Disease Mongering
Where are all the ailments coming from? A day doesn't go by that a medical journal doesn't seem publish some new finding about a disease whose symptoms sound just like the aches and pains you've been feeling -- and surprisingly, they already have some new concoction, or an old one newly targeted, to help your worries. It's a wonder we're no all dead already, what with everything we should be suffering from. There are now cures for childhood.
Remember when you were a kid? Were you the extra quiet shy one? Well, you were probably suffering from the social disease of shyness -- or social anxiety disorder -- or selective mutism. Not to worry, there are drugs to modify your behaviour, and make you normal. They go by the names such as Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft or Luvox. Until these drugs were invented, who knew you weren't just shy, but had a disease? If you were the rambunctious kid, then you probably had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and there are a host of other drugs that could have helped you. Combined with years in therapy, you could have turned out normal. Instead ... wait, did you say you did turn out normal? Well, the miracles never end, do they?
Forgive my sarcasm there -- yes, there are those for whom a chronic case of shyness or hyperactivity could be cause for concern -- and probably therapy, both psychological and therapeutic would be called for -- but more and more, the diagnosis is being conferred on those reporting just a problem and to younger and younger children. The problem starts with all of us. Every little discomfort seems to require a quick fix. You have an upset stomach? Take a drug. Feeling down? Take a drug. The medical establishment is only too eager to comply -- doctors, supported by research by pharmaceutical companies, are only too quick to help ease every little discomfort. In fact, drug companies have been on the marketing warpath of late -- selling us drugs for problems we don't even know we have. We are becoming a society addicted to the quick fix drug -- and the pushers are our doctors backed by big pharma.
This will all change only when we start changing our behaviours. We've reached a point where youth and old age are considered diseases. We've gone mad. No wonder serious illnesses don't have cures. There's no money to be made from the few people who suffer from real diseases. There's lots to be made from the rest of us however, who are suffering with life.
Related reading:
Remember when you were a kid? Were you the extra quiet shy one? Well, you were probably suffering from the social disease of shyness -- or social anxiety disorder -- or selective mutism. Not to worry, there are drugs to modify your behaviour, and make you normal. They go by the names such as Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft or Luvox. Until these drugs were invented, who knew you weren't just shy, but had a disease? If you were the rambunctious kid, then you probably had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and there are a host of other drugs that could have helped you. Combined with years in therapy, you could have turned out normal. Instead ... wait, did you say you did turn out normal? Well, the miracles never end, do they?
Forgive my sarcasm there -- yes, there are those for whom a chronic case of shyness or hyperactivity could be cause for concern -- and probably therapy, both psychological and therapeutic would be called for -- but more and more, the diagnosis is being conferred on those reporting just a problem and to younger and younger children. The problem starts with all of us. Every little discomfort seems to require a quick fix. You have an upset stomach? Take a drug. Feeling down? Take a drug. The medical establishment is only too eager to comply -- doctors, supported by research by pharmaceutical companies, are only too quick to help ease every little discomfort. In fact, drug companies have been on the marketing warpath of late -- selling us drugs for problems we don't even know we have. We are becoming a society addicted to the quick fix drug -- and the pushers are our doctors backed by big pharma.
This will all change only when we start changing our behaviours. We've reached a point where youth and old age are considered diseases. We've gone mad. No wonder serious illnesses don't have cures. There's no money to be made from the few people who suffer from real diseases. There's lots to be made from the rest of us however, who are suffering with life.
Related reading:
- Hey, You Don't Look So Good -- the BusinessWeek article that prompted this little diatribe.
- Disease Mongering [PDF] -- a collection of articles from the Public Library of Science: Medicine journal.
- Disease Mongering -- article from the Center for Media and Democracy.
- Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering [PDF] -- journal article from BMJ.
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