[Medicalise or normalise? The doctor at the helm].

Most people claim that health is an important prerequisite for a happy life. Our society puts much effort into promoting a healthy lifestyle, prevention and timely risk detection. After all, prevention is better than cure. The increased attention to health and the strong focus on prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance have their downsides, as Ivan Illich already pointed out in the nineteen-seventies. Overdiagnosis, overtreatment and the transformation of many everyday complaints and phenomena into abnormalities lead to medicalisation. In 2013, this trend was reason for the BMJ to start their 'Too much medicine' campaign. Steering between too much medicine and too little medicine requires helmsmanship from doctors; correcting unrealistic expectations, alleviating unnecessary health worries and promoting resilience are all important in the promotion of normalisation.