HW 19 - Family Perspectives on Illness & Dying

I remember my dad once telling me about the placebo effect - that some medicines helps people simply because they think it will help them. At the time, I had a fever, so this annoyed me to no end. However, after having asked about how his parents handled illness, I now understand why he was so against taking medicine for minor health problems.

My father's main memory of illness in his family was when he was five, and his mom broke her back. The family had been about to go on a trip, and they almost canceled it. In the end, they decided to go - she made herself a bed in the backseat of the car, and "toughed it out". She could only stand up or lie down, so when they stopped to eat at a restaurant, she had to eat standing up.

"Toughing it out" seemed to be the general prescription for any sickness my dad dealt with as a kid (mumps, chicken pox, etc), and the thing he usually told me to do when I was sick. When I talked with my mom, she seemed to have a different perspective on it, saying that without some medicines (antibiotics) she probably wouldn't be alive - she had measles and scarlet fever as a kid, which were serious illnesses at the time. She added that sometimes, there really isn't any other option than to take medicine - even if it's just a headache, would you rather suffer or feel better in half an hour after taking an Advil?

I tend to fall somewhere in between - if I'm not feeling well, I usually try to get some rest and drink water before I take medicine. In the United States, prescription medicine is heavily advertised on TV and in magazines, and I think that this makes people very quick to take medicine for every little thing, and they tend to abuse it. This also makes medicine less effective, because viruses evolve to become resistant to antibiotics, which is why there are always new strains of viruses, like swine flu (H1N1).

When I approached the subject of dying, my mom said that she doesn't think people ever really acknowledge the fact that they're going to die - they're in denial. I agree with this, and I think this stops people from really living their lives - maybe if they realized that they are indeed going to die one day, they would make more of the time they actually have (cliche, I know), and try to live happier lives.