Miracle Cures and Evil Causes
Warning: potentially offensive, somewhat rant-y post to follow
Lately it seems like a lot of my Facebook friends (aka some good friends and other people I had one class with in college or know in an equally distant sort of way) have been posting about "natural medicine" in two district ways. It seems to either be a miracle cure for all that ails us or an evil medical conspiracy that has caused all that ails us. In what I feel is mostly out of character for me, I keep finding myself angry in response to their posts. Despite being skeptical, I try to be open to most ideas and willing to educate myself on things I don't know much about. I've gone to chiropractors, taken Wes to acupuncture, bought organic produce, and read and read and read about alternative medicine. So why do I feel such instinctual animosity towards such good intentioned posts?
Evil Causes:
All of this fear about the dangers of vaccines, GMO foods, cleaning chemicals, microwaves, antibiotics, and so on produce nothing more than guilt and anxiety in me. If the fears are true, then we are left with a society where the FDA, CDC, and medical professionals are not to be trusted. We are left with the burden to become experts on absolutely everything and trust no one. I can handle neither that burden nor the guilt that results from traveling down that rabbit hole. If all of these things are as bad as many would have us believe (and I'm not trying to imply they are good either) then I have failed and continue to fail as a mother. It leads me to question if I had eaten healthier, not gotten my Tdap vaccine, had a home birth, or whatever else, then Wesley would be "normal." And to follow that, if I hadn't gotten him vaccinated, never gave him formula, refused all medications, or only fed him organic non-GMO foods then he would be much better off today. Do you see the insanity producing rabbit hole this leads me down?! I'm sure there are plenty of things I have done imperfectly along the way, and therefore I have to believe that one there is a level of resilience built into us. I don't know how to live in a world built around fear and mistrust. So even if it's the less informed and less educated choice (although I truly don't think it is), I've got enough else to worry about.
Miracle Cures:
There is still a part of me that is wishing for a miracle cure for Wes. I want to start giving him x, y, and z supplements, or put him on a dairy-free gluten-free soy-free diet, or put lavender oil on him every night and have everything go back to how we dreamed it would be during those nine months of pregnancy. It takes everything in me to stay grounded and present where we are now and look at our future with wisdom and the soberness of reality and move forward. Yes, I still spend too many hours googling alternative treatments and desperately looking for research that convinces me something will be a miracle cure. When it comes down to it, we might try new (and even unproven) treatments here and there and genuinely hope for the best. However, I can't search for a miracle cure because if one truly exists, then I am left feeling like I'm failing Wesley in the meantime because I haven't found it yet. No, I choose to accept where we are right now and trust Wesley's doctors to be kind, well-educated people who have his best interest at heart.
And on a completely different note, Wes started music therapy this week and was SO cute sitting and playing the ukulele!
Lately it seems like a lot of my Facebook friends (aka some good friends and other people I had one class with in college or know in an equally distant sort of way) have been posting about "natural medicine" in two district ways. It seems to either be a miracle cure for all that ails us or an evil medical conspiracy that has caused all that ails us. In what I feel is mostly out of character for me, I keep finding myself angry in response to their posts. Despite being skeptical, I try to be open to most ideas and willing to educate myself on things I don't know much about. I've gone to chiropractors, taken Wes to acupuncture, bought organic produce, and read and read and read about alternative medicine. So why do I feel such instinctual animosity towards such good intentioned posts?
Evil Causes:
All of this fear about the dangers of vaccines, GMO foods, cleaning chemicals, microwaves, antibiotics, and so on produce nothing more than guilt and anxiety in me. If the fears are true, then we are left with a society where the FDA, CDC, and medical professionals are not to be trusted. We are left with the burden to become experts on absolutely everything and trust no one. I can handle neither that burden nor the guilt that results from traveling down that rabbit hole. If all of these things are as bad as many would have us believe (and I'm not trying to imply they are good either) then I have failed and continue to fail as a mother. It leads me to question if I had eaten healthier, not gotten my Tdap vaccine, had a home birth, or whatever else, then Wesley would be "normal." And to follow that, if I hadn't gotten him vaccinated, never gave him formula, refused all medications, or only fed him organic non-GMO foods then he would be much better off today. Do you see the insanity producing rabbit hole this leads me down?! I'm sure there are plenty of things I have done imperfectly along the way, and therefore I have to believe that one there is a level of resilience built into us. I don't know how to live in a world built around fear and mistrust. So even if it's the less informed and less educated choice (although I truly don't think it is), I've got enough else to worry about.
Miracle Cures:
There is still a part of me that is wishing for a miracle cure for Wes. I want to start giving him x, y, and z supplements, or put him on a dairy-free gluten-free soy-free diet, or put lavender oil on him every night and have everything go back to how we dreamed it would be during those nine months of pregnancy. It takes everything in me to stay grounded and present where we are now and look at our future with wisdom and the soberness of reality and move forward. Yes, I still spend too many hours googling alternative treatments and desperately looking for research that convinces me something will be a miracle cure. When it comes down to it, we might try new (and even unproven) treatments here and there and genuinely hope for the best. However, I can't search for a miracle cure because if one truly exists, then I am left feeling like I'm failing Wesley in the meantime because I haven't found it yet. No, I choose to accept where we are right now and trust Wesley's doctors to be kind, well-educated people who have his best interest at heart.
And on a completely different note, Wes started music therapy this week and was SO cute sitting and playing the ukulele!
That's funny, I've never thought about them together, but I agree these concepts are two sides of the same coin. "Add one thing to your life, or take one thing away, and all your problems are solved!" Right. No.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you keep a skeptical mind about these things. And if you explore alternative medicine, don't let it override what the professionals are telling you. That is, supplement treatment if you must, but don't replace it.