There’s always a risk

As I was getting ready for work this morning I had WGN morning news on in the background. I was half listening to today’s headlines when I heard a very strange commercial. It was for some prescription medication to battle depression; I’m not sure what the pill was called. There are so many as it is. This one however seemed to have the strangest of side effect warnings. It said use of this product may cause an increased risk of death.  I’m not kidding you. That’s what it said. I’m pretty sure I heard it right because it nearly stopped me in my toothbrushing tracks.

Increased chance of death as a side effect to a medication? How increased? Like, if I take these happy pills I’ll significantly shorten my lifespan. I think that would make me more depressed. I mean what’s the thinking there? “I’m happy now, but soon I’ll be worm food. I need more pills”. Then I thought, what in this world doesn’t come with an increased risk of death. Every time we step out of our doors we’ve dramatically increased the chances that we won’t be coming home.

Everything we do comes with its own inherent risks, unless of course you stay shut up in your place all the time wearing a tin foil hat and suit, all the furniture is covered with bubble wrap, you use the kindergarten scissors and round sheets of paper. Of course you’ll probably get some sort of poisoning from the tin foil or trip on the bubble wrap and impale yourself in the throat with the scissors.

But a medication that clearly advertizes that use of its product might kill you? I think we’ve gone too far and it’s time to start scaling back our dependence on medications to cure what ails us. I don’t take any medications at all. I’ll rarely take aspirin if I can avoid it. (I usually self-medicate with booze, but that’s different. Cough.) I’m just not sure when people decided they’d rather take a pill for the rest of their natural lives than attempt to deal with the issues in their brains. I am considering those with a severe chemical imbalance; they fall into a different category and they are different than those that simply choose to take a pill over reasonably dealing with their issues in a constructive way.   

Risk is everywhere and those that face that risk become the idols and standards of societal heroism. We measure ourselves by the great acts of others and we often hope to achieve those heights. It is in our nature to aspire to be the best versions of ourselves we can be, or at least that is my hope. I’ve see a lot of evidence to the contrary. I hope there’s pill I can take that will blind me to the ills of society and just think everything is great, just like, really great.  

Side effects of reading this blog may include: Nausea, mouth/foot disease, anal leakage, restless fingernail disorder, purple rectal monkeys, snot dragons, shortness of breath, elevated brain fluids, skepticism, alien abductions, flights of fancy and your eventual death through natural causes.