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

You are not describing homeopathy in any sense, whatsoever.

Homeopathy is modern nonsense. Not one person has been helped by a homeopathic treatment. Homeopathy is just a bunch of charlatans preying on the gullible or desperate. Being listened to might make you feel better, anything they give you will do absolutely nothing at all. Water having memory ffs.

in the medieval times there was only homeopathic remedies, which often worked. Indeed a lot of modern medication has homeopathic elements, including aspirin

I do have some sympathy for people who mistakenly think homeopathy means "natural remedies" but this is the most wrongheaded post I've seen in a long time! Mind you if you Google what homeopathy actually is you might be inclined to think you've found a spoof site. It's bananas.

there is absolutely no such thing as a "homeopathic element" and there absolutely isnt anything at all homeopathic about aspirin

It’s a problem if you get charged hundreds of £££ for tap water

You don’t actually understand what Homeopathy is do you?

lol-.well magic transformed my life - but that’s for another day, or prob never

But I can’t understand why you’re so angry about something which doesn’t affect you, or I’m guessing it has in some way. But you seriously need to balance that out.

Actually is it? If you’re in pain and some tap water makes you feel better it prob is worth it to the person in pain. It doesn’t really matter if the pain has been reduced by certain chemicals or by the mind - the only thing that matters is the reduction of pain. The value lies in everything that surrounds the tap water which has helped. If I was in constant pain and someone told me rubbing donkey piss in the soles of my feet whilst drinking moon charged water would help I’d give it a go. If it worked I would care why.

@OMG12 but the issue is that they person who told you to rub donkey piss on your feet knew it was utter bullshit, that it had no pain relieving properties at all and they were just banking on your desperation to make money.
That's what homeopaths do, which is wrong in every possible way.

@OMG12

Magic didn't do anything for you, because there's no such thing. Some on here get angry about dogs in cafes, the taste of Ribena or, god forbid, a vulnerable person sharing bathroom facilities. I get angry at scams that leave people to die untreated or take money away from those who can't afford it. Those who believe such nonsense are more likely to believe other ridiculous things. I'm also angry with the lack of education of adults that confuse anecdote with evidence or believe the universe will treat them differently from others - 'well it worked for me'. Stupidity has led us down the garden path for over a decade - I'm angry some people revel in their own ignorance. Watch a cancer sufferer forego proper treatment for scam 'medicine' and not seek appropriate therapies until it's too late and then come back and patronise folk who know better than you.

It is
unless you are told it’s just tap water. If you know that and choose to spend loads of money on it then fine but if you think you are paying for something that isn’t what they claim then it’s wrong.
I appreciate that’s kind of how a placebo works but a placebo can’t make you better, it may make you feel better for a bit but it won’t tackle the problem.

Completely agree! Homeopathy is NOT just harmless nonsense - some people are conned into foregoing real medical treatment for this bullshit. Others are tricked out of thousands of pounds to drink water. It’s not funny or clever or harmless - it’s fucking criminal. It’s this kind of crazy wrong think about stuff like homeopathy that leads to people chucking nonsense around the internet about things like vaccines too - and then people die.

I’m with those on here who are angry. I’m fucking angry about it too.

Thank you emptythelitterbox I glug gaviscon like it was pop. if it wasn’t such a big op I would have a hysterectomy in a heartbeat, as it is it may be on the horizon a because I think the ablation may have failed. I have tried Amitriptyline and Nortriptyline both of which made me feel drugged! I haven’t yet tried Duloxetine although was offered it. I have the easiest stress free job going but home life is more tricky as my mum has Alzheimer’s and I help my dad out around 5 times a week with mum. Can’t lie and say it’s not stressful but I did have these digestive issues way before mums diagnosis.
The mind/brain really is a strange thing isn’t it JinglingSpringbells I literally had a spring in my step after my initial telephone appointment, it gave me a buzz at the very thought that someone had listened to everything I said, didn’t talk over me and actually offered me hope.
Hoppinggreen that doesn’t give much faith that it works does it?
flawless29 I believe that is why there are so many chronic health issues these days. It’s a vicious cycle obviously as most NHS GPs and doctors have very little time to discuss a patients full history and symptoms. I believe my issues may all be connected but I can only ever discuss one issue at a time with my gp within the 10 min time slot and with 6 weeks between each available appointment it would take me half the year to explain all my woes. They will never have the time to join all the dots and make an all round/whole person diagnosis.

I am very interested in acupuncture and will try that over the homeopathy.

Totally agree with you @Hoppinggreen and @HedwigIsMyDemon it's clear though as @Tinkerbyebye illustrates that many people don't know what it is and that it doesn't work and confuse it with things that do work.....

It's a waste of money at best and at worst will kill you when used instead of actual medicine. So @OMG12 it can dangerous and life threatening if used instead of proper medicine....

Lol. Bless you. There’s more things in heaven and earth.. you have no idea

But anyway, so you have had personal experience of someone using homeopathy that you feel hasn’t helped. And no doubt a bit of water with some remnants of whatever hasn’t cured a person, but all this flailing around, calling people stupid etc is really not helping anyone., least if all you. If you’re hoping to persuade people your attitude and language around this is really not the most useful.

The OP seems to be in a situation where they’re not getting answers from conventional medicine, why are you so nasty about her trying something else which might have psychological benefits (although unlikely after people like you in this thread).

You seriously need help around this. Whatever experience has caused all your anger in this issue really needs to be addressed.

that is totally different from the effectiveness or not of a particular practice.

@OMG12 its not just a few personal anecdotes that demonstrate homeopathy doesn’t work - it’s countless double blind trials that have proved it again and again.

You say it won’t work for the OP because the sceptics on here have ruined it! Can you hear how crazy that sounds?? When I use medicine to make me better it doesn’t work just because I believe it will - it works because it causes physiological changes in my body. 🙄

I had homeopathy on the NHS. This was many years ago but I didn't know it had been discontinued. I didn't feel it helped me but it was worth a try.

Of course refusing effective treatment can be life threatening- that’s a different point though. It seems as though the OP hasn’t been able to get answers from the medical community. So hasn’t rejected conventional medicine at all.

It’s a question of addressing why a person is rejecting conventional medicine. If the person providing the “tap water” tells the person to eschew conventional medicine yes that’s an issue. I’m certainly not advocating for that. Nor am I saying anything apart from the mind is at play.

But there are a lot of people for whom conventional medicine has no answers or they use the homeopathic remedy in connection with conventional medicine/treatments . In that I think the psychological benefits are probably helpful and not harmful.

@OMG12
There are more things to be scientifically discovered, yes undoubtedly. Wasting time on magic and pseudoscience won't get us there any more quickly, in fact the opposite is true. And suggesting my attitude will prevent your mystical rubbish working on OP is an example of the special pleading fallacy much loved by scam artists and frauds.

Not saying homeopathy is crap or otherwise but lots of things work that are not medicine as such.

How long has it took for cannabis to be recognised as more than a recreational drug that can actually help people.

It's illegal yet as the uk we grow it and supply it to other countries for medicinal use. The uk is one of the worlds biggest producers.

No harm in looking at other options that are not traditional as such in my opinion

Not great timing - a major study 2 months ago concluded that cannabis is no more effective than placebo for most applications. And you're actually arguing against yourself - there are possibly some benefits to cannabis, especially in treating nausea or anorexia but understanding its proper application required study by actual scientists and medical professionals, not scam artists.

One aim of doing a medical trial is to see if it is more effective than a placebo though!
So it is absolutely correct to say homeopathy doesn't work medically.

Did you actually read my post?? Probably not by the sounds of it. I will bullet point it in easier language.

1. I agree there is no scientific proof that the contents of any homeopathic treatment will have any effect
2. it is dangerous to forgo conventional medical treatment in favour of homeopathic tinctures
3. Where conventional medical treatment is not available, has be exhausted or the homeopathic medicine is used in conjunction with conventional medicine there may be a psychological benefit to using homeopathic medicine including a placebo effect and also a feeling of doing something and of being listened to
4. the benefits potentially available in 3 above rely on the person believing in the homeopathic remedy - all the aggressive posts have probably made the OP feel worse and certainly will have undermined her belief and therefore any psychological benefits.

is that any clearer or is there anything you disagree with or think sounds mad in the above?

Oh absolutely💚