Just Take a Pill...

I watch the television, and I see pharmaceuticals being advertised directly to consumers. Not to doctors, mind you, but to everyday people, you and me, who instantly think, 'heh, that's me, I have trouble sleeping at night! Maybe I need that stuff!'

No, you don't need that drug. It was designed for people who haven't slept in months - MONTHS - and who aren't *going* to sleep for many more months unless they get some king of drastic help. Help that comes with side effects. All drugs come with side effects, but can you live with the side effects to get the benefit of the drug?

My father had a minor eye problem, and picked up the drug he was prescribed before going home. When he went to use the drug, he happened to read the little pamphlet that went with it first. Among the many, many side effects was one - "could cause death." Dad picked up the phone, and with some concern, told the doctor he didn't think he wanted to take this drug. "That's okay, I'll prescribe something different," the doctor said, something without the offending side effect.

I think we forget a few very important things about medicines: medicines are not little miracle packets that suddenly take away whatever our problem was. They are simply part of a means we have of managing our health. We have to consider the damage that the drug will or can do, and weigh that against the potential benefit we can gain from the drug. Sometimes they will harm us more than help, and in the case of antibiotics, it may take years before the affects become apparent in the form of resistant bacteria.

We must also remember that chronic diseases are slow dieing, and no medicines will stop that. They may slow them down even further, but eventually, the disease will take the sufferer. Chronic pain is one of the worse, but others are just as bad. All the victim of these diseases can do is manage their condition as best they can, for as long as possible. The day will come when the person can fight the condition no more, and the disease will take them. Everyone associated with the person suffering with the condition must understand this, otherwise delusion turns into false hope, then the crash and despair.

Always face the future with open eyes, and your face into the wind. You cannot take a pill to make the real world, with all its suffering and pain, just go away. It won't. Reality is made of suffering and pain. It's as much a part of everyday life as your food and the air you breathe.

Your health is your own, and you are the prime determinant as to how it will turn out ten, twenty, or fifty years from now. Start now, live right, care for yourself, and you will be the one with the black feathers one day.