When the old pills don't work...

I wallowed in self-pity not too long ago, frustrated with situations a little beyond my control. I grabbed the ice cream and chocolate-covered cookies from the freezer and applied liberally to my damaged emotions. The effect did not mask the lurking suspicion that I should be breaking some law. While healthy I was not being, the FDA had not (yet) ruled on whether to make hot fudge sundaes and the like available only by a prescription.

The Associated Press recorded Fred Eckel, a teacher of pharmacy at UNC, as saying, "There tends to be a reliance on drugs as the first option." When I get done with a difficult day at work, I will put in a movie and watch without thinking- perhaps for an hour or two- and wait until I have covered wounds with a new dressing. While not technically drugs, my medications do not treat the root of my insecurities; I suppose that self-medicating by today's distractions will work for no one.

A curious part of the AP article is that it found more than an estimated 125,000 people die from drug reactions and mistakes each year (in the US). That makes it the fourth most common cause of death. I wonder if we may not, through our self-medication, cause other kinds of death: there is the death of a relationship by neglect; death of love by cheap imitations; death of true and full happiness from the quick rush of happiness. The quick route to appeasement may kill all that is good and best in life. And I worry that too often I seek the bandage to sooth rather than seeking a cure.

(Information procured from newsmax.com http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/4/18/94035.shtml)