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People often think the things chemically injured people do to protect themselves are outlandish and unnecessary. That is because they do not understand the illness. They do not realize that the person has already had experiences with substances that cause severe life problems and is trying to protect himself from more. The reactions cause pain, itching, mental confusion interference with breathing, and other symptoms. They threaten the quality of life and sometimes, life itself. It is difficult or impossible to get help with this. Many doctors do not admit that such reactions occur and refuse to treat victims. When they do help, they usually offer pharmaceutical drugs, which make the problem worse instead of helping. The main solution for the sick person is to avoid substances that he knows have caused these reactions in the past. This |
causes affected people do extraordinary things to try to avoid the offending substances. They limit their diets, eliminating all pesticides or certain food types. They wear only certain kinds of clothing. They wear charcoal or respirator masks. They rip out the interior finishing of houses and cars and throw them away. They carry tanks of oxygen. They leave formerly satisfactory jobs claiming that they are unable to continue. If they try to continue on a job they actually become less able to do the job and are fired. They drop social activities and isolate from the public. They resist moving, claiming that they cannot live near many other people, industry, or farms. It is understandable why people who have never encountered this before, or who believe that a doctor can prescribe a pill to cure all ills sometimes find this hard to understand.
Why would anyone do this? The reality is that people do not make drastic changes for trivial reasons. The reason is exactly as chemically-injured people say that it is -- they are having MEDICAL reactions and have no way to deal with them other than avoid the source of the reactions. This is the only realistic reason why someone would uproot his life as radically as this.
It has been suggested that people who do these things are committing fraud to get money or attention from other people. Admittedly, some people have "put on an act" to get insurance money or some other recognition for a phony injury, but that doesn't work with this illness. Pretending that chemicals make you ill is not profitable. The lifestyle changes are expensive and cumbersome, consuming thousands of dollars in increased medical costs, food expenses and other needs. Nobody pays people money to be sick instead of working unless they are actually injured on the job. The only income available from this is from Workman’s Compensation or Social Security Disability income. Both are very difficult and take a long hard struggle to get a very small amount of money. Many of us are college-educated or professional and could earn a lot more money by working than by committing this petty little fraud. Nobody pretends that chemicals make her sick to get wealthy.
Telling other people that their perfume or cigarettes make us sick does not garner sympathy either. People usually become threatened or suspicious. Some are hostile from the beginning because they already believe that there is no such illness and the person is lying. They do not like being asked to give up something that they really like in their own lives. The result is that the sensitive person rarely gets understanding or consideration.. Sometimes people even become aggressive and deliberately expose the person to MORE of the chemical. Gaining attention is not a valid explanation for why a person says he is made ill by chemicals.
Some people agree that we seem to actually be sick but claim that the illness is not caused by chemicals, but mental illness. For some reason, most people who make this claim are chemical manufacturers or someone else who gains by the production or use of the thousands of chemicals we are exposed to daily. It would definitely be in their best interest if this were only a mental illness and they would not be held responsible for poisoning someone. Then they could continue to sell chemicals and tell people they aren't dangerous.
Researchers are looking at the body’s chemical systems to determine how chemicals can damage them and cause the increased intolerances we must live with. Hopefully, they will find more direct causes for the problems we have and how to medically treat them. Maybe then there will be more support from a society that is now awash in chemicals and denying their dangers.Until then, people who have been injured by chemicals must take care of themselves and each other and avoid chemicals that hurt them. This means changing our diets and wearing certain clothing that we know is safe.It avoiding places where there are chemicals, even our jobs and homes. If people think we behave strangely, hopefully they will realize that we have to for now and will help us teach other people about the dangers of our flagrant misuse of chemicals. We have already been hurt and it is our sincere desire to help find a way to prevent more people from being similarly hurt.