Doc & Med Obsessions?

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su-texas@webtv.net - 26 Nov 2003 12:50 GMT

I meet people (young & old) who are obsessed with their health, with
seeing doctors & taking medications (many).

They don't want to learn or know about things like nutrition, good
dental care, good health care & habits, exercise, positive mental focus,
goal setting, etc. Instead, they want to focus & depend on docs &
medications for almost everything.

This doesn't make sense to me. It isn't logical or practical. It can
waste a lot of time & money, & ruin one's health. I can't understand
this mindset. [Attention-Seeking?]

???

Susan, Su_Texas my opinions

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A. P. Thorsen - 26 Nov 2003 15:26 GMT

> I meet people (young & old) who are obsessed with their health, with
> seeing doctors & taking medications (many).
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> goal setting, etc. Instead, they want to focus & depend on docs &
> medications for almost everything.

To some, life seems more manageable if someone else is responsible for
their problems. Nutrition, exercise, etc., involve personal
responsibility, focus, discipline, and *work*. It's so much easier to
take a "magic" pill, and think of the doctor as responsible for making
one better.

We'd all like to have our enjoyable bad habits, and good health at the
same time. Wishful thinking allows us to believe we won't pay for
smoking, over-eating, not exercising, etc.

Advertising of OTC medications (and diets, etc.) reinforces the idea
that we can have good results with no work or responsibility on our own
part.

Nice theory. Sells drugs and diets. T'ain't true!

Ann T.
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Tim Jackson - 26 Nov 2003 22:20 GMT

> To some, life seems more manageable if someone else is responsible for
> their problems. Nutrition, exercise, etc., involve personal
> responsibility, focus, discipline, and *work*. It's so much easier to
> take a "magic" pill, and think of the doctor as responsible for making
> one better.

If you take responsibility for your own health, then you have no-one to sue
when it eventually fails.

D'ye think this relates to a discussion I heard recently where it was
suggested that brain degradation with age is not so inevitable as had been
thought.

The suggestion was that people who enjoy life and savour the positive things
keep their faculties longer and repair brain damage, whereas miserable
brains tend to atrophy.

I can't help feeling that this goes along with taking responsibility for
one's life as opposed to denial and looking for someone to blame for life's
defects, on the "what you don't use, you lose" basis. Solving problems
rather than running away from them is likely to be healthier brain exercise.

Tim Jackson

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SssynSmrt - 26 Nov 2003 19:25 GMT

Hi Susan:

Don't you think that people want a quick fix
(read medicine) for what ails them? It's easier to take a pill to lose weight,
lower blood pressure and cholesterol than it is to diet and exercise.

A great example is the common cold which lasts 7-10 days no matter what you do.
You can't make it go away any faster.

As far as nutrition goes, we all know that people in this country consume way
too much of all the wrong kinds of food. Fast usually wins over healthy.

And, did you know that the cheese industry works really hard with the Pizza
people to make sure that there's lot of cheese on and in pizzas?

Sassy

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A man - 04 Dec 2003 15:46 GMT

> I meet people (young & old) who are obsessed with their health, with
> seeing doctors & taking medications (many).
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> waste a lot of time & money, & ruin one's health. I can't understand
> this mindset. [Attention-Seeking?]

Some people were just raised that way, to take pills when things go
wrong. You don't want to change them, that's just the way they are. I
think that pills, especially ones you take for a long time, could be
hard on the liver.

Plus, the TV gives us messages about all these pills, as if they were
the cure all for all our problems, when they really aren't.

Good nutrition will help a lot of things, but it is not a cure-all
either and some people do need meds for certain things.

Signature

Say no to fixed width tables. They look terrible.

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Glenfiddich - 05 Dec 2003 18:16 GMT

>> I meet people (young & old) who are obsessed with their health, with
>> seeing doctors & taking medications (many).
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>Plus, the TV gives us messages about all these pills, as if they were
>the cure all for all our problems, when they really aren't.

We can put the pill-pushing in perspective by remembering that
the list of each pills unwanted side-effects is MUCH longer than
its list of benefits!

>Good nutrition will help a lot of things, but it is not a cure-all
>either and some people do need meds for certain things.

A healthy diet and life-style are absolutely basic requirements,
but can not by themselves actually cure anything.

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