Seems like every freaking time I go to the doctor, people are unprofessional or unfriendly. I started to think maybe it was something I did, an attitude I unknowingly was putting out there. Years ago, even, I was diagnosed with social phobia. You know, medical phobia, in my case is a lie, because a phobia by definition, has to be irrational. Eek, there’s more to it, but that’s enough for now. BTW, I used to chat on #autfriends a little. I used my nick in case you’d remember it at all. I’m truly not offended if you don’t :)

In fact, research has been showing, that the vast majority of stuff previously considered psychosomatic, actually has identifiable organic causes, rather than just the mind affecting the body in organic ways. (For instance, ulcers, which are caused by a certain kind of bacteria. And some forms of cancer are caused by viruses, for that matter.)

It’s been my finding over the course of over 25 years that shit happens, and that most physical illness is a case in point. The sort of philosophy being discussed here is a modern, more fashionable outgrowth of the old belief that illness and disability was caused by sin on the part of either the person or their parents. It doesn’t impress me as wisdom any more when it’s dressed up in fancy modern clothing, than when it was dressed up in medieval clothing. It strikes me as very much akin to the sort of philosophy I was talking about in a previous post, where people find things they acquire from a combination of privilege and good fortune (including good health) to be based on either God’s love for them or their own virtue — and the flipside, where if they do not have those things, it must be because of some shortcoming of their own or disfavor from some deity. Which, given the things I’ve seen in life, is an obviously and utterly toxic philosophy in all its guises.

And as far as “mind-caused illnesses” go, yes, a more relaxed state of mind probably helps with stuff like stress headaches and heart rate, but it certainly can’t ward off something like cancer, particularly if one has a genetic predisposition to a particular kind of cancer. Just because some variations are sometimes pathologized it doesn’t mean that there’s no use for actual, tried-and-true medicine and preventative strategies — especially in the case of things that can actually kill you, like cancer.

The philosophy that says that most people cause their own diseases, even subconsciously, tends to be related to people really wanting some way to think they have more control than they actually have over whether they’re healthy or not. The same way that orthorexia does. It’s a dangerous philosophy given what it means for people who actually have the diseases, and how others will view them. And it’s a classic blame-the-victim scenario, with a few twists added here and there for the possiblity of their “subconscious” being to blame. I want no part in it, and I’d appreciate you keeping your philosophies off of my mother’s and grandmother’s bodies and minds, at least on my blog. They frankly sound far more dangerous than flat-out medicalization.

That comment about soft music and coffee does sound very creepy. In fact it sounds like some doctor’s fantasy life was being played out.

I agree about the privacy issue. They can keep their hands to themselves.

I reckon it’s not so much a sensory issue for me, as a privacy issue. Does that make any sense to y’all?