There have been a few articles in the Toronto Star about this lady, who allegedly suffers from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. Here is the latest - Can Linda Sepp possibly be helped?
I’m trying to keep an open and sympathetic mind, but what really rings off my bullshit alarm is a line from the sixteenth paragraph - “Besides, it (a $200,000. house in Bobcaygeon, in the heart of Ontario cottage country…) had bad feng shui, she said.” There is no mention of what Dr. Lynn Marshall, the physician who supports Sepp’s claim of MCS, has to say about feng shui being bandied about as an established fact.
It is a real disorder in that she probably isn’t truly faking it but not in the way MCS advocates claim. It is a psychiatric disorder that has overlap with several other psychiatric conditions like OCD. She may have a few true allergies as well plus some social phobia and general ill health made worse by the condition such as malnutrition. I don’t want to take up for her. The claims and demands are complete bullshit and need to be addressed. She can’t be pandered to unless her family wants to buy her such a place and the land to go along with it. Otherwise, she can go live in a psych ward somewhere and serve as a subject to help other people that report the same thing.
She certainly isn’t the only person that has ever reported such a thing. The TV series Northern Exposure even had a character (played by Anthony Edwards) that moved to Alaska and walked around in a space suit because of the same condition. I feel bad for somebody in such a state because lots of people will accuse them of being complete fakes and scam artists. That isn’t completely true because no one would choose that for themselves, but, at the same time, the world isn’t your personal bitch either and it can’t be custom tailored to your needs. Lots of people live with problems much more severe and debilitating than that and make improvements the best that they can and live with who they are.
I remember exactly when I became convinced that this was BS (in the way **Shagnasty **describes). I was watching a special about someone with this, and she mentioned going to a dry cleaners to pick up some clothes. But they were having the place sprayed by exterminators that day, and this caused her to have a terrible reaction.
It seemed to me ridiculous that she would have extreme sensitivity to “chemicals” pretty much across the board, but somehow she didn’t have a problem being in a dry cleaners, or wearing clothes that were dry cleaned. I strongly suspect that she simply viewed dry cleaning as a normal part of life, and it didn’t ping her “chemical” radar mentally, but of course people spraying pesticides struck her as a problem. Therefore she had no reaction to one, and a massive reaction to the other.
Yeah, and I would like a golf membership and 24 cold beers a week. BS meter? How about BS kilometer. I can’t even be bothered to read the rest of the article.
I’m actually a little surprised that there aren’t some institutions interested in housing her in exchange for studying her condition. Both its physiological and psychological aspects.
And in fairness - it’s a human interest story in the Toronto Star, not a peer reviewed article in ‘The Lancet’. Whatever proof may exist for her condition is being edited out for the sake of the dumb… Obviously the ‘feng shui’ line that stuck out for me didn’t seem to bother the reporter nor the editor.
And Leaffan - Yeah, I hear you. ‘How about a large raft in the middle of Lake Ontario, lady?’
I volunteered at a zoo for a while. You don’t know from chemical sensitivities until you’ve stepped inside a goat barn. The fumes alone can pickle your eyeballs.
I don’t know about the help she “needs” but it sounds like the help she wants would cost the Canadian taxpayers around $2,000,000 (chickens and goats not included)
For God’s sake, is is that hard to do some blind testing to find out for sure if her claims are legit? Some things might smell but there must be things that don’t if she claims to be allergic to just about everything. Perhaps there is some way to numb a person’s nose? Maybe test her while she’s asleep or anesthetized? Certainly the “radio allergy” could easily be tested. I’ve heard stories about people claiming to be sensitive to cellphone signals and having it be disproven by turning them on or off and not telling the person.
Surely someone should test it before they start handing out money. Well, I could see a basic monthly disability check might be cheaper than hiring scientists to test her, but they’re talking about buying her a fucking house.
I can’t believe that many people are buying her bullshit without question.
This woman is mentally ill. She has discovered that her self-created “illness” allows her to get attention, which is what she wants. Since she is sensitive to all chemicals, has anyone actually tested her? This would expose her right away (H2O is a chemical).