Why do so many people refuse to take care of themselves?

Question

Why do so many people refuse to take care of themselves? The CDC says overweightness and obesity in America is now a pandemic. And though smoking is on the decline, alcohol abuse and drug abuse is rising. I don't understand. Wheather you are religious or not, you have to know that you only have one shot at life on this planet, so why do so many abuse their health and bodies? Even with scientific evidence and proof without a doubt, people still eat too much, smoke too much, drink too much and abuse drugs. Every one of which is a CHOICE. Why do people CHOOSE to destroy their health, bodies and minds?

Answer 1

All those choices pay off in the short term, and for that reason alone, many people are willing to trade that with long term health.

It takes a certain level of maturity in order to look past the present and into the future, to take into account what consequences will arise from your actions 5, 10, etc years down the road.

Answer 2

People make choices that fit their wants needs and desires. Some want to live in a fashion that will maximize their life expectancy, some are willing to trade off time for enjoyment. It is up to the person to make their own choice.

Some believe that they have only a certain amount of time on this planet, and no matter what happens, they are only going to live that long.

Some may remember Jim Fixx. He is known as the father of jogging. He decided to change his life, lost weight, changed his eating habits, and started running daily. He wrote several best selling books about the advantages of this lifestyle. Then he dropped dead of a hear attack while jogging!

Answer 3

I've often wondered that myself. To see a really fat person using an electric ride-on shopping cart amazes me. "Why don't they take care of themselves?", I always ask myself.

I can speak to some situations. For years, I was depressed and didn't give a ___t about myself. I blimped up to 215 (I'm 5'11") and was miserable, became diabetic, and almost died. After a stay in the hospital, I decided to do something about it. Now, after a year of success, I wonder why more people don't follow me. I'm 172 now and am having the time of my life. Read more about my story at:

http://www.geocities.com/seabulls69/AntidepressantThatWorks.html

Answer 4

Call it what you want but social welfare is called for in the current state of the economy. Sure, there are people like the ones you mentioned. But there are also people who just CAN'T get a job because of a lack of spaces to fill. If you ever went to a gas stop to buy some junk food and an elderly man with his wife were desperately begging for food to feed their grandchildren/children, you'd know what I'm talking about. Almost no one is unemployed because they want to. Deal with it. Your money is not worth more than their lives.

Answer 5

If you look around you will notice everything is faster paced today and becoming faster all the time. I doubt there isn't anyone not multitasking. That is the reason for fast food, instant this and instant that. Life has simply become to fast to stop and take care of yourself. The cost of just living continues to go up and people have to go faster to keep up. People sometimes just don't have the time to take care of their health. Today it takes both husband and wife working just to maintain the family unit.

Answer 6

I don't think it's because people want to destroy their health, it's just that smoking is a bad habit, drinking is a bad habit, and over eating is bad also, but it always seems to be the bad things people continue doing, even when we know the consequences, becoming accustomed to these bad habits are very hard to break unless we our selves have some sort of health scare, which dosent always work anyway.

Answer 7

Addiction develops with abusive use of anything, even tea coffee. LIfe appears dull. What is the use of living 120 years with a plain fruit juice diet, and you do not get any material pleasures. Perhaps people feel that even a short life is OK with pleasures.

There is some psychological disorder OCD what they call. People become obsessive to obtain certain pleasures! excess of anything leads to distruction.

Interesting natural reasons (diseases out of affluence) for this state are discussed at:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ayurvedaonline/message/5491

Answer 8

Our bad habits serve a purpose or we wouldn't have them. After all, most of us are not masochists, so we are getting something positive out of what we do. Typically, it is some emotional or psychological benefit like relaxation, staying alert, helping us interact with others, helping us focus, rewarding ourselves, coping with loneliness, over-coming boredom, etc.

These are powerful "rewards" for maintaining unhealthy habits. People don't know of any other way to achieve those same rewards, so they continue doing something that in their heart-of-hearts they know is bad for them. For them, those positive feelings are, for the present, worse than the future risks.

Answer 9

Maybe they don't care enough about themselves to want to take care of themselves. Maybe they don't know how to take care of themselves - especially if their parents didn't take care of themselves; how would they know how to? (unfortunately). Or perhaps they are just plain lazy and just do not care about doing so.