Remember Your Medicine

[CRSeaside]

Do you ever forget to take your daily Bipolar medications?
  I usually always remember. Today I was so wrapped up I forgot. Trying to taper off opioids. This happened the last time I quit taking my pain pills too.  Wonder why ?

[Bubulous]

I have two weekly pill counters Weaver lol
I am so afraid of missing my medicine that it almost sends me into a panic attack if I do.  If I miss my Seroquel one night I will be manic as crap the next day.
Maxy bud... I know it stinks sometimes and I have definitely been there before.  I stopped and started my medicine soooo many times but I finally realized that I have to take them.  We must because we were not born with the chemical balance that most are.  It doesn't mean we are crazy.... bipolar is just a word.  We are different but the meds give us a chance to at least glimpse at what other people get to see.  Steady sleep....but not always.  Steady mood.... but not always.
I can't tell you that I am fixed because of the medicine but I can tell you that after about a month of being clean and on my meds I am having way more good days than bad.  You may have bipolar but you are not bipolar.  You are just you and you are a great person but you are a great person because of the strengths as well as the weaknesses you have.  You can never be ahead if you don't allow yourself to be behind and you can never be strong without first allowing yourself to be weak... :)

[CRSeaside]

Yes, you've got it. The extra " this is forever", pressure is messing with me big time. Sometimes I feel like CT & then starting back up on purpose as wild as that sounds.  I can do this. I'm upset because I don't want this to be the focus of life & it's taking over.  Maxy

[weaver71]

Without my weekly pill counter, there is no way I would take mine right, though I am new at BP pills. I always remembered my opiates, they screamed at me if I didn't take them. The other meds, well I don't have a good since of time. Every morning dose blends together, I could be thinking of swallowing 2 weeks ago and think it was yesterday, so I have to have them so I can look and say, nope or yep, yesterdays is or isn't gone. Even that doesnt always work, nope seems to come too often. I take it when I realize, but I honestly blur my days together and think I already checked, because I looked at in everyday for a week, so all the past is yesterday for me. Anyway, the opiate taper is tough at the lower doses, when they don't really help anymore. I think it's the mental part at that point. That's why I suggest writing a plan and following it, not to be thought about again, just do it. I understand your special considerations, but it seems to be hard work no matter what, thinking about it never seems to help. I want you to be safe, but I wonder how much is fear effects and how much is actual detox of opiates, like you said, you did it years ago and were fine. Maybe think of it as temporary break from opiates right now, you can decide if it is forever after you are off the opiates a while.

[CRSeaside]

Thanks everyone.  This intensity of the pain pill problem is getting to me. I keep over thinking it. & now I'm getting to forgetting if I've taken my morning pills or not. I can't really feel them, the way I can the night pills.
    The seroquell & Zonisimide kick my butt. I can feel myself coming on to them within 10 min or so.  I have a pill holder. I've just been using it for the Norco 1/2 pills.  Thanks.    Pamela

[Bubulous]

I used to forget it but my dr split it up so that I take some in the morning and at bedtime.  I keep them both next to my toothbrush because I always brush my teeth in the morning and at night before bed.  What gets me is if I go somewhere sometimes I forget to sit them out but I have a pill counter now and that hardly ever happens meow.

[rogelio63]

I hardly ever forget to take my meds. The times that I have forgotten to take them is when I'm feeling good,,and I've truly forgotten, I wasn't thinking that I didn't need them. Although I do believe I could go without them, I don't, for my family's sake. I guess that says something about how I feel about myself that I take something for someone else s well being and not necessarily my own.

[Anonymouse88]

I would forget and/or double dose by accident all the time without my pill organizer.  I fill it once a week, and it has morning and evening slots.  Then at least I know if I've taken my pills or not.  And I try to have a specific time built into my schedule.  

Back when I cared more about it, I had an alarm on my phone to remind me to take my birth control (I'm not using it for pregnancy prevention, and my body doesn't seem to care about a few hours difference--not recommended, but it's what I do).  If you have a smartphone, you could set multiple alarms or alerts to remind you to take your pills and even which pills to take.

[robinlyne]

Maybe get a dailey pill box.

[007Bunny]

Maxy! You just remind me to take my meds! I was busy building Lego and a bit p**** off from work. I usually do not forget. Thanks a lot ;).