I watched the entire series and I’m actually shocked that the people profiled feel that they were cast in an entirely negative or dismissive light. I can’t speak to editing but I never received the impression that anyone was being mocked or that talking heads were being manipulated to present a negative viewpoint. I certainly formed my own opinions of each of those profiled, and yes I do believe that some of them likely have underlying psycho-emotional issues that contribute to their disease(s). But this is based less on what was presented by any medical experts featured and more on personally recognizing behaviors, language and actions that I see daily with my own mother, who lives with me and who suffers from several medically diagnosed chronic illnesses but is also highly susceptible to self-diagnoses of any disease she feels she exhibits symptoms of. Regarding the talking heads of medical experts, I felt that there were far more that either presented the information about the various illnesses with either agreement or no bias, than there were those that negated them. And even in those handful of instances it was negation without judgement. In fact, the only medical personnel that I felt was actually negative was the unnamed exam room doctor or nurse who curtly told Bekah that he’d never heard of her condition. Overall however I do think that the information was presented without much in the way of comment, with the viewpoints of the sufferers, their family and friends, the various treating doctors, and other doctors as counterpoint. And the viewers’ take-away is their own.

    Traci LeNée Anderson

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