Have illnesses become the new must have?

I was at a friend's party a year or so ago, and another guest appeared to be showing off about her child's ADHD (right in front of him). Almost as if it were more status-y to share that tidbit of information instead of the once tried and true, my-son's-on-the-Honor-Roll. As a bonus the child added, "Yeah, and Mom sometimes takes my meds." And everyone chuckled as if it were a cute, normal exchange. Evidently, she self-diagnosed herself after watching a commercial and felt she must have ADHD too.

These days, between television commercials for cars we gotta drive, and shitty fast food we gotta eat, we find ads for pharmaceutical drugs. And with these ads we see healthy actors smiling through a long, frightening list of "possible" side-effects ("We don't know if we can trust the silly patients used in our clinical trials"). As if they're subliminally saying, "Sure this drug could cause new symptoms, worsen your existing symptoms and/or kill you...but pay more attention to how good I look and feel while I'm on it," (even though I'm just a fucking actor you morons, oops customers, I mean audience).

What is happening to us?

4 Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs:

Big Pharma uses ads that sow hypochondria, raise health fears and sell diseases to adults and their children.