“If I have it, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do at this point,” Walker said. “There is no cure for it or anything right now that even controls the symptoms really well. Knowing isn’t going to prevent me from having it. I either have it or I don’t. At this point in life, I don’t need to know.”
By avoiding the medical test, Walker is part of a phenomenon referred to as information aversion, or the “ostrich effect” (which comes from the myth that ostriches, when in danger, bury their heads in the sand). It’s often used to describe people avoiding risky financial situations, like investors who check their portfolios less when the market’s bad, who were the subject of a 2009 study. But the term also applies to people avoiding medical tests.
Postponing getting a medical test could lead to a late diagnosis or unknowingly spreading a contagious disease. But living in uncertainty can also cause anxiety and affect how people choose to live their lives.
There are many reasons people might put off going to the doctor, according to Dr. Ghadeer Okayli, a psychiatrist in Austin, Texas who specializes in anxiety, depression, and mental illness. It could be that someone has social anxiety, and he’s afraid of being judged by doctors. Sometimes it could be caused by a panic disorder, if patients fear exhibiting physical symptoms like sweating or trembling if they go to a doctor. Someone might not have the time or money to see a physician. Or it could just be pure apathy. But for a large number of Okayli’s patients who avoid medical tests, they’re scared that a test will reveal a disease they have. It’s a form of denial, according to Okayli—they assure themselves they’re fine while worrying, deep down, that they’re not.
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