WYSIWYG - you're absoultely right! I remember seeing an ad on the telly a few years back about an older guy in a corporation who has to take a few days off work because he is sick. He arrives back soner than expected to find a younger whipper-snapper already getting comfortable in his office (capitalisisng on fears of ageism and being 'over the hill'). The younger guy is surprised to see him back so soon, and indeed not too happy about it. He evidently had intended to supplant the older guy, taking advanatge of his sickness. The punch line? "XXXXXX - for when you haven't time to be sick" (XXXX = the name of the medictaion in question)

It sounds fair enough - sometimes we just have to keep going. But the more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed! "Haven't time to be sick"? But being sick is the body's way of dealing with something that is wrong. It needs time to heal. Pain is the body's way of telling you something isn't working. The last thing you need is to mask these important signals with painkillers and just carry on regardless.

The hint about being over the hill also smacked of blackmail to me, though perhaps it wasn't intended in that way.

And of course if we want to tackle the illegal drugs problem, grown-ups need to look at their own pill-popping habits. If Mom and Dad take painkillers when they feel off form, why shouldn't their offspring take a few tablets of their own when they feel down?