Why Comparing Your Mold Test Results to Other People’s Backfires
What looked like clarity at first quietly made things harder.
After I got my mold test results, my instinct was to compare.
I searched for other ERMI scores, other reports, other people asking the same questions I was.
I thought comparison would help me understand what my numbers meant.
“I just wanted to know if my results were bad — or normal.”
What I didn’t realize yet was that comparison was quietly pulling me away from context.
This didn’t mean I was doing something wrong — it meant I was trying to orient myself without enough grounding.
Why comparison feels reassuring at first
When you are overwhelmed, it feels calming to find reference points.
Seeing someone else’s numbers can momentarily make things feel more concrete.
“It felt easier to measure myself against someone else than sit with uncertainty.”
I was hoping comparison would tell me what to do next.
Instead, it slowly increased pressure.
This was the same pattern I had already fallen into with mold testing itself — treating numbers like verdicts, something I explore more deeply in why mold tests aren’t pass or fail.
Why other people’s results don’t translate cleanly
Every test reflects a different space, history, and timeline.
Two homes with similar scores can feel very different to two different bodies.
“I kept forgetting that their environment wasn’t mine.”
I noticed that comparing results made it harder to listen to how I actually felt.
The numbers started to override my own experience.
This became clearer once I understood what ERMI scores are actually showing — and what they aren’t — something I unpack more fully in what ERMI scores are actually showing.
How comparison increases noise instead of clarity
The more examples I looked at, the more confused I became.
Instead of narrowing my understanding, the information spread outward.
“Every new result made my own feel heavier.”
I started questioning my reactions instead of observing them.
This didn’t mean comparison was dangerous — it meant it wasn’t grounding.
I was learning that interpretation works best when it stays close to lived context, something I had already begun to understand while comparing ERMI and HERTSMI in ERMI vs HERTSMI.
What changed when I stopped comparing
The shift happened when I pulled my attention back to my own space.
I stopped asking how my numbers ranked and started asking how they fit.
“I didn’t need to be worse or better than anyone else to take my results seriously.”
This didn’t eliminate uncertainty.
But it reduced the emotional volume.
I could finally read my results without layering someone else’s story on top.