There is just something I cannot un-see since joining this elite in academia (lol) and that is this concept of what ‘research’ really is.

For me it was like shattering glass. 
My entire worldview was torn apart in seconds. 
I was gobsmacked then I started to feel angry.

How can this be?
So all those times I went to the Dr’s office and they told me there was no ‘reason’ for me to feel this way, was actually because there is this numerical structure that polices what they can or can’t treat?
If I am not sick “enough” there is no indication for treatment? What?! 

Who wrote the advertising for this profession?!
I want a word with the writers! 
Excuse me your advertising doesn’t really fit what’s in the box over here… No but seriously, I thought research meant understanding humanity. Which I guess a numerical value is that, but how can you measure an entire being let alone an entire population by measuring them up to this ‘robotic pieces’ scheme?

I do not understand. Most people or at least those I surround myself with –  biased as it might be – believe the intricacies of the human experience cannot be fully measured by a mere blood test!

I am simplifying here but I hope you get the point.

Before entering this whole new world of academia, I was ‘one of the people’. I saw research as this magical solution to all humanities problems. I am really not sure where this idea has come from to be honest. Is it that many of us see ‘The Researcher’ as our leader to truth? The all knower of things? When did we start outsourcing our obligation to ‘think’ to professionals? Why did everyone around me think this was what we are ‘supposed’ to do?

Perhaps you’re not someone who has done that, and all along you have realised that research really is just that a way of documenting our human experience. A way to discover what ‘works’ and what doesn’t. Or maybe you are like me just now realising the power to decide what is best for me is my own and the rest is really just advice offered and up to me to follow.

What though about this hierarchy? 

Do we all truly share the same understanding that the blood test is more important than the experience of the human sitting before us? Even the few Doctors I know don’t believe this. 

When did it become “I don’t have answers to explain this” therefore nothing is ‘wrong’ with you so go home? Or the ‘let me refer you to psych’, which comes with its own conversation. Apparently I am not alone with this feeling. It’s the story I am told particularly by women and parents over and over again. The experience so many of us have been dealing with that comes with this overwhelming confusion of why!?

That ‘why’ really comes back to, if there are no numerical or mechanistic reasons for this problem then ‘nothing is wrong’. Realistically though, it’s because research OR those policed by it, are bound to adhere to what is ‘evidence based’ despite the people having a very different opinion on what ‘evidence’ really is.

A lot of us are intuition based which is actually directly in conflict with empiricism or numerical superiority. Funnily enough we believe this system of professionals bound by empiricism are here to serve this part of us, our intuitive side.
It’s actually pretty ironic when you think about it. Empiricism is what is clearly seen intuition is unexplainable some say its the subconscious taking in things we aren’t conscious of, some speak of rationalism which is based in lines of reasoning 

When our value systems don’t line up with societys measuring stick of truth there becomes a discrepancy. Unfortunately though numerical superiority is easier to measure, the human experience is not.

I am not saying we shouldn’t have this as the hierarchy or that we tear it down… well not in this article anyway. 

However I am saying the people need to know the reason they aren’t getting the answers they desire from their Doctors office. They need to know that it is in fact due to this invisible construct of frameworks binding them to what they can and can’t do. 

It’s a measurement ensuring safety but it has its flaws and those confused by this discrepancy deserve to know why.