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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
(Unverified)Jun 11th 2008 3:41PM
You may mock, but such people who suffer these problems exist. here's an example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-450995/The-woman-needs-veil-protection-modern-life.html
It's easy to dismiss it as psychosomatic, but as someone who works in this area (psychological/psychiatric) I know that symptoms that 'can't be explained' are often dismissed as 'all in the mind'. Obviously it doesn't help that (as Rick pointed out) once someone has an unpleasant reaction to something the thought of going through the unpleasant symptoms again can bring on a psychological belief that they are suffering those symptoms again. In this case, when they think the stimuli (in this case wi-fi, mobile phones) is present when it's actually not. That doesn't mean they don't have symptoms from these electro magnetic fields. Yes, it sounds bizarre, but that doesn't mean it's not real. Also often epileptic attacks (which can't be brought on psychosomatically) can come about due to changes in electro magnetic frequencies.
(Unverified)Jun 11th 2008 4:59PM
Well, sort of...
There is no excuse for any doctor who is unwilling to look for an organic cause of a patient's distress. I wholeheartedly agree that too many are willing to write a person off as depressed or anxious rather than see if there are underlying health issues that may be causing symptoms.
However, the woman in the story you linked certainly makes it sound as if she went to plenty of practitioners to see if they could find an organic cause of illness. They couldn't seem to. It does state she diagnosed herself with this sensitivity.
And I will also wholeheartedly admit... Even if there *is* no organic cause of illness, and the cause is purely psychological, that doesn't mean it isn't a REAL illness. But it might not be the illness that the sufferer is believing it is. And of course it still doesn't make those symptoms less debilitating.
However, to remove wifi from places where it might actually be necessary to get work of any variety done... and there is no hard evidence of it causing symptoms of an organic basis (or even a consistent range of symptoms that can't be proven to be organic) is counterproductive. I may be deluded into thinking wifi will cause immediate symptoms that make my life unbearable, and I may believe it so strongly that it does. But should we remove wifi from places because of that?
What if I am delusional and I think everyone wearing red sweaters is carrying a disease I could contract that affects only me in a very specific way? What if I believed men with beards caused me to get dizzy and nauseous? It may be very true to me... I probably would in those cases feel honest to god ill. But should everyone stop wearing red sweaters and start shaving?
I did a quick check on PubMed just to verify I was understanding correctly... Epilepsy (and specifically those seizures that are of the tonic-clonic variety) are actually caused by PHOTOsensitivity, not electromagnetic frequencies. It's not the same animal. They have done some studies with EMF and seizure frequency/latency, but the results are fairly inconclusive (latency is in some studies a bit faster, frequency is pretty much the same with controls.)
So lights (esp. flickering lights of certain intensities and patterns... like a faulty flourescent at the grocery store or a light on an emergency vehicle) can trigger seizures in people with a certain form of epilepsy. Light bulbs do have EMFs (like many things that *don't* cause seizures in the same population) but the EMFS aren't the triggering factor.