And this is happening more and more. And people justify it with a hand-me-down critique of the system -- which is natural to the poor whose typical experience of the medical system is of their ineptitude anyway. Increasingly, poor folks I know who have no insurance do not orient themselves toward the conventional medical system, but they still want a pill and they still want treatment. So, it's the same desire for something that seems to have status, only now it's the status associated with using the things that, more and more, the relatively privileged are using. So, they just get their pill or magic bullet from someplace that seems like something they've heard about via television or because they've heard celebrities use this stuff. E.g., the woman I know who asked me for help a few years ago -- we met on a health list. She figured I was smart and could help her figure out why she was so miserable.
Well, obviously I told her that just because I was smart, it didn't follow that i could help her with her health problems. So, we talked on the phone for a long time and when I got done, I said to R, "Um. Well. I dunno. But I'm think that what she described. Um. I dunno. I think my innards would be a little messed up, too." (I realize that was presumptuous. Maybe there's something to it. But the stew of stuff she'd been taking to detoxify amazed me.)
But, you know, the person who gave it to her had alphabet soup after her name. She had a Master's in psychology so she had to know something about the effects of enemas and the other homeopathic treatments she was given for this detoxification program.
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org