What if the thing that makes you feel safest… isn’t actually helping you?

In this episode of On the Mones, Kate unpacks a deceptively simple idea with enormous consequences: comfort is not evidence.

It starts with a respectful — but confronting — comment thread on a debunking video about naturopathy, vulnerability, and communication. From there, the conversation widens into something much bigger: why women in midlife are so often sold reassurance instead of rigour, validation instead of verification, and how “feeling heard” has quietly become a substitute for clinical outcomes.

Kate explores:

• Why warmth, charisma, and simplification can be persuasive — but dangerous — in healthcare
• The lack of regulation around naturopathy and why “my clients love me” is not a defence
• Real-world harm, including Australian regulatory cases involving banned health practitioners
• How wellness culture targets women — especially during hormonal vulnerability — and why that matters

From there, the episode pivots into a clear, evidence-based deep dive on SSRIs:

• How SSRIs actually work in the brain (and what they don’t do)
• Why they’re sometimes prescribed for hot flushes
• And how perimenopausal anxiety is frequently treated with antidepressants when estrogen deficiency may be the real driver

Through a clinical lens — and a personal story — Kate makes the case for better questions, better context, and fewer lazy defaults when women in their 40s and 50s present with anxiety.

This episode also features a Woo of the Week takedown of “adrenal fatigue” — why it isn’t a diagnosis, why it feels comforting, and how it turns complex physiology into fast food.

If you’ve ever been told:

• “At least she listens”
• “It can’t hurt”
• “It makes people feel better”

This episode is your pause button.

Because feeling cared for matters — but only evidence protects you.