(ThySistas.com) $775 billion dollars.
The above number is the amount of revenue pharmaceutical companies saw in 2015 based on research from the US Government Accountability Office. I want to be surprised by this number, but I am not. Pharmacies provide chemical compounds in the form of liquids and pills that help relieve pain. Notice I said relieve pain. I did not say cure pain. There is no real cure to all pains and ailments that exist, but medicine helps us to be able to function in society. It helps us to be the greatest cheerleader at a basketball game or give that awesome presentation at a crucial board meeting. Unfortunately, it can not solve all the problems we have, and it is imperative that we start figuring out what pills can not help.
First, medicine can not develop our personalities. While there are medications that help you to be a more functioning part of society, we have the ultimate control of who we are and how we treat others. Being a teacher with this current generation allows me to witness a lot of students with Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder (ADHD). Most of these students consume some type of medication before or during school 
so they can participate in class activities without causing an extreme distraction. None of these students I teach, however, have exactly the same personality. Some are outgoing and talkative. Some are quiet and reserve. Some hate that one student that just has to ask the same question three times in class. Some love to read aloud just to hear themselves speak. These traits are a combination of life experiences and genetic predisposition. Waiting for medication to change or develop a person is in vain and a waste of time.
Another attribute of self medicine cannot help is how we deal with life events. Yes, there are medications to help with delivering a baby. Yes, there are treatments help you live longer and healthier after enduring cancer. These medicines do not determine your attitude and reactions to what happens. That is your choice and your life. Fenty model Slick Woods is a perfect example of this. Woods is currently enduring chemotherapy treatments in order to quell the effects of melanoma cancer. Instead of being depressed or upset, she chooses to live and laugh. There are many others like her that choose to deal with cancer the same way. This is not to say that the situation is not serious, but it is a way of coping with a situation that is dire and bleak. Life is a guarantee gut puncher. It will hit you with any and everything it can because it is not programmed to be perfect or exact. No matter the number of pills or injections or powders you consume to run away from it, it will do whatever it wants. Waiting on a chemical compound to cure it is pointless.
Every morning, I wake up and ingest 4 to 5 pills for different physical and mental issues. I would love to depend on these small circular jewels to solve my problems, but they can not. They can not decide who I am. They can not determine how I treat myself and others. I have to work daily to be a better person for me and for those I love. A pill did not teach me that lesson. My reaction to life did.
Staff Writer; J. W. Bella
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