Do You Have A Condition? How To Find Out

Be an investigator into your own health! (Photo credit: chrisbb)

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock

How do you know if you have anxiety, migraine, anklosying spondylitis, or something else?  If you haven’t already been diagnosed with it, here are a few simple, general pointers to set you on the right path:
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1. Is your condition rare? In the case of anxiety and migraine, no – they affect tens of millions of Americans each. But it’s always a good idea to look at prevalence data to figure out your baseline risk. In other words, don’t overestimate your risk of having a condition just because you have one of its symptoms.

Wikipedia often has prevalence data for conditions, and disease foundations are another good source for this.
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2. Do your symptoms match up? If you think you may have a condition, compare yourself with others who have that condition to see how well you fit. Take a quick look now to see if you have most of the common symptoms: over 7000 people at CureTogether have reported symptoms for 469 conditions.

Search for the one you’re looking for here and see if you match up.
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3. Should you get diagnosed? If your symptoms do match, you might want to get a more definite answer on whether the condition you’re looking at might be causing these symptoms in you, so that you can find support and appropriate treatment. If it’s a problem in your life, it’s a good idea to get diagnosed.

To learn more about choosing a diagnostic test and finding relief from your symptoms, stay tuned for our next blog post: “Getting Diagnosed – How To Choose The Right Test“.
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Related posts:

13 New Discoveries at CureTogether

Depression Sufferers 3x More Likely to Have Anxiety

5 Free Self-Tracking Tools to Help You Get In Shape

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