Bodily Responsibility
When thinking of the act of consuming medication to treat an abnormality of the biochemical processes of the body we may immediately gloss over the experience; take for granted the hastily performed act of swallowing, applying, injecting or inhaling a drug. So commonplace is taking a prescription drug in the U.S., we think nothing of taking daily supplements, complicated and calculated vitamin regimens, diet pills, caffeine pills, Tylenol and aspirin, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, anxiolytics and any other number of pills that are aggressively marketed with a primary, if not subtle message than "make your life better". The complication here is that so many supplements and medications are solely for enhancement rather than correcting an abnormality, be it on or off the label. This realm of treatment holds on to the notion of bodily responsibility, which suggests the maintenance of our bodies through responsible living can be tied to moral worth. This includes healthful diets, exercise, fluid intakes and lifestyle actions that serve to make up for the abuse bodies in developed areas of the world often undergo. Pollution, undue stress, alcohol and processed foods are just some to mention.
This enhancement by medication, unique to such highly developed nations as the U.S., is both injurious and moral. Stemming from the hyper-awareness of the importance of proper and balanced nutrition that the modern era has produced paired with the demands of the modern lifestyle, which does not support a body’s optimal functioning, provides a breeding ground for not only bodily guilt but an industry to enhance and perfect all perceived shortcomings for the individual.
These enhancement drugs can act as replacements for responsible bodies in a convenient method of consumption. Our monstrous nutritional supplement industry can surely attest to our nation’s high regards of the body as well as the poor treatment these bodies receive. The pharmaceutical industry’s constant wave of new options to better one’s life, particularly by mood elevating and stabilizing, is almost drowning. This ideal of the responsible body is supported, I propose, by the ever expanding consumer market for not only remedies for such modern lifestyle nuisances as sleeplessness, anxiety, high BMIs or blood pressure, depression, body aches and pains and all things that involve or revolve around stress but also muscle building supplements, diet aides, sexual enhancement products and energy drinks that are there to make us almost superhuman in our abilities. This all seems to suggest that no matter what, we are never optimal and never as good as we could be.
In addition to the drugs and supplements themselves, research on these issues has become consumerized, with health books and magazines, websites and lifestyle products and TV shows focusing on what “recent studies show”. Health research acts as fuel for this phenomena and the consumerist market of lifestyle products and supplements stokes the fire. How biomedicalizing of mental illness has augmented this market and shifted the role of the patient is of intense interest to me, which will be explored in a separate paper at a later date.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly where the concern and sense of bodily responsibility came from. In Western biomedical discourse we’ve been told our bodies are objects we own, that they are finite and have to be diligently maintained and repaired. This objectification of our own bodies can cause responsible care-taking in addition to abuse. When the body is at once separated from the self and made into an object to maintain, treat and learn about, while also made into a thing of ownership, a choice in the way we treat this object naturally arises and develops separate moral pathways. We can see this when bodies are mistreated by substance abuse while some strive to live clean lifestyles of veganism and yoga, but it is this objectification that helps us better position our treatment trajectory while allowing for gross misuse as it is not us we are abusing, it is our distanced body. While “our body, our choice” may remind us of the birth control debate four decades prior, in this case it finds subtle justification of mistreatment and lack of responsible body care- taking. In the 21st. century developed world, our choice regarding our bodies can mean the choice to cut it, inject it, burn it, scar it and introduce it to any number of harmful, and beneficial, substances and environments. A strong trend in duality exists; high-stress jobs can lower moods and even prompt clinical mood abnormalities. While a great respect for biomedical science can send us to the psychiatrist for a relatively quick-fix, as not all psychopharmaceuticals can alleviate symptoms right away, coordinated life-style changes have also entered the ongoing discourse on mental health treatment. This shows a regard for the evidence based medicine that has bolstered the supplement and life-enhancing drug market but also recognition of bodily ownership and the responsibilities it entails. Whether a constant onslaught of energy drinks and Vitamin B12, an energizing anti-depressant or a return to a life-style that can restore and maintain energy, we are never at lost for choices. These choices can represent how we view the body, the mind and the ownership of the being we live in and the industry we’ve built speaks volumes on our treatment ideals and expectations. A better understanding of these views and experiences will undoubtedly bring forth some issues with the mental health care system and a wealth of both qualitative and quantitative data on the psychology of health in general.
