The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/15/LVGIU4R1OP1.DTL
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Sunday, February 15, 2004 (SF Chronicle) Imaginary maladies
online/Internet spreads 'cyberchondria' Katherine Seligman, Chronicle
Staff Writer
At her most worried, Melissa Woyechowsky sometimes
spent four hours a day on the Internet looking up her symptoms. There
was the tingling, the numbness in her limbs, insomnia, fatigue. She
fretted over them all.
"Multiple sclerosis was a big one," she said. "And HIV
and cancer. I was doing these searches, and it had almost a magical
aspect to it. I was on the Internet and an MS ad popped up. I thought,
'It's a sign."
(Since it's a copyright article, I'll let you access it if you're
interested in continuing reading it.)