The Danger of Self Care, Self Medication, and Self Prescription

I really wish I can about places I haven't been to but my physical real-life experience with people when it comes to the love for their health is limited to where my eyes and legs have reached and I have noticed something very common amongst people here and that is they do not know what prescription is.

I have spent about 2 years in the current place I live and I realize that people there find going to the hospital a big deal and while they have a fault with that, the hospital also wants to milk them dry or just treat them like they are experimenting on lab rats. A lot of them do not know what prescription is because they believe they will be charged for it.

Most cases they prefer herbal solution where they rely on their knowledge or the one passed down to them by their parents to know the dosage to consume, bath with, or steam their body with. I am not against herbal medications because a lot of our synthesized medications were gotten from herbs. The ones that manage to get the medications rely on their family member or friend who is an auxiliary nurse to help with prescriptions.

It is not the job of a nurse to prescribe but these people do not know this and the ones that know just trust whatever their family or friends are telling them while some believes that ones the pharmacists writes the prescription on the medication, they will be charged extra. Actually, the majority of the people do not visit certified pharmacists to get medications because if they do, they will be asked for prescriptions rather they visit roadside drug vendors who are only interested in selling what people ask and most times do not even know what they are selling.

^wikimedia

There are three problems to tackle here, not visiting the hospital is one, not going to a pharmacists is another, and those who get the drugs do not get prescription. These three issues now sits down and make life difficult for the people who are into these because their health becomes like a game of poker. In another turn of event, they just keep purchasing these medications and just keep using them especially antibiotics to a point where they begin to suffer from antibiotic resistance which leads to terrible problems during surgery.

You would want to believe that these people aren't enlightened or didn't go to school but you will be so shocked to know that a lot of them did and so many now even see google as their doctor who prescribes for them. They go to drug stores, get the medication after asking Google which medication would work, then go to google to ask for prescription for use which can eventually lead to a lot of terrible things in their life.

If you are one who doesn't see going to the hospital as a necessity, then you should because a lot of things can go wrong from self-medicating and self-care from resistant, to treating the wrong thing that never really existed, to difficulty during surgery, as well as other complications that comes with health.

^{FOR FURTHER READING}

^{https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9537481/
https://www.gatewayfoundation.org/blog/dangers-of-self-medication
https://redcarehmo.com/2018/08/17/dangers-self-medication/
https://www.themdu.com/guidance-and-advice/guides/self-prescribing
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20786190.2014.980155
https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/dangers-of-self-medication/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5051244/}