Hi Jodi,

For me the internet was a bad place right after I was diagnosed. Wow, it's hard because it's all new and if you are like me you want to know EVERYTHING that is going on. My profession involves being a researcher and I had online access to all medical journals ever known to be published and read voraciously! On the other hand, reading too much caused me extreme paralyzing anxiety. It was a hard thing to balance.

Everyone is different in terms of their threshold for what they can tolerate reading online. And that can change depending on where you are in this journey. The internet is an extremely helpful tool and it has helped me figure out some key medical issues that led to earlier and better treatment. But keep in mind, too, that not all websites are equal in terms of accuracy or truth. Sometimes you can read stuff that is flat out wrong. Or you get the worst case scenario.

Also, if I surfed too many forums in the beginning, I got overwhelmed occasionally by everyone's suffering. It was better in the beginning if I started my OWN posts with questions and fears (which I got great responses to) but limited reading of too many threads that didn't relate to something specifically about me (perhaps a thread about a symptom you have never had).

One thing you can do is tell yourself, "okay, I'm only going to spend 30 minutes a day reading non-forum informational websites." Or if you start to get panicked while reading, give yourself a break. That break may be 6 hours, 2 days, or weeks. I've had doctors advise me to take a break for awhile because they could see I was becoming very anxious. Again, it all depends on who you are as a unique individual.

I will tell you that this is the only forum I come back to now years later. There are some long time amazing quality people here and new people too who are very supportive. You will find that people come in and out or are always here. I have received so much kindness and support in this forum and I think you will find it a blessing. I've even talked to someone from the forum on the phone when freaking out about PML and Tysabri. I can't say enough positive things about this place!!

Take care of yourself and good luck with everything.