Concept in Definition ABC

Detriment comes from the Latin detrimentum and means damage. It is a word little used in our language, so it can be considered a cultism.

It is commonly used as part of a expression: act to the detriment of something. Thus, it is said that something acts to the detriment when it causes damage or a certain evil. In this sense, if an action is accompanied by an inconvenience or a grievance, the detriment is precisely the evil that is produced.

Affecting physically and mentally

The concept of harm is implicit in the idea of ​​detriment, being able to be something physical or moral. In this sense, the evil generated can be conscious or unconscious. Let's see the two possibilities with two examples. A person decides not to wear a seat belt safety and ends up being fined for it. On the contrary, if someone forgets to water the plants, he does not do it deliberately but causes them to deteriorate. In both cases there is a clear detriment, since the two actions cause negative consequences. The voluntariness of the action does not affect its harmful results.

Habits that are detrimental to health

Everyone knows that certain behaviors are harmful to the body. The list is quite long: consumption tobacco, alcohol, food with salt, with excessive fat, the sedentary lifestyle, drug use without medical supervision... Each of these behaviors apparently has an immediate satisfaction or some kind of pleasure. However, they are harmful and are detrimental to physical well-being. Faced with this evidence, a question is compelled: why do we act against ourselves? There is no definitive answer, but there are some possible explanations:

- We tend to self-deception. We believe that bad things happen to others and that we can get rid of certain risks.

- The mind has an inclination towards destruction. Some psychological doctrines (for example, the psychoanalysis) remember that man has a instinct life (eros) and a death instinct (thanatos) that leads him to do bad things. This inclination is merely unconscious and is not something rational that we can easily control.

- We live in the present. As another form of self-deception, we fall into the trap of ignoring that the long-term effects are not going to manifest. because we see them too far away and we do not want to give up the immediate benefit even if it is to the detriment of Health. This idea is summarized with a Latin expression: carpe diem, which means, seize the moment, live in the present. Carpe diem seems like good advice, but in the case of health it is quite questionable.