Overdose

There's a new epidemic, and it might not come from where you think. When thinking of epidemics, images of disease and suffering pop into mind as poor and innocent souls are ravaged with devastating symptoms. However, in this age of profound medical advancements, the biggest enemy is ourselves.
In "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," Miner states that "man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of powerful influences" in this "highly developed market economy." While this piece's main purpose is to satirize the beauty standards and strive to alter the natural body, it also criticizes the ability and willingness for Americans to consume medication at free will simply due to the ability to afford it. Its almost become a "ritual" where even the most minor of symptoms will lead to copious amounts of doctor visits and subsequent medications. It's almost as if "were it not for the rituals...they believe that their teeth would fall out;" and while this may simply seem as a harmless life choice made to the disadvantage of those consumers, it affects us all.
In the counter intuitive game of cat and mouse, the relationship between the mutation of diseases and the need for scientists to develop a cure is a deadly match that results in the downfall to those who didn't cause the problem. As more and more medication is taken, there is a general resistance developed by the pathogens which basically allows them to resist the medicine - also known as drug resistance. The frustrating part of this is that the ones who are responsible for this phenomenon are those who unnecessarily abuse drugs and the ones who are left to suffer the consequences are those doing the right thing. Because it takes a vast quantity of money and time to produce a new drug, we are left with the obsolete drug to take care of the newly resistant pathogen. Therefore, people who are newly and more severely infected with the pathogen are left without options to ease the pain. Meanwhile the source of this problem can blissfully and guiltlessly recline on a couch of empty medicine containers. One of the most ignored problems today, there needs to be a call to action to stop this epidemic.