Can't just slap a bandaid on it

So there is a girl. She's 4'11", and was told that at 85lbs she's anorexic. Along with this she is stressed, depressed, and has insomnia. So the doctor gave her sleeping medication and told her to be sure to eat.

This has been going on for years, but she only just got diagnosed.

True story.

Anyone else see something wrong with this picture? If you don't, then the system has you jaded.

The problem here is that the anorexia caused everything else.

Depression can be caused by a poor diet, and by not sleeping.
Insomnia can be caused by not eating, because the body will think that if it sleeps, it will die.
When you can't sleep, and are depressed, your stress rises.
When you don't eat, you get sick more often, causing depression and stress.
Not being able to sleep will make you depressed. Or vice-versa.

And yet the doctor gave her sleeping medication. Just a bandaid.

That's like telling someone who just slipped with the knife in the kitchen peeling potatoes and gashed their thumb bad enough where it needs stitches, to put a bandaid on it and they'll be fine.

This whole country is jaded into just healing the symptoms, and never getting to the route of the problem. And doctors are a major component in this. Part of it though are the malpractice suits, and since symptoms are safer to treat...

Yeah, I think you see where this is going.

Everyone is blaming bad habits and the like for why this country is full of sick people. I blame the fact that no one is getting treated for the cause of their problems!

If I were treating that girl, I'd have her on a regimented diet. Menus and all. Poor family or not, it's not difficult to have store-brand cereal with a bit of milk in the morning, a sandwich with a bit of lunch meat on it around midday, and then to make a meal with one meat and two veggies for dinner. It can be managed! It just might mean buying juice instead of soda. Not going to Starbucks or Dunkin' Doughnuts on your way to work every day during the week. Not buying those candy bars to tide yourself over. Bringing water from the tap instead of buying it bottled. Simple things.

How many other people out there remain sick though because just the symptoms get treated? Kind of scary to think about.

With my IBS, I was offered stuff that would treat the symptoms. If I took this med, it'd help stop acid production. And if I took the other one, it'd increase bacteria. While the next one would get rid of the constipation.

In the end, I just started to exercise more, and changed my diet to be more healthy, and it seems to have everything under control. Granted, there's no cure for IBS, but instead of just masking the symptoms I went to the root of the problem, and am working on regulating that instead. Seems a hell of a lot healthier to me.

So next time you go to the doctor, give them a little credit for all the schooling they went through. Stop thinking about filing for malpractice before the appointment has even happened. And listen. And tell them you don't want to treat symptoms, you want to find and treat the problem!

See what they say. See if they agree with you.

And if you're able to do this, see how much better you feel because of it. Your body will thank you.