Overprescribed and Addicted

In today’s society there are constantly advertisements played on TV for a new drug. At the end of almost all of those commercials it says “Ask your doctor about…” With the technology we have today, America is a very fast paced culture. If we want an answer we simply Google it. As a whole we are always trying to progress forward with the newest video game or drug. This style of culture we have may result in why we go to pills for our problems. Drugs and other medication can be a simple, quick, and easy fix.

In french, my class studied some of their cultural beliefs on healthcare and medicine. The teacher explained how french people don’t go to the doctor for simple things as we do. Instead of treating children who have ADHD with prescription drugs, they believe it can be fixed by changing behaviors, such as sleep, and the child’s diet. It was very interesting to see the differences between both cultures.

People can try to push doctors to give them the certain medicine they want. It can be difficult to diagnose someone because doctors cannot tell exactly what someone is feeling. Patients can lie about certain symptoms to make it seem like they need the medication for it. Some people become so use to taking a certain medicine that their body becomes immune to it so they will try to get a stronger or different medicine. ER’s are trying to implement new systems to track how many times and how many prescriptions a person has had to see if they are a possible drug addict. People who actually need the medication should be able to get it, but addicts and overprescribing medications are ruining this for them.

image from google images