The Basics

Somehow during today’s Thai lesson we got onto the subject of essential needs. I knew the words for things like air, water, food, sleep, and warmth. But my vocabulary got stuck as I moved up the hierarchy that I remembered from psychology class—things like security, stability, stimulation, and so on.

My teacher said students here learn in school from an early age that the big four are food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. That last one interested me because I’ve often felt that the average Thai is very quick to reach for a pill. Rather than wait out a headache or a fever, lots of people here pop something at the first sign of discomfort.

Another thing about medicine in Thailand is that very few drugs require a prescription, so people self diagnose, or they buy what their friend recommends. Antibiotic misuse is a big problem, according to my public health colleagues—something like half of the people who take them don’t finish the course, meaning that bugs get resistant pretty fast.

So when my teacher listed medicine as one of the basics, I wondered if that status also trivializes it in this culture. By definition things that are essential can’t be overly strong or difficult to get. Even the word for drug in Thai can be mild—it forms the root of words like toothpaste and mosquito repellent.