We Are a Nation of Drug Addicts — and Wellness Is Our Dealer
The wellness industry has turned vitality into another habit we can’t break
Open any kitchen cupboard today and you’ll likely find more pills, powders, and potions than actual food. We don’t call it what it is, but let’s be honest: we are a nation of drug addicts. Only these drugs wear the disguise of “wellness.”
Supplements have become our daily fix
We pop capsules for energy, powders for skin, drops for sleep. The ritual looks clean, but the psychology is the same as any dependency. We don’t really know what’s inside those capsules. We rarely question the fillers, the cutting agents, or the supply chain. But we shake them into our hands, swallow them down, and chase the next promise of vitality.
I remember travelling once with a suitcase rattling like a pharmacy. I felt like an addict trying to smuggle my stash across borders. The irony was absurd — here I was chasing health, but the behaviour looked no different to dependency.
When nourishment becomes a transaction
Supplements were meant to support food, not replace it. Yet many of us prioritise capsules over meals. We’ll go without nourishing, sensual, joyful food just to afford the next bottle of promise. What began as health has become an economy of control — a business that thrives on our anxiety and our willingness to outsource vitality.
The wave is crashing
Markets follow patterns. The supplement boom looks a lot like other bubbles before it: rapid growth, glossy marketing, and blind consumer trust. But bubbles burst. Already, scepticism is rising. Already, people are asking: why am I swallowing all of this? What am I really buying?
When the crash comes, the winners will be the brands with integrity, transparency, and simplicity at their core. Those who treat wellness not as a hustle, but as nourishment in its purest sense.
What comes next
The post-supplement era won’t be about swallowing more. It will be about returning to what sustains us. Food-as-medicine. Mineral-rich broths. Slow rituals that strengthen the body instead of tricking it. Simple, natural ingredients stored in glass jars, not plastic tubs. Wellness will rediscover that vitality can’t be manufactured — it has to be conducted.
Wellness needs rehab
We don’t need more pills. We need to rebuild our relationship with food, with vitality, with truth. Real health isn’t something you can pop, scoop, or stir. It’s coherence. And coherence can’t be sold in a bottle.
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Sarah Miller writes and consults at the intersection of beauty, culture and coherence, drawing on her frameworks The Exquisite Standard™ and The Human Operating System™.