To growl at anyone who suggests a woo-woo cure for my incurable condition?

[crashdoll]

I'm not again complimentary therapies. I think they play a role alongside conventional medicine but I am sick to the back teeth of people who suggest ridiculous cures for my Rheumatoid Arthritis and another rare autoimmune condition. It's severe - I have joint damage, I am disabled by it and I need strong drugs to get it under control so I can have some sort of life. It may go into remission, it can be controlled but it's unlikely to be cured at this point in time.

I have no problem with people who say "my auntie has this and recommends ice packs and gentle swimming once a week". But I am getting fed up of "20 minutes of standing naked in the rain and you'll be cured".

I've done the nodding and smiling crap but it's not working. I don't want to be rude or swear because I know people are genuinely trying to help but I'm not a fan of woo 'treatments' and people just are not getting the message. AIBU to bare my teeth and growl a bit?

Have you tried chating under a new moon?

YANBU. I was once advised by a woman I worked with that to overcome my crippling endometriosis pain, I should put lavender oil in my bath. I nearly decked her.

I think you should not only growl and snarl, but perhaps issue an air snap near the suggesting person's face.

Have you tried ginger biscuits?

No, hang on, that's morning sickness.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is crap - my DM has it badly. She's on the experimental drugs, most of them cancer ones, it's so bad.

I have to listen to 'friends' who have taken it upon themselves to 'pray for her healing' and they genuinely believe that she will be miraculously cured of it. I'm a Christian too, and I get the impression they believe I'm not a 'true' Christian because I don't believe she will be 'healed'. I pointed out to them that actually, in my opinion the miracle is far more likely to be the medical researcher who stumbles upon a new drug which will help with the disease, not her waking up one morning with her hands and feet no longer twisted and in pain.

I did refrain from growling..... just.

Don't worry too much OP, maybe you'll 'grow' out if it.

YANBU

Oh God, this sort of thing is infuriating and massively insensitive.

You could try replying, 'Oh, that's interesting, do you have any links to peer-reviewed research?'

YABU.

Standing on your head while singing 'Come on Eileen' with dandelions in a circle around you cures everything!

Must be hard enough to manage without all the unhelpful helpful suggestions. It's funny how people think you can be living with a condition and yet they think they're telling you stuff you've never ever considered before when you probably know more about it than most

On a much more minor scale I remember horrendous morning (yeah right, all day more like) sickness. I felt like wearing a Tshirt with a picture of a ginger nut biscuit on it bearing the legend 'Tried it thanks, now excuse me while I barf on your shoes'. Everyone imparted the ginger biscuit advice in hushed tones as though it was the answer to life the universe and everything and it DOESN'T WORK

YANBU Mumbo jumbo when you're in pain must make swearing feel far more appropriate than smiling and nodding.

I slink away from dyslexia threads when they start talking Woo Hoo.

YANBU, and I love your description of 'woo woo cures'

I am really at some of these.

I vote growling.

Or do the whisper Echo thing that Brick does on The Middle."Don't be such a twat. Twat."

Are they random strangers who say it, or people in your life that you cannot escape from?

Aargh just spotted nobelgiraffe's post

Ha ha Crashdoll, I totally agree.

I've had magnetic bracelets twice as gifts from well meaning family

And don't get me started on how how much I'll growl if one more person says "oh yes, I have a bit of arthritis in my knee/finger/ankle"

RA is a disease, pervasive and painful. There is no bit of about it.

I think the trick is to try and find them amusing (I am in the same boat as you, RA with extras). I tend to say that I've tried all kinds of crazy shit, to make my dad feel better as he'll believe anything, then list the craziest things. No-one I know is that zealous about alternative medicine though, just trying to help in a clumsy way. I don't know how I'd handle the hardcore herbalists.

Ooh, I'm so with you, OP.

Being ill is like being pregnant: your body becomes public property of everyone with an opinion regardless of whether they have a brain too.

I got my first lesson in this as a youngster with a bust knee. A total stranger buttonholed me (sagging on my crutches and desperate to escape) to explain that vegetables cured parts of the body they looked like, and my knee would be fixed by eating cauliflower. He'd written a book and everything.

These days, I'd suggest which vegetables he might find a use for...

I suppose they want to help!

But it's a bit insensitive isn't it?

Maybe say: I tried that years ago, and it didn't work then....

Hugs your way!

Have you tried wrapping your left leg behind your head, singing rule Britannia whilst gargling salt water and then eating the blue belly button fluff, there's no peer reviewed research for this but I know it works because my second cousin 3 times removed aunty fanny knew a man with only one arm who's uncle Albert had a mate in the war that swore blind it saved his grandma.

Oh parsing, vegetables that look like organs, how hilarious!?
Esther Ranzen was on to something after all :)

But I thought that went out with the Black Death.... (Aubergine, and purple sprouting broccoli)

Start carrying a dirty great hammer with you.
When they say anything, shatter a kneecap.
Wait for the whimpering to die down and then offer them some lavander oil.

Job done.

YANBU, not even a little bit. As a mum of 3 kids with ADHD, I get highly pissed off with people telling me to give them fish oil which will, apparently, sort it all out. It's a bit like telling someone to treat epilepsy with evening primrose oil.

Oh, don't be silly OP, that doesn't sound like rhumatoid arthritis to me. My auntie's cousin's dog had a similar complaint and her neighbour's mum confounded all the doctors by looking up the symptoms on the internet and discovering it was just a touch of flu and all she needed was antibiotics.

You should pop off down the GP right now, don't thank me.

Sorry. Yes, YANBU.

YANBU. I work with people with serious mental illness and although I'm not particularly ' medical model' and I also provide CBT and although talking therapies - for some people medication IS necessary. I've lost count of the number of people who suggest acupuncture/homeopathy/vitamins/shamanic soul retrieval etc