To cancel the appointment because homeopathy is a load of crap?

[HowdoIgetbacktothe80s]

I’ve had chronic health issues for years. These issues are getting worse and completely ruining my quality of life.
Despite lots of tests, consultant and GP appointments via the NHS, I am definitely getting worse not better.
I know and appreciate the NHS is on its knees but I am fed up waiting up to a year for consultation appointments, having them cancelled at last minute (one was even cancelled whilst I was in the hospital waiting room ffs!) and when I eventually get seen it is often a rushed 10 minute appointment. I am getting nowhere fast and pretty desperate right now despite investing so much in the hope of feeling well and trying many things myself. I don’t want to keep taking up NHS space when someone worse off than me needs the services, I would love to find someone out there who can help me heal.
I am contemplating turning to ‘alternative’ healthcare. I asked on my local town’s FB group for recommendations and several recommended a local homeopath.
I have had a 30 minute free call with her. She was so very lovely and for the first time I felt listened to and validated.
She explained how she had experience of my health issues herself and how homeopathy could indeed help me. She said that because my issues were long standing it would take some months to start to feel better.
So I have booked to go and see her in a month.
The consultation is £100 with the homeopathic tinctures being an additional £25 which she said would last about a month and I would probably need to see her for several months. Each follow up appointment will be £80 (probably every other month or so). She wasn’t pushy at all and it was left up to me to make any decisions.
I have told my dh and friends and they think it’s a utter waste of my money and homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo. They truly believe I will not get better via this route but am now having a wobble about it as it is a lot of money for me if it doesn’t help.
Of course if you look on the NHS website it will tell you much the same. But the NHS hasn’t been able to help me and I am now at a loss, stuck in limbo land and getting desperate.

What is everyone’s opinion or experience on homeopathy?
Should I pursue this route or cancel now?
I dare say that am going to get flamed on here. I know I am probably grasping at straws but I just want to feel better.

YABU - homeopathy is useless, you may as well throw the money down the drain don’t be so gullible!
YANBU - I believe in homeopathy, it works

Homeopathy is water. I bet they have the same problems as everyone that contacts them.

what made you feel better was being listened too and validated. Can you use the same money for a counsellor maybe?
CBD oil is worth looking at

Have you been told what could be causing your symptoms?

A lot of physical symptoms can be caused by non-physical causes.

In your op you said- you felt as though it was the first time someone has truly listened to you.

The placebo effect is very strong.

If you truly feel as though it may help you might find that a lot of your symptoms do actually improve. The only way to find out would be to try it- maybe give it a go for approx 4 months.

But yes there is no evidence base behind it. But if you feel as though it may work then you might find there is a huge improvement in your physical health.

This

It’s a load of rubbish I’m afraid and it won’t help. Placebo effect at best.

Yes, it’s routinely offered here in Germany too, as are some other nonsense therapies. There’s a growing lobby to say it should not be offered as public healthcare. We’re unfortunately not immune to woo here!

In defense of homeopathy, if your looking for things to treat mild illnesses like natural ways to help with cold symptoms, headache remedies, routine aches and pains, mild sleep issues ect it can be quite effective.

However

Turning to homeopathy to treat something that even doctors can't diagnose is foolish.

I'm glad your going to cancel op.

@Lordofthebutterfloofs it has no effectiveness for anything mild or otherwise. It doesn’t work.

BlueSeaWave, my issues are gynaecological and digestive. I do t think counselling would help (granted homeopathy obviously won’t either!). I have tried CBT oil but didn’t get much relief although it worked wonders for my ds so I do have faith in that.
I get told various things regarding my symptoms and test results etc Rowthe but no real conclusions and I’m just left to my own devices with it. My gastroenterologist advised me that one of his patients found a total cure for the very same issues by retiring- very helpful advice for a 49 year old!

I’ve just cancelled the appointment - I’ll get back to researching some other way forward.

@Sunnysideup999
Acupuncture is also quackery, sadly

Why not spend your money seeing a private gp instead. I did this, write down every single issue I had been trying to sort out abd anything else i noticed. Diagnosed with peri-menopause (which no one else has suggested!) given HRT then after review appt referee back to Nhs. Cost me £95 each appt then about £30 for prescription service each time.

I have always been sceptical but one of my children suffered horribly and regularly from croup and chest issues and rather than keep pumping then full of medication a swedish friend recommended a homeopathic-remedy. It was incredible and we still use it when any of us get a chesty cough. Maybe give it a go and see if the treatments she suggests help. If not tou can always bin them off.

Evil person. How utterly wicked.

Gynaecological and digestive sounds like it could be endometriosis.

the placebo effect has been shown to cure a lot of ills

This isn't true. It can help with mood symptom management but it doesn't cure anything.

I believe in complementary medicine and have used a homeopathy very successfully.

I have friends who use a herbalist instead of HRT and they are very pleased.

I brought each of my children to a cranial osteopathy after being born.

Obviously I absolutely believe in ordinary medicine.

My son had dreadful headaches and nothing was working, CAT scan clear.

One session of acupuncture and his blinding headache was gone.

If the homeopath has a good reputation I would give her a go.

I have only gone to those with a great rep.
Best of luck.

What about getting yourself signed up to Benenden? I think it's about £12 a month and if the NHS waiting lists are very long they can refer you through for private investigations. I don't even think preexisting conditions are excluded. You would need to read into it but it might be a good option for you.

How are people not more angry?
"I have chromic issues affecting quality of life but I don't want to take up NHS space when someone worse off than me needs the services"

It's there for you fgs! You are not taking up someone else's space. You need it so stop saying this like you are doing something wrong by using NATIONAL freaking healthservice😔 tbf it is more SLOHS (selected locky ones health service) now, but still. You do not feel guilty for using service you obviously need and which is there for you.
This "I♥️NHS" is fucking dangerous 😔

I agree with lthers that I would put that money towards private.... But... As you already had issues even with them. Have you cosidered going abroad? Especially since it is gynae issue? Places like Poland, Czech, Germany etc are affordable and have actually women's healthcare

I was discussing homeopathy with a GP colleague the other day. It used to be available on the NHS. Like me, he believes it works for some in the way a placebo works. Our pharmacist agrees. They used to prescribe sugar pills, or other random tablets that don't really do anything and they would work. Because placebo is actually surprisingly effective.
But the magic water/pills do nothing else.

Many, many health issues get better on their own, so totally possible that people's experiences of it working are coincidence as well as/instead of placebo.

Some alternative medicine definitely does work, in a scientific way. But homeopathy is not one of them.

Definitely agree that just being listened to can make a huge difference though.

Redebs oh no really? I thought it had some standing? I was going to try it.

imnotthatkindofmum that was something on my list to try, I have a recommendation from a friend. I should probably go down this route first.

A GP I know rejects homeopathy - except for placebo effect- but was actually sent on an acupuncture course - as part of her NHS training and development.

She went along not believing in it at all.

She did the reading - and the training -then offered it (doubtfully and with honesty) to patients when nothing else was working. She was amazed to find that it had good effects.

Not everything we are unfamiliar with in the West is quackery :) ... but you do have to watch out.

I hope that charlatans like homeopaths & chiropractors are first against the wall to be shot come the glorious revolution.

Homeopathy is expensive bollocks, chiropractors are downright dangerous.

If you want to spend some cash on sugar pills, fill your boots. Or buy a packet of Smarties & have one with every meal.

The placebo effect is a powerful thing. But it only works if you don’t know you’re taking it as a placebo. The more of us who shout ‘homeopathy is expensive bunkum’, the less likely people are to be taken in by this nonsense.

Take for example homeopathic plutonium.

Because Sellafield regularly do deliveries of plutonium to homeopathic ‘laboratories’ so it can be infinitesimally diluted in water (to make it more powerful) to make ‘Plutonium Nitricum’ on a regular basis, don’t they?

I mean, I do have (probably) a few atoms of plutonium in my Trinitite sample (and there’s almost undetectable amounts of unfissioned Pu from weapons testing inside most of us & our environment thanks to nuclear weapons), but, as a rule, Pu is possibly the most regulated element on the planet.

And it’s definitely not being sprinkled about to be shaken in water to, as in this screenshot, help someone who has ‘lost their inner light’. And definitely not as , several years ago at a networking event, a homeopath pillock was recommending it be used in case of nuclear war to protect against radiation injury.

I'm a big believer in alternative medicines and therapies (acupuncture, massage, reiki, herbal medicines etc) and homeopathy makes me angry because it is such nonsense and all the other alternative therapies get dumped into the same box as homeopathy.
The placebo effect is indeed strong, but if you have any doubts the placebo won't "work", so it's pointless on so many levels

No it can't. It's literally just drinking water. So it is as effective as drinking water. Which can help with some things. So just drink the free water from the tap instead.

Springintoabetterlife I have wondered this for years especially more so since my dsis was diagnosed 4 years ago at 45. I have mentioned this to my GP and gynaecologist but they don’t seem to take it seriously.
I would like to give acupuncture a go billy1966.
Augend23 I become a member a month ago but can not claim for 6 months but will look into trying something with them later in the year.
Applesandcarrots I hear what you are saying but that’s how they make me feel, like I’m wasting their time. I haven’t considered going abroad, tbh I wouldn’t know where to start with something like that.