I saw a study, or rather, a summary of a study done by some medical person who had examined hundreds of eating disorders blogs. Who knows if mine was among the hundreds….
The study summary stated that just about all contained gross inaccuracies. What are we to conclude from this?
The study didn’t state whether these were blogs by “therapists” or those done by researchers. If these are personal blogs, were they blogs done by those that experienced ED, or just people wanting to talk about it? Or did the study only examine blogs within hospitals or treatment centers or ones within websites touting a particular cure. I think we need to make a distinction here.
Unfortunately, this was a medical paper that was in .pdf form and I was not privy to reading it. I think I’d have had to pay a fee to access it. I was amused at this.
Also, what did this doctor consider “inaccurate”? Inaccurate according to whom?
A person who has ED might state, “The night staff regularly slept on the job at the treatment center I went to. Many staff were more interested in their cell phones than they were in the patients.” Is this inaccurate?
Just about all sites I’ve read on binge eating disorder will tell you you can’t die from binge eating. I maintain that this is false, that people do die directly from binge eating, from stomach rupture in some cases, or from a bad reaction to the overindulgence in the substance they binge on. I’m sure plenty of people have stuffed themselves so badly that they have choked and died. Am I being inaccurate simply because I have not myself yet died? I have no intentions of dropping dead to prove my point. I challenge what is standard medical claim because what’s happening now is that binge eating is still not taken seriously. In order to get any “care” at all, a patient has to claim they have some other problem….such as depression. Then, they can get therapy or whatever. I have even threatened suicide, and eventually made an attempt due to the lack of being taken seriously…and in desperate attempt to get care…not that that worked but I have gone that route.
So I have had LOTS of LIVED EXPERIENCE and I am saying this is what I have been through. If someone thinks what I am saying isn’t true, go try surviving out there and then come back to me and tell me I’m lying or delusional.
So…does it matter if a blog is accurate. Do people want accuracy or do they want personal accounts? Do they take what I say with a grain of salt? I should hope so. I am just human…take what you want and leave the rest, just as I do. Surely, I tell you often enough who I am and where I stand and why I say the things I do.
So here’s something you might think is hogwash advice…..Where can one get information these days? Where’s a good source? WebMD? Drugs dot com?
Guess where I get good info on all sorts of things. Amazon reviews. Of course, you can’t buy things like antidepressants on Amazon, but I sure as hell don’t want an antidepressant anyway! I go to Amazon if I’m looking for a new whatever. I read all the reviews with a grain of salt.
It’s that grain of salt that’s important. Learn it. The beauty of the Internet is that this information can be freely posted by anyone and is free for anyone to access. The less monitoring the better. Do you see what I am saying?
Of course, I’ve read the most ridiculous claims on Amazon reviews. I even read that there was something that will restore your kidneys. I went and Googled it (the review claimed there was all sorts of literature that could be easily found on this) and found that this product has on occasion destroyed patients’ kidneys if overused. I guess the reviewer misread, huh? Hope the guy is gonna be okay!
So if I claim something, are people really going to believe it and does it matter? I am telling you that I experienced it and that’s what matters. I can tell you that I’ve spoken to many who have experienced similar things to myself, but not that I actually have done studies or taken blood tests myself or experimented on human research subjects or animals. That’s not my job. I can provide a link to a study or tell you I read a book and how much I liked it or didn’t.
I don’t think that accuracy in a personal blog matters at all. It’s not the job of a blogger to do that. If I tell you who I am and state where I’m coming from, you can make a decision to trust what I’m saying, or not trust it at all. You choose whether to read my words or not. Are we cool on this?
