Being all in the mind doesn't argue against taking it seriously.
Doctors take EHS (Electro-magnetic hypersensitivity) and similar diseases very seriously indeed, but they're obviously all in the mind as numerous studies (most recently an excellent fully controlled study of EHS with many UK sufferers as participants) have shown.
Unfortunately some activists take "it's all in your mind" as a statement of disbelief, as if the evidence that nothing physiological is wrong with these people was actually a bad thing. This is very curious, as clinical depression and many other serious illnesses are also "all in the mind" but we've been somewhat successful in developing medical treatment for them rather than saying "since it's just in your mind we can't help you".
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timeasmymeasure
All in the mind
Date: 2007-11-23 09:03 pm (UTC)Doctors take EHS (Electro-magnetic hypersensitivity) and similar diseases very seriously indeed, but they're obviously all in the mind as numerous studies (most recently an excellent fully controlled study of EHS with many UK sufferers as participants) have shown.
Unfortunately some activists take "it's all in your mind" as a statement of disbelief, as if the evidence that nothing physiological is wrong with these people was actually a bad thing. This is very curious, as clinical depression and many other serious illnesses are also "all in the mind" but we've been somewhat successful in developing medical treatment for them rather than saying "since it's just in your mind we can't help you".
Really RSI is probably treated less seriously (if that's even true) only because mild sufferers are often too blasé about it and even reject simple suggestions for improving their lives (e.g. proper keyboard breaks), so the reaction is much the same as for smokers (doctors get tired of amputating a second leg from a patient who was already told to quit smoking before they lost the first one) or the obese (it's OK that you like food, but if you're going to eat nothing but lard until you're clinically obese, don't expect any sympathy when you have heart problems).