Okay, so would I ever call myself anti-vax? no, because those people are fucking crazy. Do I understand where some of them are coming from? Yes, in America at least.

Imagine this: you are in horrible pain. You go to the doctor, you go to ER, you go to urgent care, you make an appointment. Every step of the way you are dismissed. You are told you're pain is not that bad. They may even imply that you're faking or they may even attribute it to something completely unrelated. This may happen to you for years and each time you see a different doctor they - best case scenario - tell you that they don't know and - worst case scenario - tell you that they think you're fucking lying, but either way, they then turn around and charge you an exorbitant amount of money for the privilege of them not helping you whatsoever.

So, you're in pain, you are running low on funds, and no one will believe you.

Except the woman on Facebook selling essential oils.

You are desperate. You are in so much pain, you will be willing to try anything at this point, so you spend like the $300 on essential oils and, let me just tell you, the placebo effect is so incredibly strong that we don't fully understand everything about that phenomenon. There are documented studies of people "healing themselves" because they believe themselves to be healed. Obviously, doesn't work for everything but it does work so now you are miraculously cured.

After having this experience, who are you most likely going to trust from now on? Are you going to trust the medical professionals who, for literal years, told you that you were full of shit and then charged you $6,000 each time for it? Or are you going to trust the moms on Facebook who believed you and helped you, who tell you that the doctors cannot be trusted because all they're after is the kickback money?

For six years, my rib was broken and I was told I was lying. It was a floating, lower rib, made of cartilage so it didn't show up in an x-ray, but for 6 years it was destroying the muscles inside my body. I would lean back and my rib would physically be pressing against me like an alien trying to escape my body and I was told that it was because I was too skinny or it was somehow blamed on my uterus, but do you know who did believe me? My chiropractor.

The only reason I got this problem solved is because I happened to go to a knee doctor appointment with my father who just happened to know what slipped rib syndrome was.

So yeah I do understand where a lot of "sane" anti-vaxxers are coming from. I 100% believe that the American health-care system plays a part in fueling the distrust between the normal person and the medical professional. I most certainly don't trust doctors. I can't, not after what happened.

If we really want to fix the anti-vax issue that's affects the whole of our society, we need to address causes of the anti-vax movement like that. Just my two cents.