Self medication simply means administering treatment without the advice of a doctor or the ability to purchase medicine for the treatment of your physical disorder.
Many a time most self medicated medicines are normally over the counter drugs in treating health ailments at home as well as dietary supplements.
There are numerous reasons why people self medicate. Here are a few:
Most people don’t have any choice than to self medicate because they believe it is cheaper to buy drugs from the pharmacy than to go to the hospital. To a large extent, poverty plays a major role in self medication.
Others also sometimes try to use medications that have been prescribed for their friends.
A number of people are also afraid of visiting the hospital.
Quite a number of people have died in administering self medication wrongly. In the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, there has been different opinions or views on how to boost the immune system with all kinds of drugs, alcohol and concoctions.
I read online about a senior citizen in the US, who died after he tried self medicating with a substance, chloroquine phosphate to prevent Covid-19.
A recent post I read on Facebook is another incident that happened in Maryland, USA about a man who died for consistently consuming large dose of ginger and garlic concoctions for the prevention of Covid-19. He became unwell from a condition that caused the perforation of the stomach and intestinal organs. This is very sad and should not be tolerated.
During the time of our grandparents, they used herbal remedies to cure most diseases. Medicinal plants were so effective in treating their ailments. There were no hospitals unlike today, but they survived. They were cautious about what they ate or drank. They consumed their herbal formula in smaller doses to cure their ailments. My great grandmother turned one hundred and twelve, while my grand mother turned ninety six before they all died. They never visited any hospital and were strong.
In recent times, self medication has become the order of the day especially for the poor, and it must seriously be addressed. Doctors have warned several times about self medication and its harmful effects. One needs to consult his or her physician at all times for the right diagnosis and prescription.
- Self medication is dangerous and can bring complications because one might not know the underlying cause of his or her disease.
- Self medication can also worsen the condition you are trying to treat if you don’t administer the right dosage.
- Self medication in extreme cases of an overdose can lead to death.
Avoid self medication because it has a lot of negative effects.