Bodily autonomy and other people's anger...

[FastAndFury]

I have noticed in these boards and other boards where weight loss injections are discussed, that some posters get very angry, irate or even venomous towards posters who admit to using wl injections outside of guidelines.

For example, if someone injects more or less than once a week, does the golden dose, titrates up too quickly, stays on a dose longer than recommended, uses WL drugs when they are less than 30 BMI, wants to get to a BMI below the middle of the healthy weight range etc... I could go on.

My question is why do people get so angry about these things? About these decisions other people make about their own bodies?

Surely we have bodily autonomy and can make our own decisions about our own bodies.

People will always make unwise decisions about their bodies and their health. People smoke, drink, use drugs, eat chocolate, stuff pizza, eat takeaways, over exercise, under exercise, drink coffee, consume energy drinks etc... but those are our decisions to make as adults. Many many people treat their bodies against the recommended advice and guidelines and sometimes even in ways which are against the law. Why do other people get so so angry about people taking WL injections against guidelines?

One poster expressing anger or venom at another for using a WL drug differently to how they would choose to use it, makes no sense to me.

Surely we have bodily autonomy and can make our own decisions, however unwise, about weight loss drugs and how we wish to use them?

There was nothing rude about my question. But your comments are extremely rude.

You were rude to the OP. Her question was completely reasonable and thought provoking. You decided to take a rude and mocking tone in your response along the lines of what’s it to you? The fact that you can’t see it is of course part of the problem.

Yes, my thoughts exactly.

I was not rude at all to the OP

Just because you misunderstood my point does not give you the right to be rude to me.

OP is a mature person completely capable of handling the discussion whereas you had to resort to insults.

If there was a board for any other kind of drug and condition such as high blood pressure, or depression, or chronic pain, do you think posts advising/suggesting/encouraging posters to use their prescription only medication outside of the recommended dosage and timings would be allowed to stand? Say for example that I’m on 100mg sertraline for depression and I’ve been feeling worse lately and feel that this dose is no longer working for me-would it be ok for me to take an extra dose later or earlier in the day to my normal time? Or increase the dose by 25mg, or 50mg? All without seeking medical advice? If my tonsillitis isn’t improving after 48 hours of penicillin should I take extra doses to get better faster? Why are WLI treated so differently when they are prescription only medicines just like ones for high blood pressure, depression and bacterial infections.

Also why is eating pizza described as “stuffing pizza” @FastAndFury? It sounds very judgemental. It’s just food. There should be no judgement attached to eating pizza or anything else for that matter.

My mum used to take sertraline. She was very sensitive to medication and there were times she'd ask me if she should take half the dose or take the dose differently or stop taking it for a few days or whatever. Of course my usual response was to advise her that her GP was the best person to talk to. But I definitely never called her stupid or got angry or frustrated that she wanted to mess around with the dose or prescription. Instead I listened to her very real concerns and understood why she wanted to manage her meds differently to what she'd been advised or what was on the label. I also tried to put myself on her shoes and understand why she didn't always want to reach out to the GP.

Ultimately in my mum's case, I could advise her to see the GP and hear her concerns, but ultimately it's her body and she's an adult and whatever she decides is up to her. No point getting angry. Just need to support and understand and try and kindly suggest speaking to a doc.

I've used pain medication not as prescribed. I get horrendous migraines. Completely debilitating (weirdly much better since mj). One night I was in sooo much pain I took an extra sumatriptan than what I was meant to and I also drank half a bottle of Calpol that was in the cupboard (only thing I could find that I thought might help in that moment of impulse). I was just in so much agony. Not sensible, not a wise decision, but desperate people do desperate things. If I'd panicked and posted on Mumsnet for advice ("help, I've drank half the Calpol and taken an extra sumatriptan will I be ok?") would it have been helpful for people to call me stupid and get angry and frustrated with me? No. What is helpful is for people to understand how bad the pain was that drove me to that, and then offer sensible, helpful advice.

It may be that misuse will lead to drastic tightening on prescription rules making it much harder for us to get our hands on it
That kind of annoys me and it's also great fodder for the newspaper with their GLP bad stories.

When it comes to misuse of medication, I would worry that they are influencing others to make the same risky decisions, mucking about with prescription medication.