Its human nature that sometimes hope triumphs over reason, and that's is a really good quality. I reserve my contempt for the treatments themselves.
Precisely. A long time ago (well in 1985 or so) I tried whatever my naturopath threw at me. Also various diets, exercise, meditation, Tai Chi, etc. We have hope and trust. Back then I was pro-authority.
I had yet to really study logic and reason, or the scientific method, although I was pro-science. That study all began in 1989. I am ignoring my earlier one year in biochemistry (1978) because it was about fact cramming, not the scientific process. I didn't finish that degree till 2002.
It wasn't just alternative medicine though. I did whatever my doctors suggested too. Including graded exercise and CBT.
At one point, and I vaguely recall this was before 1986, I was on six different drugs. The first was to help with IBS. Now the second was for a new symptom, then the third for yet another new symptom, and so on. Then I did some research. My first new symptom was probably a side effect to the first drug. The next symptom was probably a side effect of the second drug, etcetera. Then, to cap it off, the sixth drug can cause the symptoms I was originally being treated for. These symptoms were getting worse.
As soon as I stopped all the drugs my symptoms returned to the original state ... not good but manageable.
A few years later I was put on a tricyclic antidepressant, and I no longer recall what it was. It was supposed to help me tolerate my severe muscle pain, but it failed at that. What it did do is get rid of my chronic IBS. I still get gut symptoms, but no longer the same pattern as IBS, and not as frequently.
Eventually, and it can take a long time if you are as stubborn as I am, I figured out the medical "authorities" did not know what they were talking about. Medicine is great at what it really understands, but the less it understands the worse it is. Its not just alternative medicine that has a credibility problem.
Individual doctors are plagued by this incapacity within medical disciplines. Its all compounded by their not having sufficient time to investigate patients, and update their knowledge. Evidence based medicine has some successes and some bad failures. Its not adequate.
The entire medical system, globally, is problematic, though there are undeniable successes there too. It needs to improve. Which means it needs to move to even more reliable methods. We call that medical science, and that excludes psychobabble.