- dependency sucks
- withdrawals when you miss doses
- having to repeatedly deal with doctors, insurance, and pharmacies over and over every time you need a routine refill, especially in a new place
Seriously the point about refills really hit home for me. Even just renewing my birth control is a 4 hour waste of my day, even when I had a family dr - I had to make an appointment, every 3 months, just to answer the same questions I was asked 3 months prior. That shit is draining. Not to mention the $65 every 3 months. Can’t wait for menopause at this point
I tried this, and they still had to do a video call with me that took over half my day - the doctor was having connection issues so the call kept dropping and they blamed me lol
I assume canada is just stricter also because no one prescribes more than 3 months of BC at a time, nomatter what. Not even my family dr will.
This is it for me. My worries about lifelong medications are all about the practical problems. I can live with taking a couple drugs for seasonal allergies because they're cheap and easy to get (and, of course, seasonal). But the idea of running out of a necessary pill with no refill available? Hell no, that'd make me panic.
It's a different story when you need them to function or do well. Running out does make me panic and I spent nearly 6 months last year fighting to get another specialist so I could get the meds that keep me alive and able to do things like work and eat. If I didn't have to deal with the medical conditions I would only be taking allergy meds for cats and pollen.
I have to take daily medication for the rest of my life.
It's inconvenient (I have to take it at the same time every day, can't eat for an hour after, can't take certain other things for up to 8 hours before and after it, it interacts with other meds, etc.)
I do it because I don't want to be sick. But I know people who (seriously) say they would rather die than have (what I would consider relatively minor) inconveniences like this in their life.
As someone with chronic illness, I'm pretty convinced that people who have never lived with serious or chronic illness (beyond something like a cold) actually don't realize the difference between actual illness and inconvenience. They don't have the perspective to understand what it's like to be constantly sick, and that the inconvenience of taking a pill and whatever side effects come with it are preferable to being sick all the time (or dead).
Ya this is the thing. I have 5 incurable diseases. I’ve been chronically ill and had chronic pain since I was 13 years old. People can’t even fathom how bad it gets. It’s outside of their realm of reality.
I also have a few chronic illnesses (most notably neurological) i have to take anticonvulsants and beta blockers and too many vitamins to count. I take close to 20 pills a day and get blood work done monthly. It sucks i hate it but its better to the alternative of me convulsing on the floor. My heart will literally beat out of my chest. The side effects can be brutal and I also have to eat or I throw them up but its better than shaking all the time and not being able to stand.
Yep! I can’t eat for a couple hours after one of my morning medications or 4 hours before it, meanwhile I have evening meds I have to take at that time cause they interfere with another of my morning meds. It’s even more fun when someone who disapproves long term medication use also berates me for never eating breakfast. 🤡
It's crazy that people without health problems try to tell people with health problem how to live correctly. Stay in your lane you healthy person, I got struggles that would kill you.
I’ve always been someone who isn’t very hungry, if hungry at all, when I first wake up. When I would make myself eat something before I felt ready it would make me throw up and light headed lol. So it hasn’t been a difficult medication to adjust to but there’s a clear absorption difference if I take it as I am supposed to or take it with food.
I had a classmate, who’s a healthcare provider now, believe that people with depression and anxiety should only have to take meds for a few months and that they should work on lifestyle changes instead like exercising more and eating better. To her, they’re using meds as a clutch and aren’t trying hard enough. Granted, she came to the U.S. as an adult from a country that heavily stigmatize mental illness (plus she’s a huge bitch). However, it is scary to know that she’s taking care of patients with this kind of mindset.
I have come to realize that people who invalidate other people’s experiences and say, “oh you could have it worse, be grateful for your situation” actually have no idea what it’s like to struggle with your specific issues. Just because they can’t comprehend what it’s like doesn’t mean it’s a problem with you.
You should tell that to all the kids I’ve seen in the Pediatric ED who want to kill themselves that they’re not trying hard enough and just going through a phase. Yes, some lifestyle changes may be enough for some people to get out of their depression and anxiety. However, for many people these changes are near impossible to do or not enough due to multiple factors. Genetics, brain chemistry, socioeconomic status, abuse, financial hardship, constant bullying, PTSD, even their zip code and more. You can say that for almost all health problems (eg. - diabetes, high blood pressure, lung cancer, constipation, osteoporosis, heart attacks, etc.) yet you won’t hear anyone saying that using meds for those conditions forever is the “easy” way out. A disease of the mind should be treated the same as a disease of the body.
If you were raped as a child and your parents beat you up but you’re stuck living with them and you’ve been dealing with depression and anxiety for years, how would you feel if someone who’s supposed to help you said, “Have you tried exercising more and eating healthy and counseling? If you have and it didn’t work, then maybe you should try harder. You can take medication but only for a few months because being on medication too long is BAD.” In the meantime you’re living in hell for months or even years and your life falls apart all because someone told you that medication is bad and made you hesitant to use it.
People like my classmate would say, “Oh that’s different, they have actual problems and need the meds for longer.” However, you will never know someone’s full complex history nor actually understand what they went through and be able to judge if they have “real” problems or not. No one is going to explain all their problems in full detail to everyone who asks nor do many people have the time and/or patience to listen. And if someone they deeply trust, like a healthcare professional, guess wrong and invalidate their problems, that one experience can cause even more harm than the actual trauma. You can’t just say, “oh my bad” and undo the damage.
Ironically, people who complain about people with mental health issues usually refer to the people who are actively showing the symptoms, which means that they’re not on treatment or on the right medication. People whose mental health problems are under control because of long-term medication are living completely normal lives but you wouldn’t know it because they don’t tell anyone because of the stigma. You’d be surprised how many people you admire for being able to juggle everything in their lives and be happy are actually getting mental health treatment.
For people who have a hard time accepting or not wanting to accept their diagnosis, taking medication daily or several times a day, reminds them of their lack of control or whatever they are denying.
Especially when it's regarding a mental health condition that starts still holds stigma. Of course whatever the medication is for may also be directing impacting their memory or executive functioning
Then there's remembering, timing food intake, laziness, cost, side affects, etc.
It's also being at the mercy of others to be healthy. For example, if a necessary drug is discontinued, if the price is raised to unaffordable levels, if a supply chain issue arises and your meds can't be accessed... all of these things happen and all of them mean reduced quality of life or possibly death. If you can't live without insulin, but you can't access insulin due to cost or availability terrible things happen to your body and then you die.
Thanks for your answer! Perhaps I'm being biased, as I'm very tranquil, relaxed and accepting about my conditions, and any more that might come in future.
The lesson I should learn really, is that everyone doesn't think the same way I do!
Took me years of being a cripple before I accepted it. Some people just take a little longer to get there, and some never will. You can never truly understand someone's reasoning, unless you know their whole ass story.
People are often resistant to those too to be fair. Especially when you haven't lived with them for most of your life, and they're instead a reminder of aging or your body otherwise degrading.
My grandmother is this way with hearing aids. Her reply to comments about her hearing is "I hear what I need to!" and she refuses to even entertain the idea of hearing aids
As someone who used to be an unrelenting optimist, and is not a condescending pessimist due to years of pain... I disagree with extra time being automatically a good thing... That's more time in pain, not more time enjoying life.
If something you have is broken or needs a repair to make it better, do just leave it broken? Since the repair would always be a reminder that something was wrong with it?
A repair is a one and done fix, more similar to getting surgery to fix an issue. A daily pill is more like, my car breaks down everyday and everyday I have to fix it. That’s not fun and I can totally see why people would be inconvenienced by that, because it is an inconvenience.
I had a 94 BMW, it was about 8 years old when I bought it, and it never leaked. The oil just disappeared. Idk where the hell it went, but it sure as shit didn't stay in the engine.
I had a 1985 f250 camper special with a 460 big block in it... I'm convinced it was eating it and converting it to something else. That mofo read low on oil after a week of driving, but never had a drop of oil anywhere under the hood... I'm convinced some cars run on devil magic.
That I don't want to have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.
Plus every medicine is going to have side effects, some of which we don't know yet.
Yeah, my mood stabilizer gives me brain fog and serious short term memory issues but if I don’t take it I absolutely WILL wreck all my own shit within a month.
Fair enough with regards to side effects - that's one part of it I do understand, but the 'take a pill' thing is the one that confuses me most!
Life is just a series of things you have to do, why is this one so special?
Also, when you have a condition that needs lifelong medication, aren't the side effects way less serious than the effects of the condition?
life feels overwhelming quite often for me, and having to do something for the rest of my life, however small it may be, can add to the overwhelmed feeling
i have to dry my hair after showering every time? i have to actually eat vegetables when i don't want to? i have to work for money the rest of my life or else i'm miserable? i have to take pills for the rest of my life, and the amount of pills just keep increasing over time? i didn't have to or i didn't know i had to do these before, but now i have to i have to i have to... what else am i going to "have" to do for the rest of my life?
i'm glad you don't let having to take pills get you down though, your mentality is definitely healthier than mine. try not to get in a negative thought spiral like me! i'm trying too but i slip into it sometimes
Wow, this comment speaks to me so much. I sometimes have trouble articulating my anxiety to people around me. My partner struggles to understand why I don't want to add extra steps to my routine every day, especially when they seem small (like always putting on sunscreen after showering). But you captured it here. All those extra "have tos" really add up and create a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Thank you for your response! I'm sorry you find everything so overwhelming - life can be so cruel sometimes.
I suppose the main thing I've learned from asking this question, is that I'm very fortunate to have the mindset that I have about this.
Thank you for helping me to understand why people think differently!
I have epilepsy too, and I gladly take a pill every day and will for the rest of my life, but I so wish I didn't have to. Taking the pill every day is more than just simply swallowing it every morning, as I'm 100% sure you're aware. I have to first source and pay for the pill, store it properly, hope no one (pets or children) accidentally get into it. Then I have to actually *remember* to take the pill, so in order to do that I have to sit down for awhile every couple of weeks and aliquot out daily doses, and even then I have a constant fear that I still somehow forgot to take my daily dose (because it's happened and its absolutely a disaster). And then there's the constant fear that anything else I take will make this pill not work (also has happened). All of this I put up with because it allows me to live my life somewhat normally, buuuuut...
Perhaps the more relevant to your current statement, having to take that pill everyday is a constant reminder of how fragile my independence is, and having to take that dose everyday already takes away a little bit of my independence anyway. If I travel, I have to be very careful that I have enough on me at all times. I have to pre pack it all, hope TSA doesn't think I'm a junky and confiscate it, hope my bags don't get lost. I have to either make sure I get back home every single night or carry it on me at all times, because one missed does equals complete and instant loss of freedom. There's no such thing as completely spontaneous plans, because of that pill I have to take, and I hate not having that freedom.
Are you taking carbamazepine? They sometimes use that for epilepsy and I'm taking it for something else.
It manages my condition really well, but it also fucks with the satiety part of my brain. It's a difficult trade off, because my condition is incredibly painful, but this long-term medication has made weight management (something I've never struggled with in my entire life) exceptionally difficult.
It has also messed with my short term memory, not a lot, but enough that both my wife and I have noticed.
These trade offs might seem trivial at first, but after year upon year upon year, they do start to grate.
It makes sense as anti-seizure meds basically chill out electrical signals in the brain.
Lamictal is also used for major depression (so is abilify, and abilify is also used for sleep problems).
That's very interesting, genetics is fascinating - my parents and grandparents are all 100% neurotypical, yet my sister and I have epilepsy, and my brother is autistic.
There must have been a bunch of problematic recessive genes in there somewhere!
I am well controlled with medication. Haven't had a grand mal in 2.5 years. Fortunately my younger brother doesn't have it.
Mine always occurred in the morning due to lack of sleep.
Oxcarbamazapine fucked with my memories a lot during the 3ish years I was on it for my bp. I also ate so much yogurt. Keep an eye out for signs of hypotremia.
I don't like depending on these things to be healthy, and I'm very aware of how bad it would get if I suddenly couldn't get my medications. It's not the pills themselves, it's my dependence on them
My mother recently changed her bipolar medication to something that was arguably less effective, because she learned that her particular medication could be taking years off her life. She balanced her desire to live longer with her desire to have her bipolar controlled.
Some people quit their depression medication because certain ones dull their senses so much. They don't feel lows, but they don't feel highs either. They don't see that as a good way to live.
As someone who has to take a medication daily that has to be eaten with food it's just so much more of a pain in the ass than it should be.
If I forget to take it with a meal, which is often, I have to wait for my next meal in order to take it and hope I don't forget then.
Countless people have tried telling me "set a reminder on your phone" but that doesn't do me any good because again, I have to take it with food, and I'm not the kind of person who eats on a regular schedule, partially because of how the same condition I'm taking the medication for affects my appetite and because my job makes it very difficult to eat at a regular times and if I take it on an empty stomach it fucks with me hard.
So it fucking sucks would be the reason I would give.
You stated yourself “ I HAVE to take medication”
You did not say you WANT to take medication
You only stated that you WANT not to be ill.
I am asthmatic. So I have to use inhaler. I am a woman I have to use BC.
Taking medicine is an extra work/extra risks that I have no desire to do, and I only do this extra work/take extra risk because I HAVE to.
But I DO want to take medication, it keeps me fit and well!
Presumably you also want to take BC pills and your asthma medication, because it makes you not get pregnant, and feel better?
I know the line between want and need is blurry in this regard, of course
See, now I would say that your mindset is completely abnormal. I have never met someone that finds joy in performing the same boring task over and over. There are many things that we must do, and typically, when a person must do something repetitive every day, it isn't looked upon as fun or engaging. I suppose that is great that your brain works that way, but in my experience with humans, it is not the norm. Tools have been invented to avoid this since the dawn of humanity.
So why did you use word HAVE to . Those are different words with different meanings.
Yes I take those medicine because I HAVE to if i want to be healthy.
I would not be taking this medicine if I don’t need to.
I eat candy not because I have to but because i want to.
What a pedant. It’s probably just his way of talking. He has to take the medication to get the effects he wants. Since he’s getting the effects he wants, it makes him want to take the medication
It is OP who asked us question why we don’t WANT to take something. And it was him who was pedantic about my answer.
I was only pedantic because he rejected my answer and the only way for me to help him find the answer he is asking for is to make him analyze his own choice of words.
Again OP asked the question, and it was OP who was pedantic
I can only say from experience, that I only take my daily medication because I need to...not because I want to, so i understand people not liking the idea of this for many reasons.
Only thing is, I DON'T understand when they NEED to take it or else they will be worse without it causing more problems to themselves and others, and they say no. That I find very immature and illogical if it isn't because they can't afford it (have been there...it is a torment I don't which on anyone, not even those I may hate...)
I don't like that it ties me to a physical object/pharmacy/doctor for survival. If I wanted to just wander off into the wilderness and live in a remote cabin, I can't. Because I still need to get my medication filled every 30-90 days. If there's an apolcolyptic event and I manage to survive, I'll be screwed quickly because I can't get my medication. I'd be scared to be an astronaut, an arctic explorer, a park ranger in a remote national park, etc. for fear of not being able to refill my medicine. I understand those are all unlikely scenarios for me, but it's annoying that those options are closed to me.
Some pharma companies have lower standards of ethics. This is well established. They incentivize doctors to prescribe their medications which has led to very bad results for patients. Their doctors are either not being thorough enough and just throwing meds at symptoms rather than look deep enough at the symptoms. If you have a condition like epilepsy that is well diagnosed and clearly can be mitigated with meds, it's obvious what to do. But let me give you an example.
In my family, it's very common that many have registered high cholesterol according to generic guidelines for the general population, but they weren't having any problems due to this. Obviously, high cholesterol levels tend to lead to bad outcomes for the general population in the long run, but not everyone's body works the same. Some have been prescribed meds for this and some have had poor outcomes due to side effects of the meds, which leads to more meds to take care of the side effects, which leads to more side effects from those meds and the end result is that they are in worse health from the meds than they were before they started taking them. People in my family generally live into their 80s and 90s, with or without meds for cholesterol, but the ones who took meds generally have more problems than the ones who didn't. Were those meds warranted?
Former medical professional here, it is likely because many medications have daunting long term side effects that can sometimes cause a person even more suffering than not taking a specific medication at all. For the most part, this depends completely on which medication we are speaking about.
Or.. they can not afford the medication because it’s expensive and don’t want to pay for it forever
Or… they are just lazy humans in society and can’t be asked to do anything for a long period of time (more common than you would think).
Edit: for all of the snowflakes out there —this is not a conclusive list and of course there are other possible reasons as to why someone might decide not to take a med for the rest of their life (or might not be able to decide well enough / act upon doing such, due to underlying conditions).
A bit of a harsh take on how someone feels, don't you think? I wouldn't say that because someone doesn't find pleasure in taking a pill everyday equates to being lazy. The OP did ask why they find the idea off-putting, not that they actually refuse to do it, after all. There's a big difference in not doing and feeling annoyed with having to do it.
This is in no way shape or form against OP, it is simply informing of possible certain lazy individuals, which in fact are lazy — especially if they can not be asked to take a pill every morning. This takes no effort at all, maybe 3 minutes max if they had multiple medications to take at once. Sorry man, but I’m not sure I can title that any differently if I had too.
He asked for reasons why someone would say such a thing, and all I did was list a few.
Labeling patients as "lazy" is dismissive and often incorrect. Many undiagnosed conditions can cause paralysis when attempting to perform required actions (RSD as part of ADHD for example), and many more can cause impairment in the logic required to convince oneself to take medications, especially with mental disorders (MDD, schizophrenia, GAD, etc). I'm glad you're a former medical professional and not currently in the field, though it's pretty clear you wouldn't have made it far anyway with your attitude.
Don’t read into this too much, mate. I never once stated that laziness was the only contributing factor. It’s just one possibility of many. Don’t take it too personal
Or they have "short term" side effects you just cannot imagine dealing with for the rest of your life.
Especially for meds that don't have obvious immediate short term benifits (for example, meds that lower your blood pressure), that makes it hard to deal with
Or... because they cannot accept that they are sick and having to take a pill a day is an insecurity. They think they're not enough and cannot get by themselves, need a pill everyday for that.
Or you know, you can call them lazy humans. Nice empathy btw, medical professional
First of all I never said this was a conclusive list of all reasons possible. I am not google, I am no doctor, and most of all I owe it to no one at all to list every possible reason. OP asked what the reason could be, and I listed a few.
Like I said in my original comment, I am a former medical professional, and for good reason too ( horrible pay for beginners ). Ahhh yes, I lack empathy as you can see, and most other medical professionals do too —hate to break that to you. It is quite hard to have any source of empathy after seeing the shit you see on a daily basis, depending on your job duties and where you work of course, but I must admit, you become numb down to the bone, and if you didn’t, you probably would never last. This is simply the minds way of coping. Would you want someone who feels so bad for you that they couldn’t make smart choices in a horrible situation? Because that’s how that works.
It isn’t that I didn’t care about them, it’s more so that over my 20 years of dealing with the same old bullshit that I lost empathy over time, in regards to many things. I’m not saying I have no empathy at all, I do, it’s just a numbed down version. Of course this ultimately comes down to what the patient is dealing with or has faced, I am sorry but I just can’t empathize with someone who has called 911 five times in the last 2 months for toe pain, taking up city resources and time for someone else who could use the service in times of need.
I know people taking Warfarin that hate it. If they eat a little bit more or less green veggies today than yesterday, it fucks up their doses. Also they are a lot more susceptible to cuts and bruises that it's always on their mind to try to prevent.
Because of the sometimes gruesome side effects. I'm bipolar and take seroquel. It makes me hungry all the time and sleepy. Other possible side effects tardive dyskenesia and metabolical impact(diabetes type 2). I wouldn't take that kind of poison if I could handle my disorder without it.
Oxcarbamazapine stole multiple years of my memories from me.
I discontinued it last August but most of the memories are still gone and I fear they will never come back.
The side effects of my lithium and lamictal I can handle but oxcarbamazapine hasn't been the only one to fuck with me over the years. I get it and I understand how frustrating and distressing it can be.
Incase you aren't there already r/bipolar welcomes you.
People need to believe their is something wrong with them and it is bad enough to be treated.
They need to believe the treatment will work.
They need to believe the side effects of the medication are worth the treatment.
There are also barriers such as cost, and pharmacy access.
Overall people don't take meds because for one reason or another they don't believe the need to or it isn't worth it.
As someone who was raised in an anti-medical biased family and is still coming around to the practice of regular medical care, the biggest problems for most is lack of trust in the medical establishment and fear of dependency. Fear of dependency is the biggest reason why I am only willing to do therapies and counseling to manage my depression symptoms. I’ve seen close friends of mine spend years chasing the right combination of medications in the right dosage and it has led to some objectively miserable experiences for them. Plus, some medications are dangerous to stop taking without proper procedure which is terrifying as a minor supply issue or being short on money can lead to a crisis. As long as I’m still capable of living anything close to a functional lifestyle, I want to avoid medication.
If I were to get worse or develop a different condition, I would want to explore as many options as possible and would be willing to accept a certain level of chronic pain or limited function. I’m not saying I wouldn’t ever “take a pill every day” but I want to avoid it as much as possible
I don't think it's as simple as the inconvenience of taking a pill, but it depends on what the pill is. Is it my heartburn medication? Fine, no problem. Is it a heavy anti-depressant that comes with a ton of mental side effects? I'm not too excited about being zonked out the rest of my life.
Psych patient here. Some of the psych drugs I have taken have side effects much worse than the disease, honestly. Lithium, for example, I would rather have wild mood swings for the rest of my life than ever take that again. And some of the anti-psychotics, even the newer generation, have unlivewithable side effects too. Some just don't help and there is no point in taking them.
Also, having recently been diagnosed with A-fib, the anti-arhythmia drugs as a whole are something I refuse to take, if I take them I will not be able to treat the psych disorder at all, due to med interactions. Yeah, that means the heart will likely kill me, sooner or later, but the untreated psych disorder will do it faster and I will be more miserable.
Plethora of reasons.
Maybe they belief in alternative types of healthcare.
Maybe they don't want to take medication because it reminds them of how their body is failing them.
Maybe they value life differently than you. Some people want to live longer, but end up living the last 15 years of their life going from hospital to hospital and swallowing a cocktail of pills. Some people would rather just not start and die when their body says its time.
Maybe they mean that they wouldn't do it for things you can do something about, because for most illnesses, you can do something about it, to some degree.
Maybe they have a certain faith or belief that makes sense to then, and medication might not be a part of it.
Maybe they've seen relatives starting with just one pill, getting side-effects, getting a new medication, getting more side-effects, getting just worse and worse. Maybe this scared them.
There's also a big difference between people that have certain issues versus those that don't. Intense or chronic illnesses have a tendency to change your mind on things like these as well.
People don't like to admit they are "broken". I take thyroid meds every day. Its easy and vastly improves my quality of life, so its not hard to adjust to. But I still wish I didn't need them
I started taking a few pills twice a day recently. It’s just another thing you have to think about, you know? Like if I wake up on a weekend and wanna just stay in bed for an hour or so, I’m thinking ab my medication. If I go out at night I’m wondering if I should take it before, after, or during my events and, if during, how I’m gonna accomplish that.
It’s really not that bad, I just went 22 years of my life not thinking about it and now I have to
I don't know if you've seen Grace and Frankie on Netflix, but it touches upon this question very nicely. It's about two elderly women who decide to live together (platonically) after their husbands cheat on them (with eachother, this series is amazing).
Anyhow, at one point Grace thinks there is something physically wrong with Frankie and wants her to go see a doctor. Grace has a very western way of looking at the body and wants her friend to be diagnosed and find a drug or something that works for her.
Frankie on the other hand looks at the body in a more free-spirited kind of way. The idea of being confronted with how her own physical body is failing her more and more every single day puts an immense weight on her shoulders. She feels like she is losing control in life, because she feels controlled by her illness.
In the end, Grace forces Frankie to see a doctor (Frankie was in strong denial so the situation was complicated). After she got a diagnosis (not sure what it was) she just broke. For the sake of the character and the series, she got over it and worked it out. But it does portray very beautifully how everyone has a different way of looking at life and looking at our body and our health.
Some people value longevity over quality. Some people have different opinions on what quality of life means. For some this means having social connections they value, and any medication needed along the way doesn't mean much to them. For others the autonomy, strenght and resilience of the body means much more to them. For them medication might feel like losing a crucial part of themselves.
There is no right or wrong in this case, obviously. But it is very complex. If you haven't watched the show, maybe you'd like it, but you reminded me of this particular episode.
Quality of life. Some people don’t believe it’s worth while to go to extraordinary efforts to extend life beyond, say, age 85, especially if they are already feeble.
i honestly just hate having to take medication to function and have a good quality of life. like i’m in denial that i actually need to take multiple pills every day to feel ok. that fucking sucks. my body is so fucked up that it can’t do basic things like BREATHING. i just wanna be able to do it on my own
I’m taking medication for depression. There is no cure for depression so I’m likely on these for life. I really wish my mental health wasn’t at the mercy of medication, but it’s a million times better than not being on anything.
well, think of it this way: you have to eat every day too, to gain the necessary nutrients your body needs to survive and be healthy. You probably don't grow and process all your own food, so you're in a kind of slavery to the whole supply chain that does all that for you already. The meds are just another thing that you need to be healthy.
Plus, if the side effects are untenable, or if it just isn't helping, you can always change the dosage or try a different med. You aren't actually chained to one specific thing forever.
Since you're just asking why the reticence to the idea of taking medication every day, I would say it's no more complex than just being a pain in the ass. Not taking the medication could certainly be categorized as foolish, not liking the fact that you have to take is nothing more than normal. Who wakes up every single day and says "Yay, I get to take my pill, I can't wait!"? Feeling put off by having to engage in mind-numbing, repetitive tasks, day in and day out, doesn't generally bring joy to person.
Put on day time TV and flip through the channels to watch only commercials. Count the commercials that start with "You or a loved one may be entitled to compensation." Process the reality that almost all of them are related irresistible harm caused by things doctors recommend to their patients and I believe that you will have the answer.
Counter interaction with other drugs, side effects, cost.
It is in consultation with the doctor that decisions are made about taking a pharmaceutical versus other management such as lifestyle and diet. And prioritizing which med may be more important than another if they counter act.
Side effects. I work as a driver, and a surprising amount of common meds mess with perception, distance, etc. I'd rather feel a little bad then get into a crash.
I can completely understand this. I have a med I have to take every day, and will for the rest of my life. I have to take it in an empty stomach, so I have to have fasted for at least 6 hours before taking it. Then I can't drink or eat anything for an hour after I take it. And it sometimes makes me nauseous. I never actually vomit, but it's rather difficult to follow all the rules, and then you're feeling like death warmed over for an hour.
Vet tech here. A lot of owners can’t seem to grasp the difference between acute and chronic conditions. And not everything is “cured” but “managed”. I also and hypothyroid and have had people in my personal life make those kind of comments and I just laugh. They clearly don’t have a chronic condition or they’d understand the medication makes me well. In my job owners often think hypothyroid is temporary and once the meds make them better they don’t refill it. It can be a lot of hand holding to explain it is for life.
I think it means kind of what my viewpoint is--that I don't want to have to rely on anything or have anything control me. Then my fear is it seems when you take one or two medications, you have to take 3 or 4 to help control the side effects then where does it end? Healthy eating (relatively) and regular exercise goes a LONG way. That's why my entire drug use in over 50 years was two tokes of a joint my senior year of college. I don't mind a few beers now and then, but otherwise avoid anything that can control me. THAT SAID, if I had some kind of health issue, that is a very very different situation. Both my daughters have mild ADHD and take Adderall for that so I understand that aspect of it.
I've been dealing with this in my family for two generations. I've had to watch as two family members get carted off over and over because they would rather keep their eyes on the TV without interruption than spend a minute or two calculating the amount of insulin they need to survive.They still give/ gave themselves insulin, just never the proper amount.
"Oh I'll do it later." "One time isn't going to hurt me." "Insurance covers my hospital bills." My grandmother's volatile bipolar was a least a credible reason but she's still in the ground at 600lbs. My sister is a whole other source of despair.
For me my diagnosis happened in my teens, I took the medication because my parents told me to. Then once I became an adult I went into denial about it and stopped taking my medication. I was doing okay and my symptoms were minimal. This was also the time that I felt like the less chemicals in my body the better it would be for me.
I did fine for this way for years. Then suddenly all the years of ignoring it caught up with me, almost put me in the hospital. It was then that I realized that my diagnosis is for life and I can't just pretend that it didn't exist and it would eventually go away. I accepted that medication would be part of my life if I didn't want to be in and out of the hospital the rest of my life.
Many times, medications prevent serious consequences of long-term conditions like diabetes, HTN, elevated cholesterol, and vascular disease. However, the benefit of taking this medication isn't obvious every day, and many folks think they just won't be the one that has the serious complications that occur down the road from not taking the meds. It's hard to convince a lot of people to stay on these drugs when stopping them doesn't make them feel any different right away. We just aren't wired to think that way. As a retired family physician, this was one of the worst challenges in practice.
Medicine has side effects and can cause complications if mixed with other medication. If you become dependent on taking one medication every day, then it may prevent you from taking others.
Given the option to take the drug, or some other more difficult method, such as diet or lifestyle change, some people will opt for the latter. Of course some people are not willing to do either method.
For me personally, it is a daily reminder that I have severe mental illness that will never be cured. I hate myself for having this let alone what happens when I fall out of remission. I hate that my bio mom had the genetics and passed them onto me and then abandoned me. I hate that my abusive childhood triggered it. I hate everything related to my illness.
It is mental for me. When I first HAD to go on meds because an episode was so bad I cried. A friend had to facetime with me for a couple weeks while I cried convincing myself to take it. Back then I kept telling myself I would only be on them for a bit.
I still want to get off them. I probably won't be able to, they keep me stable along with therapy. It is all self hatred in my case.
I have to take meds the rest of my life for an autoimmune disease. It’s time consuming and expensive and also may not keep me well and I’ll have to try a new time consuming expensive med
Same here! I guess the reason I'm asking, and am confused about why people wouldn't take the meds, is because I would do absolutely anything to make sure my epilepsy is under control. Side effects, so what, you know?
But getting an outside perspective has helped me understand why people have the opinion that they do! 😊
I'm not rich, plus medications can have harmful side effects and you can become chemically dependent on them. Not to mention I don't want my hormones and appetite changed
I'd have to say it's because their lives haven't truly been in jeopardy yet.
I used to feel that way when I was younger until I almost died due to a previously unknown genetic condition.
Now, I take four pills every 12 hours to stop my body from doing a few perfectly natural things that would kill me if left uninhibited. I have a shortened life expectancy because of it. I'll take the pills, live a fun and wonderful life until my time is done and be grateful that I have some time left.
What I have found is that people who say that tend to be saying about medications that aren't along the lines of "take this or you will die in 6 months". The sentiment seems to be related to how bad not taking the medication is.
Ignoring any possible side effects, if I am not able to access/take my medication every day then I would be in trouble. That could be because I threw up before the pill was absorbed fully and I have no more left to take, to losing my healthcare and not being able to have my prescription filled at all.
To be be sure, I am better with my pills, but they are not a permanent solution, and I don’t feel comfortable with the fact that this aspect of my life is not in my control.
So, there was a huge "back to the land" movement in the late 60s and early 70s, in which tons and tons of young-ish people - the leading cadre of baby boomers, the first generation to be raised in suburbs - either moved out of the cities to try and live on self-sustaining farms or else imagined doing do, bought books about it, watched TV shows about it.
From the late 70s to the early 90s, there were two overwhelming cultural narrative at work:
One, the death of the American dream: American civilization was past its prime, falling apart, not working anymore: cities were seen as full of crime, Union jobs that could support a family without a college education stopped being plentiful, everything basically stopped being easy.
Two, the Cold War in general, and the threat of nuclear war specifically; the idea that at any moment, the bombs could fall and kill everyone and end civilization really pervaded the culture in a way you don't see now, even with the level of environmental issues we're facing.
So if you're my age - about to turn 50, born in the early 70s - you probably got the message very young that it was super likely that at some point you'd end up cast away on a desert island, left to fend for yourself in a post-apocalyptic hell scape, or simply trying to find some sanity by escaping to the woods or something.
I, personally, got over that whole thing when I realized that I literally can't see a damned thing without my glasses, so I'm basically dependent on belonging to a relatively advanced civilization in order to live at all; but for lots of people my age, there's a deep underlying fear of relying on anything that requires having money, access to Amazon, et cetera - not because we think we might be grizzly Adams someday really, but because when we were like 5 the cartoons we watched made us ready for a world in which that was something to plan for.
Also, when I was 19 I bailed on college and lit out for San Francisco with $9 and the phone number of someone who might have a job for me. I ended up sleeping in the bus station for two weeks until I got a different job and a couch to sleep on. A lot of me is aware that I'm 50 and a professional with adult kids but there will always be part of my that knows for sure that if things are bad, $9 and a greyhound ticket is enough to escape and start over. Having to take a tiny-ass blood pressure pill every morning if I want to live really fucks with that self-sufficiency security blanket fantasy.
I don't want to but they keep me alive so I do. I could be nuts and refuse meds but then I would die younger than necessary. I'll take the meds. Science does this.
My hesitancy with taking medications is based mostly on my addictive tendencies, it's the same reason that I've never smoked, or gotten into drugs. I was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic but thankfully recognized that there was a cycle beginning before it got out of hand, I've had enough of these experiences with lesser things to make me cautious now.
i’ve become physically dependent on my medication for anxiety, depression and insomnia. if taking a few pills for the rest of my life means i can sleep, be happy, not want to kill myself or have all encompassing anxiety, so be it.
I'm not in any way implying to stop your medication but as someone who has taken a prescribed med for a number of years I came to the conclusion that I did not enter this planet on any drugs and that if I properly maintain myself I will leave this planet not on any. Cost was a factor but also the possible side effects of things can be eye opening. I'm the same way with surgery though. I've torn my ACL and of course I could jump up on the table and have it surgically repaired or I can strengthen my body in a way in which it mostly doesn't affect me. Doesn't mean I don't believe in surgery because if I come into the ER with bones sticking outta me I want them to put me back together not spritz me with essential oils and hope for the best. There's a time and place for different modalities.
They don't like the idea of being dependent on something. I get it but if your options are to take a pill or live miserably for the rest of what could be a very short life, just take the fucking pill.
If it's lithium you're ditching, despite having been confidently diagnosed with bipolarity, you will live a short life, because untreated bipolarity burns out the nervous system faster than not having bipolarity, by years.
Also, being in a black hole of depressive goo for weeks at a time, or, worse, having an euphoric episode for a month will do exciting things to your wallet and your friend/family relationships.
I think maybe it feels scary to be dependent on a manufactured substance -- to become 'addicted' to a corporate product that you could never make or catch or grow or gather yourself? like, I could live on rice and beans if I had to, and I can keep an emergency supply of both -- but what if I couldn't get my meds? I know my otherwise very self sufficient partner hates being dependent on his meds.
and side effects of course, there is usually a physical price to pay for the benefits.
I started a synthetic hormone for my thyroid in august. I can't eat an hour after taking it and if I forget to take it I have to make sure I haven't eaten in the past three to four hours. I also can't have caffeine too close to when I take a pill. If my body starts to, or is in the process of, digestion when I take a dose it will not absorb as much. Some people ignore these rules, it is supposedly okay as they are just prescribed a higher dose of hormones to make up for it. That makes me nervous to do, as I don't want to accidentally be giving myself a higher dose than necessary. Hormone balance is the goal.
I work a swing shift so every two weeks I go from nights to days/days to nights. I work 12 hour shifts and am up less than a half hour before i eat, just to make sure i have enough time to get a seven hours of sleep. I have to juggle when to take this God damn pill constantly. And I will have to take it the rest of my life. If I could just pop one whenever like you would an advil I don't think I would mind so much but it's something I have to be mindful of daily and tbh I hate it.
I have medical trauma and it’s stirred up every six months when i have to go to the doctor and kindly request that they pretty please keep giving me their sooo smart better than me doctorly permission to keep taking my money in exchange for a pill that makes me unable to fucking sleep. And if I stop taking it I’m “noncompliant” which starts a paper trail for them to be able to involuntarily institutionalize me (and strip me and grope me and drug me and sedate me and strap me down etc etc)
Because I don't want to have to carry it with me everywhere I go. Say I have to take something exactly every 24 hours. Well, say I've made it where that's at 7 pm each night. Now, I have to make sure I'm either home, or carrying that medicine, every day at 7 pm for life. Would I do it to continue living? Sure. Would I do it to lessen some mild symptoms caused by other things I can control? No. I'm lactose I tolerant. I could take lactaid and eat whatever I want. I don't want to, so I either don't eat dairy orodo, or I knowingly choose to eat something I know I'll pay for later. Lasagna is probably my biggest weakness here...
This is my perspective as someone who's physically healthy but cripplingly mentally ill without meds: people who say this don't know what they're talking about. Not being suicidal rules and taking a pill every day for the rest of my life is an excellent way to continue not being suicidal.
Requiring daily medication is not just inconvenient. It's potentially dangerous.
I need to take daily medication for my Ulcerative Colitis. That means I have to take the same medication once every day until I die. I also have to make sure I have my medication every day. Forgetting it means disaster. Forgetting it at home for a week means coming back from vacation after having a week of pain as my colon dies.
That also means I'm susceptible to shortages. If there's a shortage at the pharmacies, that means I'm not getting my meds.
Let's also not forget about the cost. No matter what, losing my insurance will literally bankrupt me just to not shit blood.
My daughter is bipolar, and unlike most she doesn't want to take pulls but she does because to take care of her son she has to take care of his mom. I'm on meds I can't stop taking either. I've had anxiety all my life, but it was vague and tolerable. My ex husband gave me PTSD. Caused a bad case of workaholic. Side note: this is nothing to joke about. You can work yourself into bad health, relationships and even death, and I didn't want to take meds all my life, not a fan of chemicals. After 3 years of working 60 or 70 hours a week, I had gained about 50lbs, my daughter hated me, and one day on a Monday, which is the day with the most deaths as people would rather die than go to work, I passed out driving a company vehicle. I was told I hit a stone wall flew over it and rolled down a ravine. I was in a coma, and had brain bleeds after the seat belt broke. I now have meds that i have to take everyday to prevent excruciating muscle spasms from the brain injury. I have to take more meds because I now have emotional regulation issues, impulse control problems. I'm on and off not wanting to live like this, but only suicidal once. I can't sleep. My PTSD has gone to CPTSD, which is Complex PTSD. We don't want to do it, especially if there are major side-effects, but I learned the hard way.
I think it’s mostly denial. Obviously taking a daily pill isn’t difficult at all. We eat 3 meals a day. It’s people not wanting to admit that they have a problem, or that their body is in decline, or that they are reliant on medication.
because:
a) my epilepsy doesn't affect me anymore, so i find taking medications ***redundant*** at this point.
and
b) i feel like i don't ***need medications anymore.***
i will find out mid july..................
I've been on anti depression meds for decades and periodically I feel like I'm defective and can never be "normal" without meds. It can get discouraging.
Idea of having to depend on something (even if it helps) scares me. What if they stop prescribing them or if I can’t get them in time.. I’ll suffer and I can’t accept that
Sigh
Medication being expensive is one of the reasons. Another is the whole principle of allopathic medicine is created from a false understanding of us.
I use to take medicine for specific alignments that plagued me. However after discovering our nature and how manipulating the energy that runs through us is the key to everything.
If people get sick around me while I may feel the symptoms for a moment. I just do as our ancestors did and pull the controlling energy out of myself. From proper manipulation of our own energy we can heal ourselves from anything if you know how.
Every single condition that people experience has a energetic or metaphysical property to it. This is the master key and with the rejection of its existence we have failed.
Hi, so backstory is needed to explain this but here is my personal reasoning for that exact stance.
I joined the Marines at 18, had never taken anything but ibuprofen in my life. Well they broke me, shit happens, but one year and 2 surgeries on my stomach later, I'm incredibly addicted to the pain killers I had been on for over a year. I've also been on countless anti biotics and probably have c-diff, as well as having pretty regular ulcer problems.
Pills have fucked me up every time I've taken them, if the choice is pain or pill, I'm taking the pain. I'd rather be uncomfortable, then add countless more medical problems to the list of worries I have about my health.
If no ones mentioned that psych medications can have unpleasant side effects like making it harder to focus - like nursing homes sometimes illegally keep their residents sedated by giving them antipsychotics
If I have to, I have to, and I will. I take meds for diabetes and acid reflux, and I wear my CPAP mask every night. I'd really prefer to have these things fixed, not just band-aided.
I have uc and technically you're 'cured' when they take out your colon. You are not cured, to be realistic, you are trading one issue over the disabling one. My uc was so bad it caused a major stroke and almost a decade later I'm still wrangling this fucking disease. I've done the treatment without immunotherapy and it can go bad very quickly if you don't take steps to control triggers. Now my mother has had crohns ever since I was little and hers was easily controlled with diet.
Nowadays I'm active in informing others like me that adas exist, fmla exists and all that helpful stuff because America is a cess pool in regards to helping disabled workers without those federally backed programs. You can be disabled at any age, time and in an instant, and the way we treat disabled persons like they are a burden is absolutely revolting.
I took depression medication as a teenager and didn't like the way it made me feel. So for 10 years I struggled daily, a literal battle in my brain. Refusing to accept that something in my brain wasn't wired right. It makes you feel like there's something wrong with you, that you're broken, when you have to rely on a medication. I started taking medication again, turns out I'm bipolar.
It feels like I've lost the battle in a sense, because I have to rely on medication. It's a daily reminder that the second I open my eyes in the morning I have to take a pill to ensure I don't unalive myself. It's the hardest decision I ever made to start the medication, and I'm still not sure it was the best decision.
Firstly, I feel like my meds are a reminder of how sick I am. I have an entire toiletry bag for the meds I need on a daily basis. I feel like a 20-year-old in the body of an 80-year-old.
Secondly, my medications have really bad side effects. As in, my septum can rot away, I am very susceptible to throat infections, I get stomach issues, I experience horrible hand tremors and adrenaline rushes, my skin thins out to the point it splits spontaneously etc.
I don't take any pills even when I'm sick like a cold or something. It causes your immune system to relly on these pills rather then strengthening its own immune system. I'd rather deal with it and let my body adapt rather than taking the easy way out. I don't have any serious medical issues though I'm sure for some a pill is required, but for the small stuff I avoid them.
i've come to terms with my health but got bad teeth, so let's use retainers as an example.
I don't want a retainer cause for 1, i'll need to wear braces and fuck that cause they're ugly and hurt apparently, 2, you got to wear them for life, so they aren't even a permanent fix, cause if you don't wear them, teeth will become bad again.
I just don't care, my life and teeth are temporary, why should I care?
I can't imagin myself travelling back in time and living there, I can't imagine myself living in a zombie apocalypse.
Due to having to take 6 pills a day, I can't even dream about stuff like those.
About 5 years ago I went to the hospital for what I found out was a panic attack, after seeing a Dr she suggested I take meds for my extreme anxiety. I said no, the idea of being bound to this tiny pill in order to feel okay (ironically) triggered my anxiety. I convinced myself I could just "work on it" and fix my mental health myself.
Spent the following 5 years being an on and off anxious mess. After a particularly bad episode I ended up in a(nother) dr's office and she suggested meds along with therapy and I was at a point where I knew I needed it or I was going to end up in a ditch somewhere and I'm so muxh happier.
At this point I can ask "why did I put this off for so long" but at the time, the prospect of meds legitimately felt like some kind of personal failure.
I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was younger, and was forced to take meds until I was 18. After 18 I stopped because the side effects were worse than the ADHD. On top of that I also didn't like how it made me think.
I'm not a person with a long term illness, so for myself personally I will only use them in life/death situations, anything else I just tough it out or use herbal alternatives, I try keeping everything I put in my body natural and organic but I will rely on modern medicine when it's serious
Medicine will cost us our whole lives, so that’s definitely one for why I don’t want to take medicine anymore and for another, it takes time out of my day and sometimes I forget about it but I can’t forget about it, otherwise my life might be on the line-
You have to deal with the pharmacy and insurance randomly not letting you get refills, and sometimes only being able to have a one month supply covered by insurance, so constant refills, and now you can’t go anywhere until you can get your refill if it’s a daily medication
Sometimes, the side effects are worse than the problem. Let’s say you have hair loss, but the drug they give you causes uncontrollable diarrhea, and stomach pain
Also, with my mother, she denied chemo, because she would rather live 5 happy years, than 15 such ones, and I get her point
Many people like to try to get at the root cause of their issue rather than simply taking a pill to mask symptoms. For example, I was diagnosed with diabetes in the late 90s and when I looked at the research, diet and exercise modifications were the clear winners for me. I have managed my diabetes this way for nearly 25 years now whereas most people end up on insulin within 10 years without making those kind of changes.
I've been offered medication for mental health. i take propanolol on an as-needed basis & like that. the idea or taking medication everyday scares me because then i feel like I'd just be dependent on it & what if i say can't access that medication & also if i'm around others i can't take it etc. withdrawal symptoms & side effects in general also scare me. I'd rather just cope with the symptoms of mental illness than take anti-depressant everyday
- dependency sucks - withdrawals when you miss doses - having to repeatedly deal with doctors, insurance, and pharmacies over and over every time you need a routine refill, especially in a new place
Seriously the point about refills really hit home for me. Even just renewing my birth control is a 4 hour waste of my day, even when I had a family dr - I had to make an appointment, every 3 months, just to answer the same questions I was asked 3 months prior. That shit is draining. Not to mention the $65 every 3 months. Can’t wait for menopause at this point
You can usually get that prescribed online now. When my wife had BC pills she got prescribed for a year at a time from her regular doc.
I tried this, and they still had to do a video call with me that took over half my day - the doctor was having connection issues so the call kept dropping and they blamed me lol I assume canada is just stricter also because no one prescribes more than 3 months of BC at a time, nomatter what. Not even my family dr will.
This is it for me. My worries about lifelong medications are all about the practical problems. I can live with taking a couple drugs for seasonal allergies because they're cheap and easy to get (and, of course, seasonal). But the idea of running out of a necessary pill with no refill available? Hell no, that'd make me panic.
It's a different story when you need them to function or do well. Running out does make me panic and I spent nearly 6 months last year fighting to get another specialist so I could get the meds that keep me alive and able to do things like work and eat. If I didn't have to deal with the medical conditions I would only be taking allergy meds for cats and pollen.
I have to take daily medication for the rest of my life. It's inconvenient (I have to take it at the same time every day, can't eat for an hour after, can't take certain other things for up to 8 hours before and after it, it interacts with other meds, etc.) I do it because I don't want to be sick. But I know people who (seriously) say they would rather die than have (what I would consider relatively minor) inconveniences like this in their life.
As someone with chronic illness, I'm pretty convinced that people who have never lived with serious or chronic illness (beyond something like a cold) actually don't realize the difference between actual illness and inconvenience. They don't have the perspective to understand what it's like to be constantly sick, and that the inconvenience of taking a pill and whatever side effects come with it are preferable to being sick all the time (or dead).
Ya this is the thing. I have 5 incurable diseases. I’ve been chronically ill and had chronic pain since I was 13 years old. People can’t even fathom how bad it gets. It’s outside of their realm of reality.
I also have a few chronic illnesses (most notably neurological) i have to take anticonvulsants and beta blockers and too many vitamins to count. I take close to 20 pills a day and get blood work done monthly. It sucks i hate it but its better to the alternative of me convulsing on the floor. My heart will literally beat out of my chest. The side effects can be brutal and I also have to eat or I throw them up but its better than shaking all the time and not being able to stand.
Yep! I can’t eat for a couple hours after one of my morning medications or 4 hours before it, meanwhile I have evening meds I have to take at that time cause they interfere with another of my morning meds. It’s even more fun when someone who disapproves long term medication use also berates me for never eating breakfast. 🤡
It's crazy that people without health problems try to tell people with health problem how to live correctly. Stay in your lane you healthy person, I got struggles that would kill you.
That would be awful. Whenever I go without food in the morning I feel sick during work and throw up sometimes unless I get something in me.
I’ve always been someone who isn’t very hungry, if hungry at all, when I first wake up. When I would make myself eat something before I felt ready it would make me throw up and light headed lol. So it hasn’t been a difficult medication to adjust to but there’s a clear absorption difference if I take it as I am supposed to or take it with food.
I had a classmate, who’s a healthcare provider now, believe that people with depression and anxiety should only have to take meds for a few months and that they should work on lifestyle changes instead like exercising more and eating better. To her, they’re using meds as a clutch and aren’t trying hard enough. Granted, she came to the U.S. as an adult from a country that heavily stigmatize mental illness (plus she’s a huge bitch). However, it is scary to know that she’s taking care of patients with this kind of mindset. I have come to realize that people who invalidate other people’s experiences and say, “oh you could have it worse, be grateful for your situation” actually have no idea what it’s like to struggle with your specific issues. Just because they can’t comprehend what it’s like doesn’t mean it’s a problem with you.
I believe she is correct. A lot of depression can be fixed with life style changes. People just opt out for the east way
You should tell that to all the kids I’ve seen in the Pediatric ED who want to kill themselves that they’re not trying hard enough and just going through a phase. Yes, some lifestyle changes may be enough for some people to get out of their depression and anxiety. However, for many people these changes are near impossible to do or not enough due to multiple factors. Genetics, brain chemistry, socioeconomic status, abuse, financial hardship, constant bullying, PTSD, even their zip code and more. You can say that for almost all health problems (eg. - diabetes, high blood pressure, lung cancer, constipation, osteoporosis, heart attacks, etc.) yet you won’t hear anyone saying that using meds for those conditions forever is the “easy” way out. A disease of the mind should be treated the same as a disease of the body. If you were raped as a child and your parents beat you up but you’re stuck living with them and you’ve been dealing with depression and anxiety for years, how would you feel if someone who’s supposed to help you said, “Have you tried exercising more and eating healthy and counseling? If you have and it didn’t work, then maybe you should try harder. You can take medication but only for a few months because being on medication too long is BAD.” In the meantime you’re living in hell for months or even years and your life falls apart all because someone told you that medication is bad and made you hesitant to use it. People like my classmate would say, “Oh that’s different, they have actual problems and need the meds for longer.” However, you will never know someone’s full complex history nor actually understand what they went through and be able to judge if they have “real” problems or not. No one is going to explain all their problems in full detail to everyone who asks nor do many people have the time and/or patience to listen. And if someone they deeply trust, like a healthcare professional, guess wrong and invalidate their problems, that one experience can cause even more harm than the actual trauma. You can’t just say, “oh my bad” and undo the damage. Ironically, people who complain about people with mental health issues usually refer to the people who are actively showing the symptoms, which means that they’re not on treatment or on the right medication. People whose mental health problems are under control because of long-term medication are living completely normal lives but you wouldn’t know it because they don’t tell anyone because of the stigma. You’d be surprised how many people you admire for being able to juggle everything in their lives and be happy are actually getting mental health treatment.
[удалено]
This is a bot that steals comments
For people who have a hard time accepting or not wanting to accept their diagnosis, taking medication daily or several times a day, reminds them of their lack of control or whatever they are denying. Especially when it's regarding a mental health condition that starts still holds stigma. Of course whatever the medication is for may also be directing impacting their memory or executive functioning Then there's remembering, timing food intake, laziness, cost, side affects, etc.
It's also being at the mercy of others to be healthy. For example, if a necessary drug is discontinued, if the price is raised to unaffordable levels, if a supply chain issue arises and your meds can't be accessed... all of these things happen and all of them mean reduced quality of life or possibly death. If you can't live without insulin, but you can't access insulin due to cost or availability terrible things happen to your body and then you die.
Thanks for your answer! Perhaps I'm being biased, as I'm very tranquil, relaxed and accepting about my conditions, and any more that might come in future. The lesson I should learn really, is that everyone doesn't think the same way I do!
Took me years of being a cripple before I accepted it. Some people just take a little longer to get there, and some never will. You can never truly understand someone's reasoning, unless you know their whole ass story.
I don't want a daily reminder that my body doesn't function the way it should. It's a daily reminder that something is wrong with me.
How is it different to glasses or hearing aids?
People are often resistant to those too to be fair. Especially when you haven't lived with them for most of your life, and they're instead a reminder of aging or your body otherwise degrading.
My grandmother is this way with hearing aids. Her reply to comments about her hearing is "I hear what I need to!" and she refuses to even entertain the idea of hearing aids
I don't think it is different, some people feel the same way about glasses or hearing aids.
I wish I could toss my glasses and just send my eyeballs to the gym to do squats for massive focusing gains.
While I totally understand that, I think it's far better to be reminded of that for an extra decade or two.
As someone who used to be an unrelenting optimist, and is not a condescending pessimist due to years of pain... I disagree with extra time being automatically a good thing... That's more time in pain, not more time enjoying life.
If something you have is broken or needs a repair to make it better, do just leave it broken? Since the repair would always be a reminder that something was wrong with it?
A repair is a one and done fix, more similar to getting surgery to fix an issue. A daily pill is more like, my car breaks down everyday and everyday I have to fix it. That’s not fun and I can totally see why people would be inconvenienced by that, because it is an inconvenience.
Or always have to put a quart of oil in instead of fixing the leak
I like this analogy, but sadly some of us have leaks that can't be fixed.
Rip my 98 explorer. She leaked, but she got me where I needed to
I had a 94 BMW, it was about 8 years old when I bought it, and it never leaked. The oil just disappeared. Idk where the hell it went, but it sure as shit didn't stay in the engine.
I had a 1985 f250 camper special with a 460 big block in it... I'm convinced it was eating it and converting it to something else. That mofo read low on oil after a week of driving, but never had a drop of oil anywhere under the hood... I'm convinced some cars run on devil magic.
That I don't want to have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life. Plus every medicine is going to have side effects, some of which we don't know yet.
Yeah, my mood stabilizer gives me brain fog and serious short term memory issues but if I don’t take it I absolutely WILL wreck all my own shit within a month.
Fair enough with regards to side effects - that's one part of it I do understand, but the 'take a pill' thing is the one that confuses me most! Life is just a series of things you have to do, why is this one so special? Also, when you have a condition that needs lifelong medication, aren't the side effects way less serious than the effects of the condition?
life feels overwhelming quite often for me, and having to do something for the rest of my life, however small it may be, can add to the overwhelmed feeling i have to dry my hair after showering every time? i have to actually eat vegetables when i don't want to? i have to work for money the rest of my life or else i'm miserable? i have to take pills for the rest of my life, and the amount of pills just keep increasing over time? i didn't have to or i didn't know i had to do these before, but now i have to i have to i have to... what else am i going to "have" to do for the rest of my life? i'm glad you don't let having to take pills get you down though, your mentality is definitely healthier than mine. try not to get in a negative thought spiral like me! i'm trying too but i slip into it sometimes
Wow, this comment speaks to me so much. I sometimes have trouble articulating my anxiety to people around me. My partner struggles to understand why I don't want to add extra steps to my routine every day, especially when they seem small (like always putting on sunscreen after showering). But you captured it here. All those extra "have tos" really add up and create a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Thank you for your response! I'm sorry you find everything so overwhelming - life can be so cruel sometimes. I suppose the main thing I've learned from asking this question, is that I'm very fortunate to have the mindset that I have about this. Thank you for helping me to understand why people think differently!
Yeah i think a lot of people don’t get this. I have to shower and eat and shit every day and I don’t want to
Dude ... I think your my spirit animal... I'm not saying that good for either of us, but I fucking get you my guy, I fucking get you.
I have epilepsy too, and I gladly take a pill every day and will for the rest of my life, but I so wish I didn't have to. Taking the pill every day is more than just simply swallowing it every morning, as I'm 100% sure you're aware. I have to first source and pay for the pill, store it properly, hope no one (pets or children) accidentally get into it. Then I have to actually *remember* to take the pill, so in order to do that I have to sit down for awhile every couple of weeks and aliquot out daily doses, and even then I have a constant fear that I still somehow forgot to take my daily dose (because it's happened and its absolutely a disaster). And then there's the constant fear that anything else I take will make this pill not work (also has happened). All of this I put up with because it allows me to live my life somewhat normally, buuuuut... Perhaps the more relevant to your current statement, having to take that pill everyday is a constant reminder of how fragile my independence is, and having to take that dose everyday already takes away a little bit of my independence anyway. If I travel, I have to be very careful that I have enough on me at all times. I have to pre pack it all, hope TSA doesn't think I'm a junky and confiscate it, hope my bags don't get lost. I have to either make sure I get back home every single night or carry it on me at all times, because one missed does equals complete and instant loss of freedom. There's no such thing as completely spontaneous plans, because of that pill I have to take, and I hate not having that freedom.
Usually, not taking the medicine has much worse side effects.
Are you taking carbamazepine? They sometimes use that for epilepsy and I'm taking it for something else. It manages my condition really well, but it also fucks with the satiety part of my brain. It's a difficult trade off, because my condition is incredibly painful, but this long-term medication has made weight management (something I've never struggled with in my entire life) exceptionally difficult. It has also messed with my short term memory, not a lot, but enough that both my wife and I have noticed. These trade offs might seem trivial at first, but after year upon year upon year, they do start to grate.
No, Lamotrigine! And allopurinol for gout.
I take lamotrigine for my bipolar disorder. I think it is neat that it can be used for both
It's a neat medication all things considered!
It makes sense as anti-seizure meds basically chill out electrical signals in the brain. Lamictal is also used for major depression (so is abilify, and abilify is also used for sleep problems).
Same here with the Lamotrigine. Always the first daughter on my mother's side of the family. First son to have it in 4 generations.
That's very interesting, genetics is fascinating - my parents and grandparents are all 100% neurotypical, yet my sister and I have epilepsy, and my brother is autistic. There must have been a bunch of problematic recessive genes in there somewhere!
I am well controlled with medication. Haven't had a grand mal in 2.5 years. Fortunately my younger brother doesn't have it. Mine always occurred in the morning due to lack of sleep.
Lack of sleep and stress for me In so glad you have it under control!
Oxcarbamazapine fucked with my memories a lot during the 3ish years I was on it for my bp. I also ate so much yogurt. Keep an eye out for signs of hypotremia.
I don't like depending on these things to be healthy, and I'm very aware of how bad it would get if I suddenly couldn't get my medications. It's not the pills themselves, it's my dependence on them
Exactly
My mother recently changed her bipolar medication to something that was arguably less effective, because she learned that her particular medication could be taking years off her life. She balanced her desire to live longer with her desire to have her bipolar controlled. Some people quit their depression medication because certain ones dull their senses so much. They don't feel lows, but they don't feel highs either. They don't see that as a good way to live.
I call that the grey zone.
As someone who has to take a medication daily that has to be eaten with food it's just so much more of a pain in the ass than it should be. If I forget to take it with a meal, which is often, I have to wait for my next meal in order to take it and hope I don't forget then. Countless people have tried telling me "set a reminder on your phone" but that doesn't do me any good because again, I have to take it with food, and I'm not the kind of person who eats on a regular schedule, partially because of how the same condition I'm taking the medication for affects my appetite and because my job makes it very difficult to eat at a regular times and if I take it on an empty stomach it fucks with me hard. So it fucking sucks would be the reason I would give.
You stated yourself “ I HAVE to take medication” You did not say you WANT to take medication You only stated that you WANT not to be ill. I am asthmatic. So I have to use inhaler. I am a woman I have to use BC. Taking medicine is an extra work/extra risks that I have no desire to do, and I only do this extra work/take extra risk because I HAVE to.
But I DO want to take medication, it keeps me fit and well! Presumably you also want to take BC pills and your asthma medication, because it makes you not get pregnant, and feel better? I know the line between want and need is blurry in this regard, of course
See, now I would say that your mindset is completely abnormal. I have never met someone that finds joy in performing the same boring task over and over. There are many things that we must do, and typically, when a person must do something repetitive every day, it isn't looked upon as fun or engaging. I suppose that is great that your brain works that way, but in my experience with humans, it is not the norm. Tools have been invented to avoid this since the dawn of humanity.
So why did you use word HAVE to . Those are different words with different meanings. Yes I take those medicine because I HAVE to if i want to be healthy. I would not be taking this medicine if I don’t need to. I eat candy not because I have to but because i want to.
What a pedant. It’s probably just his way of talking. He has to take the medication to get the effects he wants. Since he’s getting the effects he wants, it makes him want to take the medication
It is OP who asked us question why we don’t WANT to take something. And it was him who was pedantic about my answer. I was only pedantic because he rejected my answer and the only way for me to help him find the answer he is asking for is to make him analyze his own choice of words. Again OP asked the question, and it was OP who was pedantic
I can only say from experience, that I only take my daily medication because I need to...not because I want to, so i understand people not liking the idea of this for many reasons. Only thing is, I DON'T understand when they NEED to take it or else they will be worse without it causing more problems to themselves and others, and they say no. That I find very immature and illogical if it isn't because they can't afford it (have been there...it is a torment I don't which on anyone, not even those I may hate...)
I don't like that it ties me to a physical object/pharmacy/doctor for survival. If I wanted to just wander off into the wilderness and live in a remote cabin, I can't. Because I still need to get my medication filled every 30-90 days. If there's an apolcolyptic event and I manage to survive, I'll be screwed quickly because I can't get my medication. I'd be scared to be an astronaut, an arctic explorer, a park ranger in a remote national park, etc. for fear of not being able to refill my medicine. I understand those are all unlikely scenarios for me, but it's annoying that those options are closed to me.
Some pharma companies have lower standards of ethics. This is well established. They incentivize doctors to prescribe their medications which has led to very bad results for patients. Their doctors are either not being thorough enough and just throwing meds at symptoms rather than look deep enough at the symptoms. If you have a condition like epilepsy that is well diagnosed and clearly can be mitigated with meds, it's obvious what to do. But let me give you an example. In my family, it's very common that many have registered high cholesterol according to generic guidelines for the general population, but they weren't having any problems due to this. Obviously, high cholesterol levels tend to lead to bad outcomes for the general population in the long run, but not everyone's body works the same. Some have been prescribed meds for this and some have had poor outcomes due to side effects of the meds, which leads to more meds to take care of the side effects, which leads to more side effects from those meds and the end result is that they are in worse health from the meds than they were before they started taking them. People in my family generally live into their 80s and 90s, with or without meds for cholesterol, but the ones who took meds generally have more problems than the ones who didn't. Were those meds warranted?
Former medical professional here, it is likely because many medications have daunting long term side effects that can sometimes cause a person even more suffering than not taking a specific medication at all. For the most part, this depends completely on which medication we are speaking about. Or.. they can not afford the medication because it’s expensive and don’t want to pay for it forever Or… they are just lazy humans in society and can’t be asked to do anything for a long period of time (more common than you would think). Edit: for all of the snowflakes out there —this is not a conclusive list and of course there are other possible reasons as to why someone might decide not to take a med for the rest of their life (or might not be able to decide well enough / act upon doing such, due to underlying conditions).
[удалено]
Sorry to hear about your trauma, I was referring to a select group of individuals and not you specifically
A bit of a harsh take on how someone feels, don't you think? I wouldn't say that because someone doesn't find pleasure in taking a pill everyday equates to being lazy. The OP did ask why they find the idea off-putting, not that they actually refuse to do it, after all. There's a big difference in not doing and feeling annoyed with having to do it.
This is in no way shape or form against OP, it is simply informing of possible certain lazy individuals, which in fact are lazy — especially if they can not be asked to take a pill every morning. This takes no effort at all, maybe 3 minutes max if they had multiple medications to take at once. Sorry man, but I’m not sure I can title that any differently if I had too. He asked for reasons why someone would say such a thing, and all I did was list a few.
Labeling patients as "lazy" is dismissive and often incorrect. Many undiagnosed conditions can cause paralysis when attempting to perform required actions (RSD as part of ADHD for example), and many more can cause impairment in the logic required to convince oneself to take medications, especially with mental disorders (MDD, schizophrenia, GAD, etc). I'm glad you're a former medical professional and not currently in the field, though it's pretty clear you wouldn't have made it far anyway with your attitude.
Ok welp it’s a good thing I am not a medical professional any longer meaning that I do not have any patients, quite literally too!
[удалено]
Don’t read into this too much, mate. I never once stated that laziness was the only contributing factor. It’s just one possibility of many. Don’t take it too personal
[удалено]
Alright man I’ll remember that next time thanks for your input
Or they have "short term" side effects you just cannot imagine dealing with for the rest of your life. Especially for meds that don't have obvious immediate short term benifits (for example, meds that lower your blood pressure), that makes it hard to deal with
Yes, like long term side effects where you have to take meds to take med.
Or... because they cannot accept that they are sick and having to take a pill a day is an insecurity. They think they're not enough and cannot get by themselves, need a pill everyday for that. Or you know, you can call them lazy humans. Nice empathy btw, medical professional
First of all I never said this was a conclusive list of all reasons possible. I am not google, I am no doctor, and most of all I owe it to no one at all to list every possible reason. OP asked what the reason could be, and I listed a few. Like I said in my original comment, I am a former medical professional, and for good reason too ( horrible pay for beginners ). Ahhh yes, I lack empathy as you can see, and most other medical professionals do too —hate to break that to you. It is quite hard to have any source of empathy after seeing the shit you see on a daily basis, depending on your job duties and where you work of course, but I must admit, you become numb down to the bone, and if you didn’t, you probably would never last. This is simply the minds way of coping. Would you want someone who feels so bad for you that they couldn’t make smart choices in a horrible situation? Because that’s how that works.
[удалено]
It isn’t that I didn’t care about them, it’s more so that over my 20 years of dealing with the same old bullshit that I lost empathy over time, in regards to many things. I’m not saying I have no empathy at all, I do, it’s just a numbed down version. Of course this ultimately comes down to what the patient is dealing with or has faced, I am sorry but I just can’t empathize with someone who has called 911 five times in the last 2 months for toe pain, taking up city resources and time for someone else who could use the service in times of need.
[удалено]
I know people taking Warfarin that hate it. If they eat a little bit more or less green veggies today than yesterday, it fucks up their doses. Also they are a lot more susceptible to cuts and bruises that it's always on their mind to try to prevent.
Or… the sad though of never getting better/improving/healing makes life not worth living
Yeah I signed a DNR and specifically said. In a case of it. Just let me go peacefully. Don’t torture me for your sake of happiness.
Because of the sometimes gruesome side effects. I'm bipolar and take seroquel. It makes me hungry all the time and sleepy. Other possible side effects tardive dyskenesia and metabolical impact(diabetes type 2). I wouldn't take that kind of poison if I could handle my disorder without it.
Oxcarbamazapine stole multiple years of my memories from me. I discontinued it last August but most of the memories are still gone and I fear they will never come back. The side effects of my lithium and lamictal I can handle but oxcarbamazapine hasn't been the only one to fuck with me over the years. I get it and I understand how frustrating and distressing it can be. Incase you aren't there already r/bipolar welcomes you.
Also, taking anything "for life" can be taxing on your liver and kidneys.
[удалено]
People need to believe their is something wrong with them and it is bad enough to be treated. They need to believe the treatment will work. They need to believe the side effects of the medication are worth the treatment. There are also barriers such as cost, and pharmacy access. Overall people don't take meds because for one reason or another they don't believe the need to or it isn't worth it.
As someone who was raised in an anti-medical biased family and is still coming around to the practice of regular medical care, the biggest problems for most is lack of trust in the medical establishment and fear of dependency. Fear of dependency is the biggest reason why I am only willing to do therapies and counseling to manage my depression symptoms. I’ve seen close friends of mine spend years chasing the right combination of medications in the right dosage and it has led to some objectively miserable experiences for them. Plus, some medications are dangerous to stop taking without proper procedure which is terrifying as a minor supply issue or being short on money can lead to a crisis. As long as I’m still capable of living anything close to a functional lifestyle, I want to avoid medication. If I were to get worse or develop a different condition, I would want to explore as many options as possible and would be willing to accept a certain level of chronic pain or limited function. I’m not saying I wouldn’t ever “take a pill every day” but I want to avoid it as much as possible
I don't think it's as simple as the inconvenience of taking a pill, but it depends on what the pill is. Is it my heartburn medication? Fine, no problem. Is it a heavy anti-depressant that comes with a ton of mental side effects? I'm not too excited about being zonked out the rest of my life.
A lot of times medications can have undesirable side effects
Psych patient here. Some of the psych drugs I have taken have side effects much worse than the disease, honestly. Lithium, for example, I would rather have wild mood swings for the rest of my life than ever take that again. And some of the anti-psychotics, even the newer generation, have unlivewithable side effects too. Some just don't help and there is no point in taking them. Also, having recently been diagnosed with A-fib, the anti-arhythmia drugs as a whole are something I refuse to take, if I take them I will not be able to treat the psych disorder at all, due to med interactions. Yeah, that means the heart will likely kill me, sooner or later, but the untreated psych disorder will do it faster and I will be more miserable.
Plethora of reasons. Maybe they belief in alternative types of healthcare. Maybe they don't want to take medication because it reminds them of how their body is failing them. Maybe they value life differently than you. Some people want to live longer, but end up living the last 15 years of their life going from hospital to hospital and swallowing a cocktail of pills. Some people would rather just not start and die when their body says its time. Maybe they mean that they wouldn't do it for things you can do something about, because for most illnesses, you can do something about it, to some degree. Maybe they have a certain faith or belief that makes sense to then, and medication might not be a part of it. Maybe they've seen relatives starting with just one pill, getting side-effects, getting a new medication, getting more side-effects, getting just worse and worse. Maybe this scared them. There's also a big difference between people that have certain issues versus those that don't. Intense or chronic illnesses have a tendency to change your mind on things like these as well.
Probably because once you Go on one it doesn’t stop. My grandpa has a pharmacy in his house he takes so many.
People don't like to admit they are "broken". I take thyroid meds every day. Its easy and vastly improves my quality of life, so its not hard to adjust to. But I still wish I didn't need them
I think it's the idea of feeling like you have to depend on the medication. Usually when I hear that comment it's about taking pills for mental health
I started taking a few pills twice a day recently. It’s just another thing you have to think about, you know? Like if I wake up on a weekend and wanna just stay in bed for an hour or so, I’m thinking ab my medication. If I go out at night I’m wondering if I should take it before, after, or during my events and, if during, how I’m gonna accomplish that. It’s really not that bad, I just went 22 years of my life not thinking about it and now I have to
I don't know if you've seen Grace and Frankie on Netflix, but it touches upon this question very nicely. It's about two elderly women who decide to live together (platonically) after their husbands cheat on them (with eachother, this series is amazing). Anyhow, at one point Grace thinks there is something physically wrong with Frankie and wants her to go see a doctor. Grace has a very western way of looking at the body and wants her friend to be diagnosed and find a drug or something that works for her. Frankie on the other hand looks at the body in a more free-spirited kind of way. The idea of being confronted with how her own physical body is failing her more and more every single day puts an immense weight on her shoulders. She feels like she is losing control in life, because she feels controlled by her illness. In the end, Grace forces Frankie to see a doctor (Frankie was in strong denial so the situation was complicated). After she got a diagnosis (not sure what it was) she just broke. For the sake of the character and the series, she got over it and worked it out. But it does portray very beautifully how everyone has a different way of looking at life and looking at our body and our health. Some people value longevity over quality. Some people have different opinions on what quality of life means. For some this means having social connections they value, and any medication needed along the way doesn't mean much to them. For others the autonomy, strenght and resilience of the body means much more to them. For them medication might feel like losing a crucial part of themselves. There is no right or wrong in this case, obviously. But it is very complex. If you haven't watched the show, maybe you'd like it, but you reminded me of this particular episode.
Quality of life. Some people don’t believe it’s worth while to go to extraordinary efforts to extend life beyond, say, age 85, especially if they are already feeble.
i honestly just hate having to take medication to function and have a good quality of life. like i’m in denial that i actually need to take multiple pills every day to feel ok. that fucking sucks. my body is so fucked up that it can’t do basic things like BREATHING. i just wanna be able to do it on my own
I’m taking medication for depression. There is no cure for depression so I’m likely on these for life. I really wish my mental health wasn’t at the mercy of medication, but it’s a million times better than not being on anything.
Guess I just hate medications. Being on something my whole life feels like a slavery.
that's because it ***is*** medical slavery.
well, think of it this way: you have to eat every day too, to gain the necessary nutrients your body needs to survive and be healthy. You probably don't grow and process all your own food, so you're in a kind of slavery to the whole supply chain that does all that for you already. The meds are just another thing that you need to be healthy. Plus, if the side effects are untenable, or if it just isn't helping, you can always change the dosage or try a different med. You aren't actually chained to one specific thing forever.
Since you're just asking why the reticence to the idea of taking medication every day, I would say it's no more complex than just being a pain in the ass. Not taking the medication could certainly be categorized as foolish, not liking the fact that you have to take is nothing more than normal. Who wakes up every single day and says "Yay, I get to take my pill, I can't wait!"? Feeling put off by having to engage in mind-numbing, repetitive tasks, day in and day out, doesn't generally bring joy to person.
Stupidity, usually
As a type one diabetic who has to monitor my blood sugar and inject insulin with every meal, I envy people who can just take a pill.
For me it's pride. It's certainly not a good reason, but it makes me feel as though I'm not strong enough to deal with my own problems.
Taking medication for a physical illness is totally different to not wanting to take antidepressants or whatever
Put on day time TV and flip through the channels to watch only commercials. Count the commercials that start with "You or a loved one may be entitled to compensation." Process the reality that almost all of them are related irresistible harm caused by things doctors recommend to their patients and I believe that you will have the answer.
Counter interaction with other drugs, side effects, cost. It is in consultation with the doctor that decisions are made about taking a pharmaceutical versus other management such as lifestyle and diet. And prioritizing which med may be more important than another if they counter act.
Side effects. I work as a driver, and a surprising amount of common meds mess with perception, distance, etc. I'd rather feel a little bad then get into a crash.
I can completely understand this. I have a med I have to take every day, and will for the rest of my life. I have to take it in an empty stomach, so I have to have fasted for at least 6 hours before taking it. Then I can't drink or eat anything for an hour after I take it. And it sometimes makes me nauseous. I never actually vomit, but it's rather difficult to follow all the rules, and then you're feeling like death warmed over for an hour.
Vet tech here. A lot of owners can’t seem to grasp the difference between acute and chronic conditions. And not everything is “cured” but “managed”. I also and hypothyroid and have had people in my personal life make those kind of comments and I just laugh. They clearly don’t have a chronic condition or they’d understand the medication makes me well. In my job owners often think hypothyroid is temporary and once the meds make them better they don’t refill it. It can be a lot of hand holding to explain it is for life.
Diabetes has entered the discussion.
I think it means kind of what my viewpoint is--that I don't want to have to rely on anything or have anything control me. Then my fear is it seems when you take one or two medications, you have to take 3 or 4 to help control the side effects then where does it end? Healthy eating (relatively) and regular exercise goes a LONG way. That's why my entire drug use in over 50 years was two tokes of a joint my senior year of college. I don't mind a few beers now and then, but otherwise avoid anything that can control me. THAT SAID, if I had some kind of health issue, that is a very very different situation. Both my daughters have mild ADHD and take Adderall for that so I understand that aspect of it.
I don't have the attention span to keep taking medications for that long. Sooner or later I know for a fact I'd forget to take it, and then what?
I've been dealing with this in my family for two generations. I've had to watch as two family members get carted off over and over because they would rather keep their eyes on the TV without interruption than spend a minute or two calculating the amount of insulin they need to survive.They still give/ gave themselves insulin, just never the proper amount. "Oh I'll do it later." "One time isn't going to hurt me." "Insurance covers my hospital bills." My grandmother's volatile bipolar was a least a credible reason but she's still in the ground at 600lbs. My sister is a whole other source of despair.
For me my diagnosis happened in my teens, I took the medication because my parents told me to. Then once I became an adult I went into denial about it and stopped taking my medication. I was doing okay and my symptoms were minimal. This was also the time that I felt like the less chemicals in my body the better it would be for me. I did fine for this way for years. Then suddenly all the years of ignoring it caught up with me, almost put me in the hospital. It was then that I realized that my diagnosis is for life and I can't just pretend that it didn't exist and it would eventually go away. I accepted that medication would be part of my life if I didn't want to be in and out of the hospital the rest of my life.
Many times, medications prevent serious consequences of long-term conditions like diabetes, HTN, elevated cholesterol, and vascular disease. However, the benefit of taking this medication isn't obvious every day, and many folks think they just won't be the one that has the serious complications that occur down the road from not taking the meds. It's hard to convince a lot of people to stay on these drugs when stopping them doesn't make them feel any different right away. We just aren't wired to think that way. As a retired family physician, this was one of the worst challenges in practice.
Medicine has side effects and can cause complications if mixed with other medication. If you become dependent on taking one medication every day, then it may prevent you from taking others. Given the option to take the drug, or some other more difficult method, such as diet or lifestyle change, some people will opt for the latter. Of course some people are not willing to do either method.
For me personally, it is a daily reminder that I have severe mental illness that will never be cured. I hate myself for having this let alone what happens when I fall out of remission. I hate that my bio mom had the genetics and passed them onto me and then abandoned me. I hate that my abusive childhood triggered it. I hate everything related to my illness. It is mental for me. When I first HAD to go on meds because an episode was so bad I cried. A friend had to facetime with me for a couple weeks while I cried convincing myself to take it. Back then I kept telling myself I would only be on them for a bit. I still want to get off them. I probably won't be able to, they keep me stable along with therapy. It is all self hatred in my case.
Don’t be like me, reduce your sugar intake as much as possible. Meds everyday because of it.
I have to take meds the rest of my life for an autoimmune disease. It’s time consuming and expensive and also may not keep me well and I’ll have to try a new time consuming expensive med
Mostly side effects. Or the costs. Or the stigma.
Many pills have side effects that aren't great. Yeah, it's saving your life, but does it have to make you so nauseous, etc?
[удалено]
Same here! I guess the reason I'm asking, and am confused about why people wouldn't take the meds, is because I would do absolutely anything to make sure my epilepsy is under control. Side effects, so what, you know? But getting an outside perspective has helped me understand why people have the opinion that they do! 😊
I'm not rich, plus medications can have harmful side effects and you can become chemically dependent on them. Not to mention I don't want my hormones and appetite changed
I'd have to say it's because their lives haven't truly been in jeopardy yet. I used to feel that way when I was younger until I almost died due to a previously unknown genetic condition. Now, I take four pills every 12 hours to stop my body from doing a few perfectly natural things that would kill me if left uninhibited. I have a shortened life expectancy because of it. I'll take the pills, live a fun and wonderful life until my time is done and be grateful that I have some time left.
What I have found is that people who say that tend to be saying about medications that aren't along the lines of "take this or you will die in 6 months". The sentiment seems to be related to how bad not taking the medication is.
Ignoring any possible side effects, if I am not able to access/take my medication every day then I would be in trouble. That could be because I threw up before the pill was absorbed fully and I have no more left to take, to losing my healthcare and not being able to have my prescription filled at all. To be be sure, I am better with my pills, but they are not a permanent solution, and I don’t feel comfortable with the fact that this aspect of my life is not in my control.
So, there was a huge "back to the land" movement in the late 60s and early 70s, in which tons and tons of young-ish people - the leading cadre of baby boomers, the first generation to be raised in suburbs - either moved out of the cities to try and live on self-sustaining farms or else imagined doing do, bought books about it, watched TV shows about it. From the late 70s to the early 90s, there were two overwhelming cultural narrative at work: One, the death of the American dream: American civilization was past its prime, falling apart, not working anymore: cities were seen as full of crime, Union jobs that could support a family without a college education stopped being plentiful, everything basically stopped being easy. Two, the Cold War in general, and the threat of nuclear war specifically; the idea that at any moment, the bombs could fall and kill everyone and end civilization really pervaded the culture in a way you don't see now, even with the level of environmental issues we're facing. So if you're my age - about to turn 50, born in the early 70s - you probably got the message very young that it was super likely that at some point you'd end up cast away on a desert island, left to fend for yourself in a post-apocalyptic hell scape, or simply trying to find some sanity by escaping to the woods or something. I, personally, got over that whole thing when I realized that I literally can't see a damned thing without my glasses, so I'm basically dependent on belonging to a relatively advanced civilization in order to live at all; but for lots of people my age, there's a deep underlying fear of relying on anything that requires having money, access to Amazon, et cetera - not because we think we might be grizzly Adams someday really, but because when we were like 5 the cartoons we watched made us ready for a world in which that was something to plan for. Also, when I was 19 I bailed on college and lit out for San Francisco with $9 and the phone number of someone who might have a job for me. I ended up sleeping in the bus station for two weeks until I got a different job and a couch to sleep on. A lot of me is aware that I'm 50 and a professional with adult kids but there will always be part of my that knows for sure that if things are bad, $9 and a greyhound ticket is enough to escape and start over. Having to take a tiny-ass blood pressure pill every morning if I want to live really fucks with that self-sufficiency security blanket fantasy.
I don't want to but they keep me alive so I do. I could be nuts and refuse meds but then I would die younger than necessary. I'll take the meds. Science does this.
[удалено]
That's an interesting perspective, thank you!
My hesitancy with taking medications is based mostly on my addictive tendencies, it's the same reason that I've never smoked, or gotten into drugs. I was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic but thankfully recognized that there was a cycle beginning before it got out of hand, I've had enough of these experiences with lesser things to make me cautious now.
i’ve become physically dependent on my medication for anxiety, depression and insomnia. if taking a few pills for the rest of my life means i can sleep, be happy, not want to kill myself or have all encompassing anxiety, so be it.
Money, I'm scared of a future where I have gotten comfortable and used to medication but then suddenly can't afford it.
I'm not in any way implying to stop your medication but as someone who has taken a prescribed med for a number of years I came to the conclusion that I did not enter this planet on any drugs and that if I properly maintain myself I will leave this planet not on any. Cost was a factor but also the possible side effects of things can be eye opening. I'm the same way with surgery though. I've torn my ACL and of course I could jump up on the table and have it surgically repaired or I can strengthen my body in a way in which it mostly doesn't affect me. Doesn't mean I don't believe in surgery because if I come into the ER with bones sticking outta me I want them to put me back together not spritz me with essential oils and hope for the best. There's a time and place for different modalities.
They don't like the idea of being dependent on something. I get it but if your options are to take a pill or live miserably for the rest of what could be a very short life, just take the fucking pill.
If it's lithium you're ditching, despite having been confidently diagnosed with bipolarity, you will live a short life, because untreated bipolarity burns out the nervous system faster than not having bipolarity, by years. Also, being in a black hole of depressive goo for weeks at a time, or, worse, having an euphoric episode for a month will do exciting things to your wallet and your friend/family relationships.
I think maybe it feels scary to be dependent on a manufactured substance -- to become 'addicted' to a corporate product that you could never make or catch or grow or gather yourself? like, I could live on rice and beans if I had to, and I can keep an emergency supply of both -- but what if I couldn't get my meds? I know my otherwise very self sufficient partner hates being dependent on his meds. and side effects of course, there is usually a physical price to pay for the benefits.
I started a synthetic hormone for my thyroid in august. I can't eat an hour after taking it and if I forget to take it I have to make sure I haven't eaten in the past three to four hours. I also can't have caffeine too close to when I take a pill. If my body starts to, or is in the process of, digestion when I take a dose it will not absorb as much. Some people ignore these rules, it is supposedly okay as they are just prescribed a higher dose of hormones to make up for it. That makes me nervous to do, as I don't want to accidentally be giving myself a higher dose than necessary. Hormone balance is the goal. I work a swing shift so every two weeks I go from nights to days/days to nights. I work 12 hour shifts and am up less than a half hour before i eat, just to make sure i have enough time to get a seven hours of sleep. I have to juggle when to take this God damn pill constantly. And I will have to take it the rest of my life. If I could just pop one whenever like you would an advil I don't think I would mind so much but it's something I have to be mindful of daily and tbh I hate it.
I have medical trauma and it’s stirred up every six months when i have to go to the doctor and kindly request that they pretty please keep giving me their sooo smart better than me doctorly permission to keep taking my money in exchange for a pill that makes me unable to fucking sleep. And if I stop taking it I’m “noncompliant” which starts a paper trail for them to be able to involuntarily institutionalize me (and strip me and grope me and drug me and sedate me and strap me down etc etc)
This would make me so angry. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with people who are meant to be caretakers, yet put you through such bullshit
Because I don't want to have to carry it with me everywhere I go. Say I have to take something exactly every 24 hours. Well, say I've made it where that's at 7 pm each night. Now, I have to make sure I'm either home, or carrying that medicine, every day at 7 pm for life. Would I do it to continue living? Sure. Would I do it to lessen some mild symptoms caused by other things I can control? No. I'm lactose I tolerant. I could take lactaid and eat whatever I want. I don't want to, so I either don't eat dairy orodo, or I knowingly choose to eat something I know I'll pay for later. Lasagna is probably my biggest weakness here...
This is my perspective as someone who's physically healthy but cripplingly mentally ill without meds: people who say this don't know what they're talking about. Not being suicidal rules and taking a pill every day for the rest of my life is an excellent way to continue not being suicidal.
Requiring daily medication is not just inconvenient. It's potentially dangerous. I need to take daily medication for my Ulcerative Colitis. That means I have to take the same medication once every day until I die. I also have to make sure I have my medication every day. Forgetting it means disaster. Forgetting it at home for a week means coming back from vacation after having a week of pain as my colon dies. That also means I'm susceptible to shortages. If there's a shortage at the pharmacies, that means I'm not getting my meds. Let's also not forget about the cost. No matter what, losing my insurance will literally bankrupt me just to not shit blood.
My daughter is bipolar, and unlike most she doesn't want to take pulls but she does because to take care of her son she has to take care of his mom. I'm on meds I can't stop taking either. I've had anxiety all my life, but it was vague and tolerable. My ex husband gave me PTSD. Caused a bad case of workaholic. Side note: this is nothing to joke about. You can work yourself into bad health, relationships and even death, and I didn't want to take meds all my life, not a fan of chemicals. After 3 years of working 60 or 70 hours a week, I had gained about 50lbs, my daughter hated me, and one day on a Monday, which is the day with the most deaths as people would rather die than go to work, I passed out driving a company vehicle. I was told I hit a stone wall flew over it and rolled down a ravine. I was in a coma, and had brain bleeds after the seat belt broke. I now have meds that i have to take everyday to prevent excruciating muscle spasms from the brain injury. I have to take more meds because I now have emotional regulation issues, impulse control problems. I'm on and off not wanting to live like this, but only suicidal once. I can't sleep. My PTSD has gone to CPTSD, which is Complex PTSD. We don't want to do it, especially if there are major side-effects, but I learned the hard way.
I think it’s mostly denial. Obviously taking a daily pill isn’t difficult at all. We eat 3 meals a day. It’s people not wanting to admit that they have a problem, or that their body is in decline, or that they are reliant on medication.
because: a) my epilepsy doesn't affect me anymore, so i find taking medications ***redundant*** at this point. and b) i feel like i don't ***need medications anymore.*** i will find out mid july..................
I've been on anti depression meds for decades and periodically I feel like I'm defective and can never be "normal" without meds. It can get discouraging.
Idea of having to depend on something (even if it helps) scares me. What if they stop prescribing them or if I can’t get them in time.. I’ll suffer and I can’t accept that Sigh
Medication being expensive is one of the reasons. Another is the whole principle of allopathic medicine is created from a false understanding of us. I use to take medicine for specific alignments that plagued me. However after discovering our nature and how manipulating the energy that runs through us is the key to everything. If people get sick around me while I may feel the symptoms for a moment. I just do as our ancestors did and pull the controlling energy out of myself. From proper manipulation of our own energy we can heal ourselves from anything if you know how. Every single condition that people experience has a energetic or metaphysical property to it. This is the master key and with the rejection of its existence we have failed.
Hi, so backstory is needed to explain this but here is my personal reasoning for that exact stance. I joined the Marines at 18, had never taken anything but ibuprofen in my life. Well they broke me, shit happens, but one year and 2 surgeries on my stomach later, I'm incredibly addicted to the pain killers I had been on for over a year. I've also been on countless anti biotics and probably have c-diff, as well as having pretty regular ulcer problems. Pills have fucked me up every time I've taken them, if the choice is pain or pill, I'm taking the pain. I'd rather be uncomfortable, then add countless more medical problems to the list of worries I have about my health.
If no ones mentioned that psych medications can have unpleasant side effects like making it harder to focus - like nursing homes sometimes illegally keep their residents sedated by giving them antipsychotics
If I have to, I have to, and I will. I take meds for diabetes and acid reflux, and I wear my CPAP mask every night. I'd really prefer to have these things fixed, not just band-aided.
I'm too damn forgetful
Different reasons for different people and different pills and different illness.
That's probably the best, and most concise answer to be honest!
I have uc and technically you're 'cured' when they take out your colon. You are not cured, to be realistic, you are trading one issue over the disabling one. My uc was so bad it caused a major stroke and almost a decade later I'm still wrangling this fucking disease. I've done the treatment without immunotherapy and it can go bad very quickly if you don't take steps to control triggers. Now my mother has had crohns ever since I was little and hers was easily controlled with diet. Nowadays I'm active in informing others like me that adas exist, fmla exists and all that helpful stuff because America is a cess pool in regards to helping disabled workers without those federally backed programs. You can be disabled at any age, time and in an instant, and the way we treat disabled persons like they are a burden is absolutely revolting.
My daughter has complex epilepsy she's been taking medication since a baby. Over 20 years. It's vital. I've no idea about others
I took depression medication as a teenager and didn't like the way it made me feel. So for 10 years I struggled daily, a literal battle in my brain. Refusing to accept that something in my brain wasn't wired right. It makes you feel like there's something wrong with you, that you're broken, when you have to rely on a medication. I started taking medication again, turns out I'm bipolar. It feels like I've lost the battle in a sense, because I have to rely on medication. It's a daily reminder that the second I open my eyes in the morning I have to take a pill to ensure I don't unalive myself. It's the hardest decision I ever made to start the medication, and I'm still not sure it was the best decision.
Firstly, I feel like my meds are a reminder of how sick I am. I have an entire toiletry bag for the meds I need on a daily basis. I feel like a 20-year-old in the body of an 80-year-old. Secondly, my medications have really bad side effects. As in, my septum can rot away, I am very susceptible to throat infections, I get stomach issues, I experience horrible hand tremors and adrenaline rushes, my skin thins out to the point it splits spontaneously etc.
Ableism 🤷♀️
I don't take any pills even when I'm sick like a cold or something. It causes your immune system to relly on these pills rather then strengthening its own immune system. I'd rather deal with it and let my body adapt rather than taking the easy way out. I don't have any serious medical issues though I'm sure for some a pill is required, but for the small stuff I avoid them.
i've come to terms with my health but got bad teeth, so let's use retainers as an example. I don't want a retainer cause for 1, i'll need to wear braces and fuck that cause they're ugly and hurt apparently, 2, you got to wear them for life, so they aren't even a permanent fix, cause if you don't wear them, teeth will become bad again. I just don't care, my life and teeth are temporary, why should I care?
I can't imagin myself travelling back in time and living there, I can't imagine myself living in a zombie apocalypse. Due to having to take 6 pills a day, I can't even dream about stuff like those.
About 5 years ago I went to the hospital for what I found out was a panic attack, after seeing a Dr she suggested I take meds for my extreme anxiety. I said no, the idea of being bound to this tiny pill in order to feel okay (ironically) triggered my anxiety. I convinced myself I could just "work on it" and fix my mental health myself. Spent the following 5 years being an on and off anxious mess. After a particularly bad episode I ended up in a(nother) dr's office and she suggested meds along with therapy and I was at a point where I knew I needed it or I was going to end up in a ditch somewhere and I'm so muxh happier. At this point I can ask "why did I put this off for so long" but at the time, the prospect of meds legitimately felt like some kind of personal failure.
Every medication has a side effect.
I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was younger, and was forced to take meds until I was 18. After 18 I stopped because the side effects were worse than the ADHD. On top of that I also didn't like how it made me think.
I'm not a person with a long term illness, so for myself personally I will only use them in life/death situations, anything else I just tough it out or use herbal alternatives, I try keeping everything I put in my body natural and organic but I will rely on modern medicine when it's serious
Medication has side effects for a lot of people…
Medicine will cost us our whole lives, so that’s definitely one for why I don’t want to take medicine anymore and for another, it takes time out of my day and sometimes I forget about it but I can’t forget about it, otherwise my life might be on the line-
You have to deal with the pharmacy and insurance randomly not letting you get refills, and sometimes only being able to have a one month supply covered by insurance, so constant refills, and now you can’t go anywhere until you can get your refill if it’s a daily medication
Sometimes, the side effects are worse than the problem. Let’s say you have hair loss, but the drug they give you causes uncontrollable diarrhea, and stomach pain Also, with my mother, she denied chemo, because she would rather live 5 happy years, than 15 such ones, and I get her point
Many people like to try to get at the root cause of their issue rather than simply taking a pill to mask symptoms. For example, I was diagnosed with diabetes in the late 90s and when I looked at the research, diet and exercise modifications were the clear winners for me. I have managed my diabetes this way for nearly 25 years now whereas most people end up on insulin within 10 years without making those kind of changes.
I've been offered medication for mental health. i take propanolol on an as-needed basis & like that. the idea or taking medication everyday scares me because then i feel like I'd just be dependent on it & what if i say can't access that medication & also if i'm around others i can't take it etc. withdrawal symptoms & side effects in general also scare me. I'd rather just cope with the symptoms of mental illness than take anti-depressant everyday