I'm going to go on a mini rant about the Netflix documentary Afflicted, because I think a lot of people would probably get the wrong message from it.
for those who don't know, Afflicted is a documentary about people with unexplainable conditions: electricity/wifi sensitivity, mold sensitivity, and many other various, seemingly absurd symptoms.
These people all have one thing in common: they can't get treatment from traditional medicine, which isn't really well set-up to handle these kinds of unexplained chronic symptoms. Obviously, this is very upsetting.
So, they've all turned to alternative medicine, and spend exhorbitant amounts of money on every treatment under the sun: supplements, lasers, ozone chambers, chiropractic, staying away from electricity/lights, and more.
One woman does a $150k house renovation to get rid of mold, but when that has no impact on her symptoms, she's immediately told to spend about $10k more to get her teeth fillings taken out.
Throughout, these people are of course adamant that their symptoms are real and that their (seemingly absurd) treatments are helping, even though this is generally damaging their livelihoods/personal relationships.
Some of them do get better over the course of the documentary - and here's the problem - they believe that these huge batteries of pills and treatments cured them.
A very shallow understanding of this says "it's impossible that these fake treatments did anything, so these people must have made it all up". And that's what I think a lot of people would take away from it: "haha, look at these idiots, I'm nothing like them"
but that's incredibly wrong, and this is why pseudoscience/alternative medicine often thrives - because it offers answers to these people instead of judging them, and then can charge them a ton for useless treatments that do nothing.
the reality is that symptoms being unexplained/psychological DOES NOT MEAN that it's just "all in your head". It doesn't mean you can just will those symptoms away.
People fundamentally misunderstand this - that psychological symptoms ARE REAL.
Think of it like the wires in your brain getting crossed a bit - it's sending the right signals, but they're not arriving, or they're getting twisted in the process.
Think of it like the wires in your brain getting crossed a bit - it's sending the right signals, but they're not arriving, or they're getting twisted in the process.
we can have pain in the absence of a cause, and we can have causes in the absence of pain. but that doesn't mean that the pain we experience without cause is ANY LESS IMMEDIATE AND REAL.
treatment of something like this requires a long period of psychological recharging - a complete reset of stress, the patient help of a guide/doctor to help you through the process, and yes, a bit of placebo.
since alternative medicine sells us nothing but expensive placebos, they are thus sometimes uniquely positioned to "help" these people.
since many illnesses and psychological symptoms improve on their own over time, these people would probably have gotten better on their own without treatment all the same!
but that's the problem - that since the alternative medicine was the only thing that was there for them while everyone else was judging them, they believe in it.
One story shows a woman who is stuck in her apartment, unable to leave - and in the end, she's helped most by a traditional "western" doctor who just... had the compassion to meet her where she was at.
He admitted that he believed her symptoms were psychological, but he also continued to treat her - he gave her placebos, he encouraged her to do positive things in her own life, and he didn't judge her for it. She got better than she had on huge regimens of alternative treatment.
And that should be the model. Meeting people where they're at, trusting their symptoms, and gently nudging them in the right direction.
But instead, these people are branded as crazy and then they're forced through an incredibly expensive and objectively shitty "alternative" system because no one else will listen to them - and worse, they believe it worked.
Anyway, have some compassion, and trust that people aren't lying about chronic illness.
Oh and also “western” medicine is an exoticizing term I hate, as if mainstream doctors in the east don’t practice the same medicine.
