[ALittleLight]

"Anecdotal" doesn't mean "happened once" or even "wrong". Anecdotal means that's it's a relation of personal experiences filtered through memory. That's fine.

Evidence that meets scientific or academic standards is different than anecdote. Such data is gathered in a way that tries to minimize biases, and analyzed in a way that tries to account for random chance, and then presented with quantitative precision.

For example, suppose I saw an article saying that men are typically taller than women. "Nope" I reply. "My sister is taller than I am. My cousin is taller than her brother, my aunt is taller than my dad." That may so be true, but it doesn't refute the general claim that is backed by real data.

There's nothing wrong with telling about your personal circumstances. There is something wrong with imagining that your personal circumstances invalidate or even compare to real research.

You suggested that you are familiar with heuristics. To put things in those terms - the heuristic of using anecdotes and stereotypes may well produce better results for life's decisions than random chance would. Using real research and analysis to inform decisions is likely a better heuristic than anecdotes and prejudices though.