Today's Society is Suicide

photo from Jac Jac's World

During the three days I spent in bed due to fever, a horrible headache and tonsilitis I was more worried about not being able to do my group blog assignment for university, screwing a presentation next Tuesday and not getting done with an essay a week before the deadline than thinking about my health. I couldn't help but wonder: Why are we always busy thinking about success when, at the end of the day, staying alive is the real success.

I only went to the doctor to get a paper for uni that says that I am ill. I'm glad I went as the doctor said I need antibiotics. Tonsilitis without a treatment with antibiotics can be dangerous for the heart. And I only thought about the stupid paper for uni.

I told my friend I could not come in to uni because of tonsilitis. She laughed at me saying, I clearly could come to uni with tonsilitis as her brother went to school for his GCSE exam with bronchitus. But, what's a GCSE worth when you are dead?

So many people go to work ill...or half dead. They work for twelve hours, get bullied and feel worse the next morning. Then they take a pill and go to work again.
Seriously, we HAVE to treat our bodies better.

I might sound like a hypocrit to some people. Here in England people call me the "beer lady" as I loved to drink two or three beers every day. I smoked for seven years and my eating behaviour was not that of a role model as well. Did you notice the tense?

I had to go through a lot to learn how horrible I am treating my body. At the beginning of this year, I had circulation problems daily, a mysterious stomach pain that no one could explain and on top of that I could not leave the house alone anymore. I was just a mess. I went to doctors nearly every day, but all they did was doing tests. Just when I started considering to take a year off from university, I had an encounter with a man who is into chinese medicine.

This chinese non-medical practitioner was able to cure me from my stomach pain and my circulation problems. He stopped drinking (at least on a daily basis) and I quit smoking. I changed my whole eating behaviour, which is not easy here in England where the food is just bad and people do not even know what spelt is. (I have to get all my health food and my tea from Germany, which is just ridiculous). Moreover, most of my problems are the result of my ongoing worries about being perfect. I always want to be the best, want to get the highest marks and feel depressed when I make mistakes. I did not realized how I damage my body with that.

Friends of mine sometimes do not eat for one day. They smoke, they drink, they take all kinds of drugs. They go out partying even though they are ill. They work all night, all weekends, because they want to earn as much money as possible and get the highest marks. One of my friends died three years ago, because he did not bother to take his antibiotics properly. He did not take his illness seriously, and made the worst mistake of his life.

Unfortunately society is like that. It is hard to relax and just listen to your body. You will be left behind by competitive society. Your rivals never rest.

When I was lying in bed on Thursday morning with fever, I thought I had made a mistake not going to university and pitching my idea for the group blog. Now I am convinced that I made the right decision. The body we have is something precious. It is the shell of our mind and we'd better not mess up with it as life can be over just like that.