If you are suffering from Crohn’s disease, insomnia, depression or any other serious illness, be assured we have a solution for you— take a pill. Or at least that’s what the money-hungry pharmaceutical companies want you to think. Ever since I got my cable up and running this semester, I have noticed an above-average amount of prescription pill advertisements. Not only are these advertisements misleading, but they can also pose a serious threat to people with addictive personalities.

Everyone’s heard them before, they list a few symptoms and all of a sudden you think you might be depressed or have high blood pressure. Well, that’s what these commercials are designed to do, they are supposed to make you feel like you need this medication in order to live a normal, happy life.

The troubling part about this is that prescription drugs kill more Americans every year than guns and car crashes. Some sources say up to 100,000 Americans die each year from prescription pills. These numbers are absolutely atrocious and show the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry. The most ridiculous part of these commercials is the mile-long list of side effects that may occur, such as cardiac arrest and even death. Who would dare take a pill to fix one thing, if the side effect can cause death? That just doesn’t make sense.

All of this relates back to the “something’s-wrong-take-a-pill” mentality that is so prevalent within American society. Do you hear about other cultures around the world taking a pill every time something is wrong with them? My guess is no. For centuries, humans have healed themselves with the powers of Mother Nature, but now greed has joined the mix putting profit before one’s health.

Now, not all prescription pills are bad. In fact, without the medical advancements the Western world has made, many lives would have been lost to devastating diseases. When it comes down to it, your doctor knows what is best for your health, not TV commercials. When a doctor writes you a prescription, nine times out of 10, that medication won’t have a commercial that replays multiple times a day, every day. And if your doctor is prescribing you a medication you see on TV, be skeptical, because pharmaceutical companies offer compensation to doctors that prescribe their medication to patients.

So the next time you are watching the television and see a pharmaceutical commercial come on, think about the deathly side effects that can occur, think about the poor souls addicted to prescription drugs and lastly, think about the drug companies making millions off people suckered into the nasty cycle of pharmaceutical dependency.

Nick Bragg can be reached at [email protected] or @Nick981 on Twitter.