fuelled by the algorithms.
If RV tried to set myself challenges of googling less a this has helped. Also journaling,

What is my fear?
How likely is it?
What evidence do I have to support it?
What is the alternative outcome?

That's a good way to deal with it. I had it for years too and what helped me was someone telling me once that i can't stop anything that is bound to happen from happening so why suffer twice by worrying now and potentially in the future too. Sounds harsh but it helped me focus on the present.