"Our Unhealthy Obsession with Sickness" by Frank Furedi

In the essay "Our Obsession with Sickness" by Frank Furedi, we see several problems involving health all around the world and how it is affecting our nation. The author points out several issues in which many can relate to. First, Furedi mentions "medicalisation" which he refers to as the problems that people face on a daily basis and are reinterpreted as medical ones (484).  He provides example of situations like this, for instance now when people are described as shy the term changes and becomes social phobia. It seems as if by one simple term or condition too many extremes are taken that aren't necessarily needed. Furedi's next point is "a presupposition that illness is as normal as health" which he states that now a days it's completely normal to be ill and everyone is viewed as potentially ill. Moreover, he addresses that health is used to make sense of the human experience and last the issues of politicisation of health. The government takes advantage of the global problem and since illness is increasing they are benefiting more with profits. Frank Furedi presents a lot of interesting points that people need to take into consideration more to prevent each other form getting ill and living a healthy and happy life.

I absolutely enjoyed reading this essay. It was informative and i thought that the issues addressed are a wake up call to many because in the end we are the one's who get affected by the issue. I felt like i could relate to the part where he mentions that government benefits from people being ill because I recently had surgery and luckily i had insurance to pay for it other wise it would have been a lot of money needed. I think it's sad they they take advantage of people because their are some people that truly need help and it's sad that the little money earned has to be used for their medical needs. One should be precocious and do anything we can to maintain our selves healthy.