Disease-mongering

Have you noticed how pharmaceutical companies market disease to prompt people to buy their medicines?

Actors and actresses in ads sneeze, cough, writhe in supposed pain, and put on a show of utter misery to catch viewer’s attention. Then a drug is promoted that is claimed to reverse the symptoms of suffering.

The Washington Post recently reported on television ads that graphically depict restless legs syndrome. The article tells of concerns by experts who believe viewers will start believing they have a disease they don’t have if they experience some of the symptoms they see in the ads. And there may be nothing wrong with them at all.

The article states, “The debate has focused attention on what some have dubbed ‘disease-mongering’—taking something that is within normal bounds and labeling it a disease needing pharmaceutical treatment.”

“We’re increasingly turning normal people into patients,” said Lisa M. Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical School. “The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they’re sick,” Schwartz added.

It’s time to rise in spiritual rebellion to the marketing tactics of Madison Avenue!

If we wish to stay healthy, we mustn’t be sponges soaking in every bit of information we see on television or reported in the press.

When we see advertisements for disease, we can block the pained pictures out of view and thought. We don’t have to carry mental impressions of suffering around in our mental household.

Images of love, truth, and life are better suited to maintaining a happy healthy existence.