Quack Dr and his henchmen.

One of innumerable energy machine scams.

@AlessandroCodenotti: Hello!

Here's where I'm going to post miscellaneous stuff that I find interesting that aren't related to logic. =)

@user21820 That is... sad. What is even sadder is that it may even indirectly affect people which do not embrace these alternative medical practices. I know a person which has OCD related to rabies (some context here, and if she read that news, she would be very reluctant to use any kind of medicine at all.

@AloizioMacedo Hmm that's quite worrying. Does it help that you know her personally and can hence advise her based on sound medical knowledge? We can continue this discussion in that room if you like.

@AloizioMacedo: Hello.

@user21820 Sorry for the off-topicness there. No, it unfortunately doesn't really help. As I came to understand through time (and as the person who answered my question in that link mentioned), it is very hard to rationalize against a person which has this sort of problem.

This fragment in particular "Having said all this, your friend is not going to stop worrying, because the virus is only the focus of an irrational fear. Though the foci of irrational fears are fairly stable, OCD is most likely the underlying problem, and conventional rational discourse doesn't really suffice in curing the obsession."

← 2 messages moved from CRUDE

@AloizioMacedo No problem at all; I've moved the messages. In my opinion, we are not trying to rationalize against this kind of person, but rather help them to navigate the minefield of rationalization.

This issue shows up even with totally normal people. When faced with severe doubt of a belief system they have been brought up with, it is incredibly difficult to stay 'rational' when thinking about related issues.

Simply because there is little rational reasoning to rely on.

As you yourself found; you didn't even know much about the technical details to be able to convince her rationally that her fear may be overly much. After all, it could possibly be that she is rational while the vast majority of people are ignorant!

@user21820 Your last comments are indeed pretty true and relevant. However, there is the missing component of "obsession" for the specific case of OCD. To give you some context (thank you very much for taking your time to listen a bit, truly), this "person I know" is my girlfriend, and we are together for 4 years. When we started dating, to give an example, there were times where the skin on her hand and wrists was weak and scratched because of compulsive washing.

By the way, I don't claim to be a doctor of any sort, so I should emphasize that all this is just my opinion based almost purely on my own observations and deductions.

@AloizioMacedo I was just going to mention as an example that anyone could 'rationally' fear going out because there is a nonzero risk of getting hurt outside. However, the catch is that this risk has to be compared with the estimated net benefit of going out. If one needs to get food and water and do one's job, then one would run a greater risk of self-harm by hiding in the home. Also, there is nonzero risk of getting hurt at home.

If you think it might help, perhaps you can also suggest to use more gentle soap (such as baby shampoo), which will be less harsh on the skin.

@user21820 I understand, your opinion was very welcoming to hear regardless of you being a doctor or not : ). But I don't want to bother you with this anymore. I strongly appreciate the fact that you cared to listen, and also that you shared that link. It is pretty important for people to know these things. I just thought it could be useful to also mention that these things can affect even more people than one might expect. (she uses baby paraphernalia! : P )

You're welcome! I am not sure whether it would have a positive or negative impact on her to know more, but I do agree on being very cautious in giving information. You may also have to weigh the risks of her reading about things on the internet. The internet is very frequently full of nonsense, as you can see from the other links I've posted in this room.

Even I am close to giving up on the internet as an easy source of information, especially on medical issues.

@AloizioMacedo: Anyway, I'm glad you shared your insight too. More people need to talk about such things to get a better idea how to deal with them. =)

I need to go now, so talk to you again soon!

@user21820 See you! : )