I got some very powerful pain killers after my rotator cuff surgery. I was going to take them but instead I made a killing on the street! ;)
Frankly, I suspect that if a lot of my contemporaries cut out half the drugs they are taking (I’m 58), they’d save money and feel better.
I see this as a good thing, frankly. If someone needs a bunch of drugs to function, they are going to really be SOL if the Mayans and the bible are right about next December...
No doctor visits or prescription drugs here either-and the OTC ones are rarely used. Living in the middle of nowhere, doing physical work for my money and eating a natural, fresh food diet, doing my own chores and using natural remedies have done more to stave off the worst effects of a couple of back injuries far better than any surgery or drug could, I think. I lived the same way in good economic times-I just had more work, better cuts of meat and fancier veggies.
Several of my self-employed neighbors, all men-because of less available work and hence, less money have cut out of their entire family budget prescription anti-depressants, pain killers, cholesterol meds, etc and gone natural in diet and remedies. They exercise more, have lost weight and are not so bothered by old injuries. and feel and look younger, as do their wives.
I also had a bunch of drugs prescribed for MrT5 before his death with “street value”. After he died, one of the first things I did was to flush them before I was tempted to use them to ease the financial crunch. My septic field is probably still hallucinating...