I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Self‑diagnosis and LLMs

  • Many commenters argue the core mistake wasn’t “LLM vs doctor” but self‑diagnosing and delaying proper medical care.
  • Consensus among that group: LLMs, web search, and random friends should never substitute for a licensed medical evaluation, especially for unfamiliar or serious symptoms.
  • Some go further: “never ask an LLM for medical advice, full stop”; others call that an overreaction and insist the real rule is “never trust LLM medical advice.”

Healthcare Access and Incentives

  • Several comments note why people turn to LLMs: high costs and surprise bills in the US, long waits and limited access to non‑urgent care in the UK/EU/Germany.
  • For many, the practical choice is “LLM vs my uninformed guess,” not “LLM vs instant doctor.”

How People Say They Safely Use LLMs

  • Some report good experiences using top‑tier models as:
    • Symptom explainers and hypothesis generators.
    • Triage helpers (which kind of doctor to see, what tests to ask about).
    • Diet and lifestyle advisors in chronic conditions, with ongoing logs and cross‑checks.
  • These users emphasize: multiple models, neutral phrasing, follow‑up questions, and always ultimately involving a doctor.

Prompting, Bias, and Model Behavior

  • Strong focus on the author’s initial prompt: it downplayed risk, framed cost avoidance, and suggested “it’s probably nothing,” so the model echoed that.
  • People note LLMs are “yes‑men” tuned to align with the user’s framing; leading questions yield comforting but unsafe answers.
  • Several tried a neutral, clinical description of the rash with modern models and got “Lyme disease” as the top suggestion; others did not, underscoring inconsistency between models.

Doctors vs LLMs, Anecdotes and Selection Bias

  • Multiple anecdotes: doctors misdiagnosing or dismissing symptoms; others where LLMs or Google helped surface rare conditions that doctors later confirmed.
  • Opposing anecdotes: this case and other stories where LLM advice worsened outcomes.
  • One subthread highlights selection bias: “LLM saved me” stories are loudly shared; “LLM harmed me” stories are rare and embarrassing.

Lyme Disease Subthread

  • Discussion clarifies early Lyme as bacterial and curable; “chronic Lyme” is described as a controversial or dubious diagnosis.
  • Several recount missed or delayed Lyme diagnoses by doctors, but also stress that Lyme’s acute phase is usually severe enough to drive people to seek care.

Meta: The Post and HN

  • The author later tried to remove the article, arguing the thread was enabling dangerous pro‑LLM medical takes.
  • Others push back that nuanced, conditional LLM use is being conflated with “blind trust,” and debate continues over whether any medical use of LLMs is acceptable.