Catie Beauvais-Lacasse January 14th, 2013 Honors Expository Ms.Reimer Topic: How autonomous are we?

How much control do we have in our lives?

The overreliance on drugs has slowly become a bigger problem as time goes by. It is clear that some people do in fact need to be medicated, but is it necessary for everyone with a minor problem to be immediately prescribed a pill? Americans seem to use drugs for many purposes that would not seem crucial; they do this because they think it is required. In the article Americas Love-Hate Relationship with Drugs, the author writes, While many people use mood-altering drugs recreationally, many others believe that they need their psychotropic drugs prescribed and illegal to function (Levine). This dependency on drugs is causing a significant problem of not being able to remain autonomous throughout life. The fact that Big Pharma is always looking for new medications to create is not helpful to society. A persons independence is greatly hindered when there is continuously a new drug being put on the market to help cure simple issues that could be dealt with without medicine. In the article Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War, the author says, It should come as no surprise that Big Pharma has been looking for a chemical intervention (Coleman). In other words, the drug companies have always been and will continue to look for a new way to make money off new drugs. This situation is important because it causes a lack of autonomy in a persons life. How can someone learn to deal with their problems independently if an outside force is always getting in the way? Drugs are being pushed upon people, and they dont do anything to stop it. Judith Warner, the author of

The Med Scare, shows some interesting statistics when she writes, Last year, an administrator at the Nebraska orphanage Girls and Boys Town said that more than 50 percent of the children coming into the institution were on some kind of psychotropic drug. Fifty percent is a large number, which makes this problem even more alarming. If children cannot learn to deal with their own issues, then how will they function properly as adults? Of course, many people will argue that these people need the drugs to go on with their lives, but these medications are being given out to people with minor psychological problems as well. Not everyone needs to be medicated. It is true that there are people in real need of drugs, but they shouldnt rely on the medicine to fix them. This overreliance will cause a lack of self-sufficiency for people in the future if they dont try to understand and fix their issues without medication. No one will be able to function on their own if they dont stop their unnecessary dependence on drugs. Technology is another aspect of our lives that is slowly taking control of our autonomy. People can not say to no to their electronic devices; it has become a need to constantly answer texts or emails. Not answering immediately will haunt you and hang over your head until you give in. This is a problem because our addiction to connection interferes with the way we communicate with others. It causes us to become less independent; we are unable to do anything without technology. In the article, An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness, it says, The deeper a technology is woven into the patterns of everyday life, the less choice we have about whether and how we use that technology (Parker-Pope). Although it is true that technology is useful for many things, there should be a line drawn at some point. People have become obsessed with it, dependent of its use for almost everything. In the documentary Digital Nation,

principal Jason Levy says that Technology is like oxygen. Many people assume that they are immune to the charms of technology, that they can put their electronic devices down at anytime, but these people are unaware of their addiction. Jason Levy recognizes that people believe technology is a necessity in life, just like Big Pharma tries to make drugs seem necessary as well.

American culture is greatly shaping the attitude of all its citizens. The portrayal of how necessary and useful both drugs and technology are creates a lack of smart decisions in all Americans. The media portrays drugs as essential to society claiming we cannot function without them. The number of times that people have heard that it is necessary to get some type of medication is too numerous to count. We have no control over taking drugs at least not the prescription ones. When doctors say that you need to take something to cure an illness or a problem, then you take it no questions asked. This is because people trust the judgment of their doctors. In The Med Scare, Judith Warner says that Abuse of prescription drugs is a reality in upper middle class communities, where high school and college students use pilfered ADHD meds like so much No Doz to try to attain better academic results. These drugs are overprescribed by the doctors when there is a great possibility of getting better grades without the help of medication. The control is nonexistent when it comes to prescription medications, but when considering recreational drugs, there is slightly more of a choice. A person can either decide to take the drugs and be considered cool, or they can ignore the pressure with difficulty. Being accepted is a major part of society; it is an important concern for many people today. It is hard to exercise autonomy when there is so much pressure to be socially accepted.

American culture plays an important role in shaping the attitude about drugs. Whenever I watch television, there will always be some show that demonstrates popular teenagers doing drugs, and they look happy and cool doing it. This makes it seem as though doing drugs is necessary to be considered popular; what the media portrays to be right and wrong automatically becomes the reality. Being accepted feels like it is the most important thing in the world at a young adults age, so refusing to do drugs when pressured is extremely difficult for teenagers. We may have some control if we are strong-willed, but the majority of us arent, making us more susceptible to losing our autonomy when considering drugs. (change this paragraph to a more formal format to get point across.) Consumerism and doing what others are doing can have negative consequences.

Typically, the concern about our dependence on technology is that it detracts from our time with family and friends in the real world. But psychologists have become intrigued by a more subtle and insidious effect of our online interactions. It may be that the immediacy of the Internet, the efficiency of the iPhone and the anonymity of the chat room change the core of who we are. Texting and I.M.ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort, wrote one student. When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable. The deeper a technology is woven into the patterns of everyday life, the less choice we have about whether and how we use that technology,

The problem is similar to an eating disorder, says Dr. Kimberly Young, a professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York who has led research on the addictive nature of online technology. Technology, like food, is an essential part of daily life, and those suffering from disordered online behavior cannot give it up entirely and instead have to learn moderation and controlled use. (link to eating disorders here.) In the past, companies have termed suicidal acts as emotional instability and withdrawal symptoms as symptoms due to stopping the prescribed medication! We have to accept that no drug is safe. In practice, we will have to consider the possible benefits and the potential risks. The claims of superiority for the [newer drugs] were greatly exaggerated. This may have been encouraged by an overly expectant community of clinicians and patients eager to believe in the power of new medications. At the same time, the aggressive marketing of these drugs may have contributed to this enhanced perception of their effectiveness in the absence of empirical information. A proper evaluation of the symptoms and history can make the patient aware of the relationship between external events and his illness, and help him gain insight. Researchers worry that constant digital stimulation like this creates attention problems for children with brains that are still developing, who already struggle to set priorities and resist impulses. Mr. Nass at Stanford thinks the ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html? pagewanted=4&_r=0&fta=y

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