Posted by Minnie-Haha on May 14, 2005, at 21:10:46
Since there still seems to be some question about the use of the idiom “with a grain of salt,” I thought I would clarify my opinion on it one last time. Rather than take pieces of what I or others have said out of context, I will provide links here to entire posts, or provide enough of parts of posts to make their meaning, IMO, clear.
My use of the term was first questioned here on the Admin board (without asking me what I meant) on Feb. 21. To put it in context, my post was part of a Medication board thread on Effexor XR that has been on-going for years. To put it further into context, it was in reply to a newbie who said that she had tried for years to treat her depression through diet, exercise, supplements and various alternative therapies. She had finally decided to try Effexor. She was experiencing side effects that were frightening her and she was looking for support and advice. (My post is at http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050217/msgs/460541.html )
The first two people to respond to her post did not have positive experiences to report. MY experience with one of these people was that she, IMO, mostly reported negatively about Effexor. (I will put some links to examples below.) In general, I don’t think there is anything wrong with negative reports, but her response to the newbie seemed to make her feel, IMO, defensive. And though I am sorry that some people have had bad experiences on Effexor, some have had positive experiences, as well as manageable side effects and withdrawals. So in my response to the newbie I advised that she take anything this poster said with a grain of salt. I assumed that anyone reading it would know I meant anything this poster said about Effexor, since that was what the thread is about. As for the meaning of “with a grain of salt,” one can find many definitions. My explanation of my use of the term (once I found out that it had been questioned) is at http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050219/msgs/461399.html
Finally, I suspect there may be some responses to this, but I will post nothing further on the subject. That does NOT mean I concede that any conclusions others might come to about what I've written are true (IMO).
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041029/msgs/410174.html
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041201/msgs/424577.html
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041223/msgs/433826.html
poster:Minnie-Haha
thread:497858
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050417/msgs/497858.html