Stop Writing About Crap You’re Not Qualified To. You’re Hurting People

Mental health quacks and money liars, I’m talking to you

Sorry. Rant. Sometimes things need to be said.

Not that the offenders are going to listen.

They never do.

Back when Covid was new Medium used to put a green bar at the top of Covid posts if they weren’t by a verified professional. Don’t know if you’ve been here long enough to remember that.

If you weren’t listed as a professional with the qualifications to speak, you got a big green bar slapped at the top of your Covid opinions. It said you’re not qualified and your content is not verified.

It’s gone now, but we need that in a whole bunch more places.

Apparently.

Because people think having an opinion qualified them to speak as though their opinion is fact.

Mental health is one of the areas it rankles me in.

Oooh. Narcissists. Nasty toxic people. You better learn to recognize them and stay away from them. Narcs, they like to call them.

No, they’re not “narcs” — a narc is a federal agent or cop who works in the division that deals with drugs and narcotics.

If you’re calling a narcissist a “narc” you’re using a colloquialism. Which is basically slang. To talk about mental health. Are you serious?

• 7 Signs to recognize a narcissist.
• How to spot a covert narcissist.
• How to get back at a narcissist
• How you’re attracting narcissists

Stop. Already. Just stop. You’re hurting people.

First — you know narcissism is a slider bar, right? It’s not a diagnosis. It’s not like blue eyes or brown eyes, we have it or we don’t. It’s a behavior that’s measured on a scale.

You know one of the reasons people measure high on the narcissism scale is because of childhood trauma, right?

It’s a trauma response.

A lot of abused kids grow up to be adults that abuse or get abused. Because they didn’t learn to make healthy attachments.

Stop vilifying people.

Borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, you name it. It’s all game.

I read a post yesterday where a writer begged people to stop generalizing about borderline personality disorder.

“I’ve read roughly twenty of the exact same article in the last several months. “How to recognize Borderline Personality Disorder!” “Why Borderlines and Narcissists fall for each other!” It’s getting old.” (source)

She is right. It is old.

The entire article talked about how she’s struggled with mental health all her life because of horrific childhood abuse and she is tired of people writing incorrect information that hurts people like her.

Does anyone even think about that?

Does it occur to those writers that real people are reading what they write and they might be hurting people? Nope. It gets clicks. Yay clicks.

I read another one where some stupid writer claimed to have “puked” their way out of depression with some herbal remedy.

What. The. Actual. F*ck.

On behalf of any parent who has struggled with a teen with bulimia, thanks for nothing.

No. You didn’t puke out depression. If you took some herbal crap and puked your face off and your “depression” got better, it wasn’t clinical depression. You know clinical depression has an physiological source, right? Like, the body ain’t firing the chemicals it needs to be firing.

And another one writer who said depression comes from procrastination and you just need to get your shit together and do the things you’re putting off and your depression will go away.

Stop. Already. If you do not hold a license that says you can charge people for your years of psychological training, shut it. Just shut it.

Sorry. So angry. Stop hurting people for clicks.

And while you’re at it, stop blaming women for “getting into” bad relationships. Just no end to the crap.

Let’s talk about the side hustle and money schmucks, too.

I don’t know how people who sell “make money on Medium” courses look in the mirror today. A year ago, maybe. Two years ago, for sure.

There’s a writer on Medium that I ran across on another platform.

On that platform, the writer is “transparent” about Medium earnings and shares screencaps. Under $200/month. But on Medium, that writer sells a course on how to be a top writer here and earn the good money.

I ran across an article where some dude said he doubled his Medium income with this one little trick. The trick was writing about Medium. And he went from $5 to $10. I blocked him. I’ll never see his crap again.

Real writers research. Sorry. Truth.

Doctors take the Hippocratic oath. Except it’s been changed so many times it’s not the original anymore. But still, the basis is do no harm.

Counsellors and psychologists take no such oath.

Neither do people writing on the internet, whether they’re actually a counsellor or psychologist — or not. Many aren’t.

Before the internet, printed publications required editorial verification to avoid legal repercussion. Which basically meant if you wrote for a printed publication, the publisher put their pocketbook on the line so they fact checked stuff to make sure they wouldn’t get sued.

That doesn’t happen online.

Now it’s on writers. Some writers think that’s way cool. Freedom of speech. Say whatever you want. Other writers see that as a responsibility. They fact check. Cite sources. Because they know reputation is all you’ve got.

Medium’s guidelines suggest that writers research and cite their sources.

I wish more people would.

Until then, I’ll unfollowing and muting ferociously. Every time I see stuff like that. Poof. Gone. Maybe if more people would do that, we could take out some of the trash. Because there’s too much of it here, and it hurts people. I’m not okay with that.

Also read: Medium quality guidelines

P.S. If you’re a writer, you should check out my Substack. That’s where the really good stuff is. Go look. You’ll see. :)

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” ― Henry James