From Edgy to Empty: Rethinking Wellness Rebellion

Being “Anti-Mainstream” has become… Mainstream. And it's boooorring.

Once upon a time in wellness spaces, it felt daring - hell, revolutionary - to question mainstream narratives about health and diagnosis. Saying stuff like:

• “ADHD is just a symptom of disconnection.”
• “Medications are poison.”
• “Big Pharma and the government want to keep you sick.”

These kinds of claims gave people a rush... like they were waking up, taking their power back, seeing behind the curtain.

It felt edgy. It felt exciting. Kinda like hearing Tool might be touring Australia again this year - suddenly everything feels a little more alive, a little more charged, you get full body anticipatory orgasms, and the world suddenly isn’t as dull and controlled as you thought. 

Or maybe that's just me. Anyways...

Those kinds of dopamine-inducing, heterodox hot takes were titillating AF. They scratched that itch we (I assume) all have - the one that says “something’s off” and “burn it all down” might be a legit plan.

But now, something’s shifting.

These takes - once framed as radical truth bombs - are starting to sound… dry. Worn. Predictable. Kinda... boring as batshit. More and more, these once-edgy statements feel less like disruptive insight and more like recycled scripts.

​A kind of performative contrarianism that lacks the depth, critical nuance, or heart it once promised.

It’s like every voice shouting “WAKE UP!” (and not in Rage's badass, righteous kind of way)* is starting to sound the same. What used to feel like a spark now lands like a punch in a moshpit: no rhythm, no resonance, just bodies crashing in the same beat of rebellion with no space for breath, pause, or nuance.

The Motte and Bailey of “Alternative” Health Rhetoric

Wellness spaces are just as prone to logical fallacies as any other. And sometimes even more so under the guise of “truth-telling.”

​In logic, the motte-and-bailey fallacy is when someone makes a bold, controversial claim (the bailey) to attract attention... but when challenged, retreats to a much safer, more defensible version of the claim (the motte).

The provocative claim disappears. No accountability. Just a gentle shrug. Then, once the heat dies down, they simply return to the bailey again.

And the cycle continues.

Take ADHD, for example. I recently came across a post by a prominent alternative health practitioner - someone with a following many orders of magnitude larger than mine - claiming that ADHD is simply the result of a lack of “connection,” and leaning into the familiar claim that ADHD is just an over-labelled trend (something that tends to land easily, because there’s a ready audience for that kind of "reassurance"). The message to those with an ADHD diagnosis? You've just got to shift your mindset, eat healthily, sing, and exercise... y'know, reconnect!

No mention of the decades of neurobiological research, lived experience, or the real systemic barriers to support that neurodivergent people face. Just a neat, spiritualised soundbite wrapped in wellness language. When I respectfully challenged this, the conversation quickly retreated to: "I'm just sharing my personal clinical observations. I’m only speaking from my limited experience.”

This, right here, is a classic motte-and-bailey in action.
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You’ve probably seen this rhetorical pattern play out in other ways in wellness. 

• “You don’t need a diagnosis, you just need to detox and meditate.”
• “All mental illness is trauma.”
• “If you eat clean and align your energy centres / balance your elements, you won’t need therapy.”
• “Doctors are trained to keep you dependent.”
• “Healing is just a matter of mindset.”
• “All medications are poison. Just another tool for Big Pharma to keep you hooked.”

This is their bailey - a bold, controversial claim meant to grab attention and challenge orthodoxy.
But when questioned - especially with lived experience, research, or respectful critique - they retreat to a much safer, more defensible motte:

• “I’m just saying that in some cases, people feel better when they take time to reconnect with themselves.”
• “I’m just offering one perspective. Of course mental health is complex!”
• “I didn’t mean you'll never need therapy - just that nutrition and energy work can be really powerful supports.”
• “I wasn’t attacking all doctors. I just think we should be asking more questions."
• “Of course healing is multifaceted. I’m just emphasising how powerful the mind can be.”
• “I’m not telling people to stop their meds. I’m just sharing what I’ve personally seen work for my clients.”

Suddenly, the original claim dissolves under scrutiny.

This bait-and-switch not only weakens public trust in alternative health spaces (which impacts me and ALL my fellow natural health practitioners), it can also gaslight the very people we claim to serve: those seeking nuanced, individualised, compassionate, and evidence-informed care.

Once you recognise this pattern, you'll likely see the motte-and-bailey logical fallacy playing out in wellness and spiritual circles a fucktonne. And there are so many others used in this space (among them cherry picking, appeal to fear, good ol' Dunning-Kruger effect, and appeal to nature to pick a few of my faves), all worthy of their own discourse.
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The Counterculture That Became Mainstream

Ironically, this flavour of black-and-white thinking - “mainstream bad, natural good” - has become a kind of mainstream in itself, especially on social media.

If I can vent for just one minute... this brand of so-called counterculture rhetoric has become so stale it makes me want to faceplant into the nearest salt lamp (I have many. So if you see me silently pressing my face into one, no you didn’t). If I hear “just detox and meditate!” as a cure-all one more time, I might astral project out of pure exasperation.​ Ok, thank you.

Once the domain of underground blogs in weird corners of the internet, and fringey wellness circles, these claims now trend. They sell courses, build followings, and boost engagement.

But herein lies the catch: what once felt radical now often serves brand-building more than truth-seeking. You can only scream “THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!” so many times before people start asking: Okaaaay… and now what? What’s your depth, your integrity, your groundedness beneath that stance?

(Don't be a) Scope Creep

One of the real dangers of the “alternative truth-teller” persona is scope creep: the slow slide from grounded practitioner into unchecked opinion influencer.

We’ve seen public figures follow this arc. (I might get majorly dragged for this, but in the spirit of this article, here fucking goes). Think of:

• Jordan Peterson, who shifted from psychologist to global culture war pundit.
• Joe Dispenza, whose background in chiropractic and meditation has grown into sweeping biomedical and quantum healing claims far beyond his formal training.
• Gwyneth Paltrow, who turned her acting career into a wellness empire often promoting medically unverified or outright harmful (and unhinged) “biohacks.”
• Kelly Brogan, a psychiatrist turned holistic influencer who now denies germ theory (I spoke more about this phenomenon here) and discourages psychiatric medication, even in severe cases.
• Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist whose once-grounded (and IMO, once really cool) platform now leans heavily into prescriptive lifestyle advice and supplement promotion, often blurring the line between education and commerce.

Now, I’ll do a little motte myself (but actually mean it): these people all offer some valuable work. Many of them have sparked important conversations, made science more accessible, offered basic  - but far from revolutionary - life advice (guess who), or opened doors to alternative healing for thousands.

But with huge audiences comes huge responsibility.
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Too often, the message shifts from supporting people to selling to the masses. What’s complex starts drifting toward profit-driven performance. Or even completely jumping lanes. What might have started off as grounded, meaningful work spirals into an unhinged solo act - seemingly technical, flashy... and totally out of key. It’s like watching a prog-metal guitarist abandon the band mid-song to shred a 17-minute solo in a completely different time signature, in a genre they were never trained in, on a stage they weren’t even booked to play. All shine, no spine - just ego, distortion, and no one keeping time.

Remember the Creep video? Thom Yorke staring dead-eyed into the camera, not trying to be cool, just achingly real?

We need more of that.

Not wellness influencers trying to shred across every discipline like they’re headlining a festival of their own twisted design.

So, here's my "hot take" (spew, I hate that term): the more followers you gain, the more you feel pressure to appeal to the masses, the more self-deluded you are at risk of becoming. Because for more people to like you, you can't be as nuanced, or as deep. You can't say "I don't know". You've got to exude megawatt confidence. You've got to offer the bold takes people are craving - not because they’re true, but because they fill the deep ache of not knowing.

And for your average dude just trying to get into the gym, or the woman quietly working through her social anxiety, or the kid questioning their sexuality, or the neurodivergent person with ADHD just trying to understand their brain - it kind of sucks that this is what they’re handed. ​It’s not just disappointing, it’s kind of creepy. Scope creepy, even.
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What’s Actually Radical?

Look, I don't know. Maybe...

• Saying “I don’t know”, and committing to doing more (actual) research
• Staying with complexity even when it’s uncomfortable and doesn’t get you a huge-arse following
• Refusing to flatten complex human experiences - like ADHD - into catchy one-liners just because they resonate with a large audience
• Supporting clients with compassion, not dogma
• Honouring both tradition and scientific evidence (it can be done, and it's fun!)
• Recognising your scope, and collaborating when something’s beyond it
• Letting care lead, not clicks

If you’re in the work of healing (as a practitioner, guide, herbalist, or other health worker), here’s my invitation:

Be real, not performative. Be bold, but with heart.
Let your rebelliousness be in your integrity - not your "controversial hot takes". (Again, vom).

Because at this point, we’re not short on bold opinions. We’re short on discernment. 
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When Nuance Is the New Rebellion

Genuinely radical thinking isn’t found in the loudest headlines or hottest takes anymore. It lives in the messy middle, in the space where truth isn’t reduced to binaries or memes. As one of my amazing mentors Fiona Sutherland once shared with me, it's a "yes, and" kinda vibe.

It sounds like:

• Yes, the pharmaceutical industry has massive power and absolutely puts profit first - and many people are also helped by medication.
• Yes, ADHD is shaped by environment and trauma - and it’s also a neurodevelopmental condition with measurable structural differences in the brain.
• Yes, the system is flawed - and, doing the exact opposite of what it says doesn’t automatically lead to freedom or healing.

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Want to know my kink? I fantasise about a world where nuance is valued as deeply as intuition. Where people actively seek out, and can easily access, critical thinking education.

Where schools teach logic and rhetoric alongside emotional intelligence.
Where black-and-white thinking is recognised as a red-as-hell flag.
Where fear-based claims are met with a collective hard no - whether they're coming from a paediatrician or a reiki master.
Where we’re guided by both our brains and our hearts.
And where scientific literacy isn’t only the domain of scientists and doctors... it's just the norm. In fact, it’s actually cool! (Maybe I'm fantasising too hard... but a girl can dream).

That's the kind of counterculture I want to be part of.


* “WAKE UP!” hits different when the ones yelling it now would’ve been the very system Rage was raging against. Rage stood for collective liberation and fighting systemic injustice - for the oppressed, the silenced, the systemically screwed - not for invalidating neurodivergent, fat, queer, or BIPOC folks under the guise of “truth.” It wasn’t about yelling louder or building a personal brand. It was about fighting the machine, not becoming it. Ok, I'm done for today.
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