Dystonia phony-a!

[Orrex]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=439817&mesg_id=439817

[TZ]

1. I called her a fake a long time ago.

And I defriended someone who insisted Big Pharma must have been to blame.

[Orrex]

2. This post reminds me of deja vu

I'm pretty sure I called bullshit as well. Certainly I attacked her claims and her zealous defenders.

[TZ]

3. Yeah well.

The person I defriended was on that other thread. I wanted to make sure she knew. Yeah, you aren't an anti-vax nut, you just believe the paranooid crap they spew.

[Orrex]

4. Hee hee!

Shrewd! I like it!

[salvorhardin]

5. I think calling her a phony or a hoax is uncalled for

Her problems could well be psychogenic. That doesn't make her a phony or a hoaxer. She might really think she has dystonia-like symptoms, and her alt-med doctor has mostly "cured" her, except for the faux-British/Australian accent she's sporting now. Sure, she could be deliberately faking it but I think it's uncharitable to call her a liar without knowing more. Blame the quacks and the numerous media outlets that promoted her story at face value but let's wait until we blame her.

[Orrex]

6. I might go so far as to say that she could simply be delusional

However, since she's the one who made the monumentally significant claim, then the burden is still absolutely on her to prove it.

Miraculous cures and her sincere belief don't mitigate that fact; she made the positive claim that she contracted dystonia from her flu vaccine, potentially jeopardizing the health of millions of people in the process.


It seems greatly more likely that she faked the whole thing than that she suffered from such conveniently specific and fortuitous symptoms. Let her prove her claim, and I will recant.

[salvorhardin]

7. Yeah, but if she's mentally unbalanced or being manipulated by that quack

She may not be responsible for her claims. Yes, she made a positive claim but that doesn't mean she's lying about her belief in the claim. The problem isn't that there's one isolated woman making the claim, but that there's an entire echo chamber repeating and amplifying her claim and the mainstream media helped it along.

Props to Inside Edition for interviewing Steven Novella though I do wish they could have included footage of what patients' behavior with actual dystonia looks like.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. I did give her the benefit of the doubt, but the fact that she started walking sideways after being

caught walking perfectly normally suggests she's faking it.

I mean, if she thought the quack had cured her, then why did her symptoms only come back when they said "are your symptoms all gone?"

[LeftishBrit]

9. I agree.

The illness could well have been hysterical, in the medical sense of the term; this doesn't mean she's faking. She could be a very suggestible person, easily led to believe both that she's got an illness and that she's been cured of it.

The mind can do strange things to the body. I heard of a patient, who after a dog bite, was convinced that she'd caught rabies (she fortunately hadn't!) Her fear of the illness, combined with a lack of knowledge of the symptoms, eventually led her to run around on all fours, barking!

(To any lurking New Agers or Christian Scientists; no, this does *not* mean that ALL illness is just a matter of one's mental state!)

[Silent3]

10. Even if it's a psychogenic then she'd still be guilty...

...of pretty selfish behavior if she doesn't stop driving her own car while she thinks she's suffering from a lack of motor control. In her own words, she simply didn't want to be seen driving when she "knows" she shouldn't.

[salvorhardin]

11. Oh, I don't mean to imply she's totally blameless or free of responsibility

No, I very much agree about her driving. That does make her selfish and irresponsible.

I was just addressing the idle name-calling when we don't really have any evidence of what her mental state or motivations are. In my mind, it's not much different than the creeps in the health scare lounge who blame people for their illnesses. You know, like our Canadian interloper friend here did. "They're only sick because they want to be sick."

[LeftishBrit]

12. I agree, and also about the driving

Even with a perfectly genuine medical condition (e.g. a visual impairment), you still have a duty not to drive if it endangers others.