Disease

Disease is not failure. Disease is a normal natural occurrence. Human beings in affluent nations have developed a phobic culture around disease. 

This is due in part to media marketing by soap manufacturers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical providers, who are employed by money-making institutions. Public health officials have also contributed to this phobic attitude toward disease. In an attempt to use modern media to prevent disease, they have crafted messages which are tinged with moral judgments. 

By making people phobic about disease, health providers succeed in diminishing the likelihood that the symptomatic will seek early treatment. The persistence of STDs in societies with high education levels is evidence of this. The thought of being diagnosed with an STD is more frightening than the deleterious effects of having/spreading an STD in denial and silence. 

Those who promote products for disease prevention also compound the problem of disease phobia by implying that disease is always preventable by following simple steps A through Z. The implication here is that the person who becomes ill is a slacker or just simply uninformed. Since a great deal of disease is due to genetic disposition or contagion, promoting an ideal that all disease can be prevented by a certain regime is dishonest nonsense. 

The phobic nature of attitudes toward disease also makes it difficult to teach preventative health techniques effectively. The anxiety of patients about disease makes them regress into a dependent posture. They want to be cured, since just thinking about disease prevention makes them anxious. There is a general lack of taking responsibility for both disease and its prevention in a disease-phobic society. 

Disease is an inevitable fact of every life. Education is the best weapon against disease phobia. Understanding that life is mortal, with an inevitable aging and death, can lead to an acceptance of stewardship for the body. Unlike cars, which can be fixed by a mechanic on demand while the driver goes about his/her business, the human body is both vehicle and person. There is an increasingly informative and effective user's manual for the human body, thanks to scientific research. Learning to be an informed user my own body is my best approach to dealing with disease and promoting my own health.

I consider this responsible approach to my own body's health to be a central part of my humanist practice. After all, what good can I be to my environment if I am unable to function physically and mentally due to disabling disease? This is not a matter of morality. This is a matter of practicality. And, if I am unwell, what good will it do to avoid dealing with my disease with open eyes and mind? None, obviously. Learning to accept disease as part of my life has helped me to survive mentally and physically, despite serious challenges to my health. Educating myself about disease and its scientific treatment has significantly extended my life.