I find it rather disturbing that more and more medications are airing commercials on TV. Every time I turn on the TV I’m seeing commercials for this drug and that drug. Why? Why should we care that there is a drug for everything that ails you? Shouldn’t that information be for doctor’s only? After all, they are the ones that need to prescribe the medications.
I am sure that all these drug commercials cause people to walk into their doctor’s office and demand prescriptions for this and that.
Do you ever read the fine print or carefully listen to the stuff that is quickly read about the side effects of these drugs? Some have been known to cause heart attacks, high blood pressure, cancer and even death. Oh yeah! I want that drug. Sign me up.
WHATEVER!
Whenever we see those commercials my husband and I always joke around … “may cause you to grow a second head…may cause you to turn into a chicken… may cause you to look like a Oompa Loompa“. Ha Ha.
Take for example postpartum depression. I am grateful that I didn’t suffer with that after the birth of both my kids. It’s a very REAL problem for many women. Even regular depression is a very serious problem. I know a few people who are clinically depressed. Their depression medication list is a mile long. I feel horrible that people have to take so much medication. No one should have to be stuffing themselves with all these medications just so they can feel better and get relief from their symptoms.
I have actually met people who don’t know how to deal with depression so they rush to their doctor and demand medication. There is a medical form of depression and a depression you feel when you are very sad. There is actually a difference. You can’t demand medication because you are having a bad day or week. Personally I’ve had a really (REALLY!) rough week, but that is not going to make me want to take a medication for no reason.
Do you think that all these medical advertisements – on TV, in print and online – are only making things worst? Who is benefiting from the sale of the medications? The drug companies of course! They seem to feel it’s OK to advertise medication that could cause blindness, cancer and death on TV in between watching your favorite shows.
Personally I think they should remove all medication ads from TV and print. If you want to find out what kind of medciations are availble, Google it. Do you know what I mean?
Too bad chocolate couldn’t be a cure all. Can you imagine that? Imagine you have a really bad cold or the flu and your doctor tells you to take two chocolate bars and call him in the morning. Ahhh… only in a perfect world. LOL!
OK…stepping down from my soap box now.
I hope you have a HEALTHY day. 🙂
Kimberly
Angela Michels says
I get scared when I hear all the side effects of meds out there. I am kind of glad that they have the commercials because I know a lot of people do not take the time to read possible side effects and they just trust their doctors to take whatever is thrown their way. Besides the fact that the pharmacy usually gives you a novel sized manual with each drug. I started seeing commercials and it made me more curious to check out the side effects each time I had something prescribed. I do not like taking meds but if your condition is severe enough that you can’t live a normal life any other way then the meds look pretty good to you. After being in a car accident, I had no choice. My son is also on meds for schizophrenia currently. With the meds, he is a normal child. Without them he is scared to go to sleep at night because of the shadows that chase him around his room. They have horrible side effects when dealing with any anti-psychotic medication but without them the effects on him are twice as bad. 🙁 Sometimes you are stuck between a rock and a hard place and you really don’t have a choice but to take them at the chance of getting a little relief. 🙁
Angela Michels
anna pry says
I used to work for a physician and drug reps came in all the time, I had stacks of their business cards. They schedule lunch to talk to the doctor and we were booked for lunch at least 6 mo in advance. Every day I asked the doc where he wanted lunch from, got the menu, took down the orders for all the nurses and staff, called the restaurant to put in the order then called the drug rep to let him know where to pick up our food from. Free lunch every day from anywhere we wanted. And that’s just at one small office, think how many meals drug companies are paying for in the U.S. Now you see just one more reason why doctors give out so many drugs and it costs consumers so much to use them.