[SunnyD]

I was dx so late in life (50) that I saw the results of people I knew going off their meds. It made me determined to be med compliant no matter what.
I have managed but once in a great while I find myself tempted to go off.
How is it for you?

[BlackPup]

I've lost count of how many times I have stopped meds.... I think I make up for all you people who manage to take them all the time!!!!
Its a constant stuggle to continue taking them even though i know that I need them

[PT52]

I'm like you, SunnyD - I was misdiagnosed for years and wasn't properly diagnosed until this year (I'm 52). I think maybe maturity is a factor in being more compliant. In everyday life, young people seem to take more risks. At least I did when I was younger. Also, having the wrong meds was awful and now I feel so much better, I can only attribute it to the meds.

[Anneinside]

I am usually med compliant. I do infrequently forget my pills when my morning ritual is interrupted by a phone call, someone at the door, or me just stopping to read the paper. That just happened yesterday. I do use a pill box so I can check later and make sure I took them. I tend to be a responsible, compliant person thus med compliance, probably. I also was diagnosed late - at 48 so I haven't had to take meds all my life. I did, however, have to take anti-seizure meds as a child and can remember taking them out of the pill minder and flushing them down the toilet... going back on them once I had another seizure... becoming tired to taking them again.. and so forth.

[blueoctober]

SunnyD; I have gone off and/or reduce meds that I was on. In May I went off my lithium because I was getting sick on it and was tired of the side effects. My pdoc switched my mood stabilizer to lamictal and having to wait for the dose to get to a therapeutic level was hell. I don't think I will ever go off of a mood stabilizer again. My pdoc does give me permission to increase/decrease my anti-d depending on my symptoms. In the summer I was on 150 mg and since September I have had to go back on 300 mg.

[lotusflames]

i've been doing better recently than before. for many years, i'd take something for a month then stop, tehn go back 2 monts later for something else and do the same. i also have issues with overdosing on my meds.

[Skully]

I am good with my meds for the most part. I have decided to take myself off the Geodon because of side effects but I still take the lamictal every day like I am supposed to and have since Februrary.

[crzyladee]

So far I'm compliant but I do have a history of not being so agreeable with the docs and the meds they dispense out. But as of today I am 100% compliant.

Originally Posted by PT52

I'm like you, SunnyD - I was misdiagnosed for years and wasn't properly diagnosed until this year (I'm 52). I think maybe maturity is a factor in being more compliant. In everyday life, young people seem to take more risks. At least I did when I was younger. Also, having the wrong meds was awful and now I feel so much better, I can only attribute it to the meds.

Yeah, for me too. Late diagnosis, decades of hell (and worse yet on wrong meds), made compliance with the right kind pretty attractive. Which isn't to say perfect... . When everything was the best it ever was, I just had to go and mess with it, dontcha know... The classic reasons.. "but I feel so good, maybe there's really nothing wrong with me!" (hahahahahaha! should've just reviewed the journals and the piles of hypo "WTF was I thinking?!" evidence, right?) Didn't take long to get a reality check...

[SunnyD]

I use a pill box too. I am so bad at keeping track of what I take otherwise. I stick my vitamins in it too.
Along with the first question, have you ever heard of meds not working once you quit them and start up again?

[owllover99]

I didn't know I was bipolar until I went psycotic manic for 3 weeks (or more I'm not sure and it's been a long time ago thank God). They put me on Haldol and I took it faithfully for 16 years. Then another pdoc changed my meds. I finally got another pdoc who I have today. I am on more meds today (but not anti-psycotics) and I take them like clockwork. I'm still paranoid of going manic again. And that was 1993.

[BlackPup]

I've been through hell off drugs and I know how stupid it is, but as soon as I start getting even the slightest bit depressed I want to quit meds.... crazy I know... my T says its self sabotage because I don't respect myself.
Like blueoctober my pdoc lets me change some meds when my mood changes so this has made it easier to resist the urge to stop, and rather increase the a/ds to make things better...

[Amazonmom]

I had a really bad case of nausea/vomiting earlier this year where I didn't take Lithium for about a week. Then I realized my body felt so much better without Lithium that I told my Pnurse I needed to try something new. The controlled release lithium is so much better, no nausea, no diarrhea, yeah!

[lonegael]

Usually pretty good but sometimes if I get stressed I honestly forget. The I pay, because my Effexor makes me sick when i forget. Bleh!

[sugahorse1]

Like Blackpup, when I get terribly depressed, I lose faith in my meds. I cannot understand how I can still feel so down while I'm on meds that are supposed to make me feel better.
I was on just an anti-dep a while back (Before the BP dx) and I stopped 20mg Citalopram cold-turkey once. I just didn't feel they were helping my moods and they were seriously crashing my libido. I felt as sick as a dog though.
I've also been on Sodium Valporate, which I also just stopped when I couldn't feel any benefits.

And on top of that, I tend to be very prone to ODing on meds, so I actually should never have any extra's at home.
I have recently "threatened" my T that I want to stop the Lamictin as I cannot notice much, if any, improvement.
But I do take my Lamictin religiously. Vitamins on the other hand - those are a bit of hit and miss if I remember or not, lol

[kitty004567]

I take my meds religiously as prescribed. I've seen what happens when you don't or when you don't have the right meds and I'm absolutely terrified of going back there - it's my worst fear. Sometimes I'm bad about taking the supplements and vitamins I'm supposed to take but prescriptions get taken every time exactly as prescribed. I'm too scared to even think about not taking my meds.

[Vita]

after a long life without, and the exprience of the effect, I do not want to go back. Better stick to the meds.

[Merlin]

I have in the past been very non-adherant (I hate the word compliance.) Without exception, every time I have quit taking my medication, I have become severely depression, sometimes also experiencing hypomanic episodes which cuase their own difficulties. Recently I have made the commitment to stay on meds and have been doing so since the beginning of August.

Originally Posted by Merlin

I have in the past been very non-adherant (I hate the word compliance.) Without exception, every time I have quit taking my medication, I have become severely depression, sometimes also experiencing hypomanic episodes which cuase their own difficulties. Recently I have made the commitment to stay on meds and have been doing so since the beginning of August.

Good point on the semantics, Merlin! Adherence implies more self-directed action. Compliance seems to imply a bit more being a "good girl or boy" because someone in authority told you to do something. Ya?
(Seem to remember reading about that somewhere, now that you mention it...)

[Ryask]

This med compliance got me to thinking a bit, i was just wondering if sometimes you feel a down phase coming on, like it's a natural cycle, and maybe feel like your interrupting a natural cycle by being on the medications;and if you ever stop taking meds just to let the down phase take hold for a week or so before restarting meds. I'm just wondering if anyone else feels like that.

[questionable]

Sometimes I get bored with taking medication. It's like well, shouldn't I be feeling up or down or something??? I can't seem to adjust to being stable. I also find that I forget a lot depending on what is going on in my life. It's not a very stable schedule I find myself keeping.

I've been medicated with the wrong meds so, it's easier to think "uh oh, they are wrong again!!" when really that's not true.

I was over medicated once and quit the medications completely and wound up in a really severe depression last year. It was hell so, I'm trying my best to be good about the drugs.

And other times I think I'm not really sick at all.

Stupid bipolar.

[Dave255]

You could try using one of those pill boxes. Put is somewhere that you will always notice, that way you'll see if you have taken them for the day or not.

If I am very tired I am tempted to skip due to laziness. I try to remind myself how little effort it takes, it takes more effort to use the washroom.