#2764: Heather Dexter

Heather Dexter is an anti-vaccine activist, naturopath, general quack, sometimes mommy-blogger and a general threat to the health and welfare of her surroundings, including her own children: As she proudly relates in a post for the hardcore conspiracy theory- and pseudoscience-promoting and New Age-religious extremist blog and facebook group Like-Minded Mamas, she forewent vaccines for her three children, instead letting them get deathly ill with whooping cough so that they would achieve “natural immunity”. In Dexter’s deranged excuse for a mind, immunity to whooping cough – the point of which one would think is to not get whooping cough – is better if it is natural (it isn’t). She also avoided taking her children to a real doctor or use real medicine to alleviate their suffering, which they could easily have done, because alleviating suffering is “unnatural”.

 

Illuminatingly, when she discovered that people near to her (and with more knowledge than her) didn’t immediately agree with her decision, she “felt blind-sided and hurt, unsupported and ready to blow” but came to terms with it in the manner of a true F student in a high-school philosophy course: “I have learned that my truth does not belong to all of humanity. Each person is entitled to their beliefs and logic or training”. She emphasized however, how much she had suffered through the whole ordeal: “It was a living HELL. Every day. It had an intense effect on my marriage and relationship with my husband. It caused me to question everything I knew about Natural Health.” Because the whole incident was, of course, about her and about her beliefs and her, Heather Dexter’s, self-esteem as a mother. Fuck the children. The more they suffer, the more she can show that she’s a good mother. And fortunately she made it through (the test subjects for her motherhood identity, the children, recovered): “It has been my biggest challenge to date as a mother. This mother conquered.” Children are, like purses, the accessories to motherhood against which your mettle as a mother is evaluated by your peer group.

 

Besides, she did get the support she needed when she “called my mentor and the founder of my Naturopathy school to gain yet another naturopathic perspective. She had nothing but good things to say. She once again boosted my morale.” Remember that naturopaths like these think of themselves as being capable of helping other people with health issues. If that doesn’t frighten you, you are either stupid or deeply cynical – Dexter herself is apparently “a Board Certified Naturopathic Doctor, Certified Affiliated Bradley Method Instructor, Certified Holistic Doula, Certified Usui Reiki Master Practitioner” (though it is unclear who “certified” her – presumably those who took her money in exchange of a diploma). And her naturopathic peer group (including one Sarah Mokma of Rooted Well – a deranged quack whose name is duly noted for future reference) had advice: “Turns out the best way to clear out the lungs is through the rectum … enemas.” This is, of course, utter nonsense, but it will exacerbate the suffering of the children and thus provide Heather Dexter with another notch in her motherhood belt. She also used homeopathy, “chiropractic care, probiotics, and optimum nutrition” and later “Olive Leaf Extract, Elderberry Syrup, Pau D’arco Extract, Light Therapy and Reflexology” and a whole slew of supplements – in short, she made it amply clear that neither she nor her naturopathic colleagues had the faintest clue what they were doing.

 

And just in case you didn’t yet draw the obvious conclusion that Heather Dexter is a dangerous moron for foregoing vaccines and medicine: “I just want you to ask yourself … How did people make it through for thousands of years? How did they get through the Spanish Influenza, the Black Plague, fevers and other ailments?” They didn’t, Heather. That’s the whole fucking point. Children died. The fact that some “school” (presumably a diploma mill) charged you money for what they called an “education” might actually be a crime.

 

Now, Dexter did receive some criticism for her actions, so she and her colleagues promptly shut the facebook group. As they explained it, the group and Dexter’s story were about “honoring a mother’s intuition”; but unfortunately “the story found itself in the hands of those who are out to destruct”. But don’t for a moment think that Dexter learned anything from criticism; quite the contrary: “this experience has shown us that we need to be even louder”.

 

Diagnosis: Completely delusional, and as a result of her delusions combined with her ego and self-centeredness, an immediate threat to her surroundings. Heather Dexter is, in short, a terrible person – religious conviction is no excuse – and, as she more or less explicitly admits herself, a horrible parent who won’t hesitate to torture her own children if it strokes her own ego.

 

Hat-tip: The skeptical OB