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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel frustrated and let down by the portrayals of Anaphylaxis in the film The Roses? (Spoiler alerts sorry)

27 replies

Hiddenraspberries · 02/09/2025 21:18

I just can't understand how they included anaphylaxis to raspberries as a plot strand three times- and yet did absolutely zero research into anaphylaxis and how it should be treated.

The result, a dangerously misrepresentative and misleading depiction that could lead people to think anaphylaxis is quite casual and that there's zero risk provided you have an EpiPen.

Olivia's character is shown twice deliberately choosing to eat raspberries (once because she likes them, once because she wants attention) even though she knows she has anaphylaxis. The implication is that an EpiPen will always solve it. This is not correct, EpiPens often help but sadly not always.

Secondly, the first aid they showed was so astonishingly flawed -.the pen was injected in the arm with a brief stab - it should be injected in the thigh and held there for several seconds.

And then she was shown as immediately better and back to running around like nothing had happened. Whereas you should go to hospital and avoid all exercise (and also avoid fizzy drinks and hot baths etc)

I accept it is a film, but the problem is it feeds into the myth that allergies "aren't all that bad really" and that EpiPens are a panacea whereas the reality is so much more complex.

I just don't understand how not a single person in the production team queried the stupidity of how anaphylaxis was presented.

OP posts:
LoveSandbanks · 05/09/2025 10:50

Have you never seen a woman in labour shown on tv? It’s not real, it’s not supposed to be informative.

and I say this as someone with an anaphylactic reaction to gluten. I can’t even eat blue cheese (the mould is derived from bread mould).

Thissickbeat · 05/09/2025 11:27

I didn't know that about blue cheese! I have it once in a blue moon and it always messes up my stomach 🤦‍♀️. Gluten intolerant, thankfully not anaphylactic.

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