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I'm Terri Gross.
I think I may have a mild case of a health condition I just learned about, and you may have it, too.
It's called cyberchondria.
It's a cousin of hypochondria is when you Google your symptoms and convince yourself you have the worst case scenario and are doomed.
My guest describes the Internet as the most expansive and spacious playground that hypochondria ever had.
Carolyn Crampton is the author of a new book about hypochondria.
Because she's pretty sure she has it, she has a reason to be hypervigilant about her health.
When she was 17, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
After months of treatment and monitoring, she was given the all clear and went to college.
But a year later, she found a lump in her neck.
The cancer had returned, requiring more chemo and a stem cell transplant.
She spent weeks in a hospital isolation ward.
After five years had passed, she was told again she was in the clear.
Is it any wonder she's always feeling the sight of the tumor and going to the doctor every time she feels a twinge in her neck or any suspicious symptom?
Crampton's new book is called A Body Made of A Cultural History of Hypochondria.
It's about her own experience of hypochondria, and it examines how our understanding of hypochondria has changed from ancient times to today.
And she reports on the latest therapies for treating it.