Depression

Depression is undervalued and over-diagnosed.  Humans are capable of a wide range of emotions, and each one is intended to provide a benefit, whether it be reinforcing habits, ore shocking them out of bad situations.

In modern society there seems to be a troubling tendency to believe that sadness is something best avoided altogether. Clinical depression, is now something diagnosed in people of all ages, startlingly often.

There are no studies suggesting that depression is any more common now than ever before, but depression diagnoses have been on a sharp rise. Along with the recent boom in attention deficit disorder and seasonal affective disorder diagnoses, depression is having a spotlight turned on it as a new enemy of mankind. The treatments can be worse than the problem, and usually more long-term.

HIV

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is possibly the most politically charged microscopic object known to man.

Political camouflage, denial, lust, religious conflict, economic hardship, and even a few things that have to do with biology, make up HIV’s formidable bag of tricks. It joins the ranks of the rare few diseases, such as leprosy, that are capable of making their hosts not only ill, but socially outcast as well.

Unlike leprosy, this social quarantine does nothing to contain the spread of HIV, because HIV has few outward symptoms, and no symptoms that would tip off the uninformed observer. These peculiarities have allowed HIV to spread to the pandemic problem that it is now. Its unique biology will keep it going strong in the face of open war by the international community.