Anxiety can manifest itself as stomach pain, but calling her crazy and taking her to a shrink won’t likely solve it. Research somatoform disorder as linked above.
Holy moly, the antivaxers have landed.
Poul Thorsen? Really? That guy was a secondary author on a single vaccine paper and whether or not he misappropriated funds belonging to his university had nothing to do with the validity of the publication. Apparently antivaxers figure if they keep yelling about him, no one will remember the debacle over Andrew Wakefield’s sloppy and fraudulent MMR vaccine paper.
There are lots of good websites that demonstrate how safe and effective vaccines are, and debunk the tripe that antivaxers continually churn out. There’s the Vaccine Information Center of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, immunizationinfo.org, Parents of Kids With Infectious Diseases and of course the Centers for Disease Control, whose articles on immunization include this excellent takedown of vaccine myths and misconceptions.
Recommended books include Arthur Allen’s “Vaccine”, “The Panic Virus” by Seth Mnookin, “Deadly Choices” by Paul Offit and I’m hearing good things about a new book by a couple of Dopers, “Your Baby’s Best Shot”. 
*With Gardasil, one of the antivax talking points is that the vaccine is not needed since there really aren’t that many cervical cancer deaths. Beyond the offensiveness of this claim, it ignores the much greater number of pre-cancers attributable to HPV, and the annoying, painful and expensive procedures needed to diagnose and treat them, sometimes leading to childbearing problems and other complications in later years.
These one-off antivax BS posts are a transparent attempt at poisoning the well. Do people sit at home all day searching the web for mentions of preventable disease, then join to put up some cut and paste word salad?
Yes.
News stories about vaccine successes also draw them out of the woodwork.
Some people practically make a career out of it. I’ve yet to read an online article that allows comments without a slew of bs by Ann Dachel of Age of Autism or Lowell Hubbs of Vaxtruth. I’m not normally in favor of censorship but I would happily see both permanently banned from the net on public menace grounds.
Here’s a recent example from Parade magazine:
http://www.parade.com/health/2012/10/07-why-so-many-parents-are-delaying-vaccines.html
Scroll down and I think you’ll see they’re still at it nearly a month later. I gave up after a few posts.
Wow, thanks a lot for all the replies and links.
a bit off topic, but as “proof” she mentioned that a friend took metal cleanse and he developed brown spots on his skin. Supposedly evidence of the toxins escaping from his pores. Sounds like really unlikely… Can anyone confirm or deny that it can actually occur?
It is impossible to say what happened, because without documentation, it’s just a story. Did anyone observe the spots or is this just a story he tells people? How long between the taking the cleanse and the appearance of spots? Can friend guy produce any blood test results? What were the ingredients of this “metal cleanse”? The term has no accepted definition and its use in trade is not regulated by anyone. It could be water, or sucrose, or powdered oyster shells, or gelatin, or pretty much anything except rat poison or actual medicine. Could we get a brand name, at least?
It is comically disingenuous of her to present a secondhand story with zero backup as though it constitues proof of the efficacy of fairy dust. Is it possible she’s just yanking your chain?
Tell her some dude with a rodent in his screen name says that his step-uncle in law took an organic homeopathic aura cleansing enema, and that dude up and died of unbalnced chakras. True story.
Also, does she believe in “fan death”?
We already have ways for your body to deal with “toxins” - they’re called your kidneys and liver. Developing “brown spots” on my skin after drinking some unknown concoction would lead me to see a doctor, not be relieved that this “treatment” was working.
No over-the-counter “cleanse” product has been shown to remove harmful metals from the body. Chelation therapy, when conducted by knowledgeable professionals to treat actual metal overload (not imaginary toxins) can be effective but shouldn’t leave brown spots on the skin.
This sounds like the “evidence” given to show that bogus ionic baths or foot pads remove toxins - the water in the bath or pad surfaces turn brown, so the toxins are coming out. This is utter nonsense as explained here.
You guys are funny!
I’m going to show her this thread tonight. Wish me luck!
And no, we do not *believe *in fan death…
Every Korean knows it is very real tragedy killing countless careless victims.
And ear-candling.
I promise you: You will not be able to answer her concerns as fast as she can raise them.
This is a personality disorder. It is not a person weighing scientific evidence.
Decide to live with this personality or abandon the relationship.
No amount of data will allow her to abandon her paranoia and anxiety.
lol wut
Yes, it’s a little-known fact (even Koreans don’t know it) that there’s no system of numbers in Korea. True fact.
Well, I didn’t show her this thread. Yet.
She was having a pleasant day without complaining about her symptoms, nor did she mention anymore holistic healing hooey. So I thought it was best not to broach the subject.
Some of you voice that she wouldn’t be convinced no matter what I show her. And I understand that antivaxers are really like that. So are wtc nuts. And moon landing hoaxers. And etc.
I’m assuming she hasn’t lost her critical thinking and reasoning skills. She’s just a bit desperate and this anti-vax lunacy is the closest thing to an answer. I sincerely hope once she gives up the worry that she is forever scarred by vaccinations, she’ll be able to move forward and feel better.
Any further advice is most welcomed. Also please share any personal experienced dealing with a similar situation.
Thanks again for reading. Remember to always turn off any fans before you go to sleep. Lest it sucks up all the oxygen in the room and kills you.
It sounds like she’s got great support from you. Whether the problem is psychological or physical, that’s gonna help.
It’s a bit bizarre to call this a personality disorder. Sociopathy is a personality disorder. BPD is a personality disorder. Those things wreck multiple lives. Getting freaked out by unexplained pain, grabbing at an unlikely solution and drinking moonbeam potion isn’t even in the same universe.
Maybe this a bit too off topic, perhaps a mod can change the title…
But I would like advice on how to handle the situation if it is indeed somatoform disorder (or something similar).
Any wisdom is greatly appreciated.