conuly

You're watching the news, or a documentary, and there's a part about somebody with an incurable (but treatable!) disease (or some other sort of disability, really doesn't matter). The narrator will eventually get to the part where they say, in somber tones appropriate to announcing a death, that whoever it is will have to "take this medication every day for the rest of his life" or "test his blood sugar" or whatever dread thing it is.

Why?

Really, is it that onerous to take some medication? When somebody is recovering from anorexia, do we say, in solemn tones, that they will have to eat three times a day for the rest of their lives? When somebody recovers from insomnia, do we make a point of mentioning that up to a third of their remaining years will be spent unconscious?

Of course not. I recognize that these diseases aren't cured by medication, and that normally people don't take medicine every day (for the rest of their life!!!), but that's not the point. I still don't see why this is such a huge deal that it deserves the grave voice of tragedy.