Who Janie is; who she is not

JANIE portrait July 2014 in Library room FINALHi Thyroid Friends!! There are two pages about me! One is My Story–that tells you my thyroid story of hell and what led to getting on Natural Desiccated Thyroid. There’s even more detail in the Introduction of the STTM book.

And this page, Who I am, and Who I am not, is about things said about me. lol.

In case you are new to who I am, I started the Yahoo group Natural Thyroid Hormones (NTH) in 2002, and later this website, Stop the Thyroid Madness (STTM) in late 2005, building and building upon it as the years have gone by. I’ve also owned several other social and yahoo groups since then. Then came two books—the 2011 revised STTM book, and the 2014 STTM II book with each chapter contributed by doctors. You can look at them here. There is also a Stop the Thyroid Madness Facebook page.

I have always been responding to my own inner calling as one who once deeply suffered from a poor thyroid treatment. I can say without any qualms that my intentions have always been pure.

Unfortunately, the more well-known I and STTM have become, the crazier are the comments about who I am and who I am not! lol.

So below are the rotten tomatoes thrown at me, and you can then decide as a fellow patient, who I am and who I am not, and help you discern that there just may be more to the story of something negative you read from anyone. 🙂

  1. Janie squashes dissent on patient groups and bans people for having a different opinion. This is mostly based on certain groups I used to own. Boy I sounded like a real SHREW. lol. To the contrary, I wouldn’t be where I am today as the creator of STTM if I didn’t listen to differences of opinion…or more aptly, didn’t listen to “patient experiences”. So what is interpreted as “not listening” is actually knowing that “patient experiences” say otherwise to certain “opinions”. As far as banning someone, I’ve always had a light hand compared to other colleagues in their own groups, and I work hard to make someone work in the group. But when a person is disruptive in behavior to the harmony of the group and health of individuals, yes, you will be removed. Of course, this kind of person is going to say they were removed because of a difference of opinion, failing to see how disruptive they are, even when everyone else sees it.
  2. Janie wants to ban T4 medications: Boy, wouldn’t I be one powerful chick if I was going to do that! But the truth is, there is a place for T4-only. Some just may like it, and others may want to combine it with synthetic T3, like vegetarians or those with religious reasons to prefer it. Instead, my energy focuses on informing those on T4 why they may have depression, or high cholesterol, or rising blood pressure, or symptoms related to poorly functioning adrenals, and more. My energy is also focused on helping patients and their doctors find out about the superiority of natural desiccated thyroid (as has been shown repeatedly by patients all over the world) and how to make it work for you.
  3. Janie is a mean, dishonest, in-your-face, bad-mouthing back stabber. Is that a mouthful of badness or what?! The one that is outright true is being in-your-face. I can be a bull in a china cabinet about the the efficacy of desiccated thyroid and the scandal of T4 and the TSH, and sometimes, I just have to back myself up and redo how I express myself. I also like chocolate too much, will gorge on chips and hot sauce, am “unfashionably late” when I shouldn’t be, tend to spout the worst cuss words when I’m angry, and have stupidly thought people would change if I told them their faults. Yikes. But the other adjectives? Sorry, but I am none of those when it comes to my activism, and have better personal ethics than to be like any of those.
  4. Janie wants to be the Queen of the Mountain in thyroid patient advocacy (stated in sarcastic tone). Ugh. I value my private life, and would lose that if I attempted to be at the top. Plus, I just am not that egoistical about it, nor care to spend the energy achieving it. All I want to do is change the thyroid patient treatment madness, one patient and one doctor at a time, so NO ONE will suffer the way I did. And it’s working, one patient, one doctor at a time, thanks to good information on STTM. 🙂
  5. Janie has lots of faults. Now I added this one, because in addition to what I added above, I do. I tend to say in 150 words what I could have said in 30. I’m working on that. I tend to couch my words too much, and am working on finding a middle ground–saying what needs to be said while still being tactful. I have a strong sweet tooth, and it gets me trouble when trying to maintain my weight. I’ve learned to enjoy Stevia a lot more, and I’m continually working on what I think is insulin resistance. There are more, but I think you get the gist. I’m human.
  6. Janie is [***] or [***] for daring to do what she does. Do you know the definition of slander? It’s the action of making “false spoken statements to damage a person’s reputation.” Boy oh boy, have I occasionally seen that here or there. And though it initially hurts to the core, you eventually gain wisdom about it. Because slander is always about an agenda by those who slander, i.e. about them, not about the target of their slander. They will slander to build themselves up, to feed their egos, to avoid their own issues…and they will NEVER admit it.

So there you go. All in all, I have learned repeatedly that the more well-known a person becomes, the more there are going to be a small handful who hate my guts for their own personality-driven, emotionally-driven reasons. C’est la vie. 🙂 I just continue to follow my path of intention—to educate patients about worldwide successful patient experiences so they can find better health and well-being. And it’s working. 🙂 :)Sincerely,
Janie Bowthorpe 🙂

Important notes: All the information on this website is copyrighted. STTM is an information-only site based on what many patients worldwide have reported in their treatment and wisdom over the years. This is not to be taken as personal medical advice, nor to replace a relationship with your doctor. By reading this information-only website, you take full responsibility for what you choose to do with this website's information or outcomes. See the Disclaimer and Terms of Use.