Still sore, and irritated at a coworker besides

[redbird]

Not too surprisingly, I am stiffer today than yesterday. (The least fun part was probably dealing with the very heavy front doors of my office building; to do so without pain, I had to use my right leg to push the front door open, that being the only limb that would handle that much weight without trouble right now.)

The person at the next desk asked how I was feeling this morning, and when I said something about still being sore, she proceeded to try to convince me to try some sort of homeopathic "remedy" for sore muscles. I tried to be polite about saying no, she pushed and claimed that it works for her, and I got annoyed enough to tell her "if you can show me even one study that shows that it works, I'll try it."

Her response was to say that nobody had done studies. I pointed out that yes, they have, and the studies all show that homeopathy doesn't work, and it didn't surprise me that the people selling this stuff don't tell her that, but I'm not wasting my money. Her next line was "I can understand why you'd be skeptical…" which means some combination of "I don't actually understand that you actively disagree with me" and "I'm going to keep arguing, but have no intention of listening to your points." I said "enough" and tried to end the conversation, but a minute later got to the point of "Do you understand what 'Enough' means? It means I want to get back to work." That finally ended the discussion. We shall see what happens from here.

I've tried to be polite and just say things like "people are different" when she came up with weird nutritional theories. I have explained as calmly as I can that "how do you know it won't work?" is not sufficient argument for trying every new thing for which nobody offers evidence, but I'm not wasting my time or money to validate her delusions. Especially not while I have an interesting assortment of sore muscles and small bruises. She can get all more than she needs of that from Gary Null.

[cross-posted to DW; comments fine in either place]

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

You're my hero.

[ckd]

If homeopathy worked, drinking NYC tap water would cure damn near everything.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

No no - that contains to much bad stuff....... it needs to be minute ammounts of stuff.....

[redbird]

Our tapwater is no longer winning prizes, but it's still better than most of what you'll get in bottles, unless your home pipes are of the wrong era and contain lead.

[(Anonymous)]

This is a science publisher?

[redbird]

No, this is a general school/educational publisher, that gets its copyeditors and proofreaders from the usual general pool of same.

They were pleased and surprised with my knowledge of and comfort with math and science, which is why I am now on salary there as an editor.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

At least you weren't told you were suffering from a situation brought about because Mercury was retrograde.

(Gary Null...oy. I remember listening to his radio show on WBAI back in the 80's and early 90's and rolling eyes when he said that he'd never, ever, sleep with his head on a pillow because of some kind of horrible harm it would do. This was before he starting selling pillows with refrigerator magnets in them for therapeutic value.)

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who was very much into the alternative stuff and never understood why she was so invested in pushing the stuff on me. If we lived in the same area, I think it would have eventually ended the friendship.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

This is the third annoying homeopathy incident I've read in as many days. (Well, one goes far beyond annoying, since it involves a death, but anyway.)

*sends you strength and healing*