From Hysteria to Hypochondria

As the readings present us with the class differences between the upper-middle class women and middle class women in the medical field I could not help myself to think about how the so called medical "conditions" of the past have evolved into our modern day society. When Hysteria is mentioned in our first readings about the sick upper class woman all I could really think about is how this still exists to this day in other forms and how it has become a non-gender bias situation. We as a society have gone the term Hysteria to Hypochondria. The way I have seen this and how society has seen this just in the past few decades has been because of outbreaks such as swine flu, bird flu, mad cow disease, etc. These outbreaks alone made our modern day society fearful and it did not help that the mass media was spending every day of each epidemic reminding us to watch out or we could be next. Now we live in a society where I would like to call it the "germ-x" society. We are constantly fighting these mysterious problems and risks to our health and while we are worrying about we eventually worry ourselves to a point when our immune system is affect. We believe that if our own personal space is clean 24/7 then we are safe from the invisible threats. When in fact we are so worried that the newest generations are potentially being put at risk the most. In todays society people are starting to beleive that vaccines are harmful to their children and therefore not getting them. When infact one of the first basic principles to being a parent is learning that sometimes your child needs to get sick in order to build a stronger immunity. But some of society is turning their backs on this ideas and we are starting to see the same problems in our medicalized society as seen in the days when they were out of control. This constant worrying about getting sick is unhealthy in its own way, yet some people believe in at least a germ free utopia we can live happier lives. I on the other hand look forward to getting my next cold as frustrating as it might be, I know it will make me that much stronger in the long run for my basic immunity. So in general I am saying that our society has taken a turn for the worst in worrying about health problems as much as they are trying to eliminate them. So I hope that within the next generation of people, the people of today will realize that having the flu can benefit you and help you when some actually serious might occur. However, if you think that if the world did not have such problem then please try an explain to me how having life threating chicken pox as an adult will be less problematic if you are placed in a health bubble for your entire childhood.

-William Webster