What makes you stay on meds?

I have problems with medication adherence. Right now I know it's important to take the medications, but some time sooner or later I'm going to say my life will be better without them (either because I'm chasing the euphoria of mania, sick of side effects, or don't think I'm mentally ill).
Any advice on how I make sure I stay on my meds?

Responsabilities motivates me to stay on medication. If I did not,

1. My daughter would live with her mother and go to a school that is much worse. I also could not help her with her homework. 2. I would lose my mother to the State. 3. Quite possibly I would be in a psych hospital. 4. I would lose my house

Just to name a couple reasons. IMO people with responsabilities are taking big risks with their own lives and the lives of others by skipping their meds. But if you have zero responsability, your on disability, and you can deal with the resulting havoc to your life, then that is different. Please keep this in mind. Then there is the question of why you are on medications in the first place. What has changed? Side effects should not be an issue. Take different meds. But in the greater scheme of things, stability is worth the discomfort. Keep in mind that there are those with much worse physical problems that make it day to day.

I wish you well.

Tucson

The biggest thing for me to stay on meds is that I don't want to go to hospital again if I can help it. If I go off meds the chances of that happening increase exponentially.

bc if i dont i get completely psychotic and basically turn into a little kid

If I didn't stay on my meds I would more than likely lose my family and my job. I already lost one job and almost lost my marriage. It's not worth it to me. I love my family too much!

For many of the aforementioned reasons. It took a long time to find meds with few side effects and if I go off of them it increases the possibility that they might not work next time.

To not be like my mom and grandma. If you grew up with them it would be all the incentive you need.

Yeah... haha, you have to surrender your wills to someone else, someone you trust. how's that make you feel. makes me feel like nothing of a person... but it works to keep you on meds.

I'm staying on meds because the alternative is self medicating with booze... Which doesn't sound half bad right about now.

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Rx you can do this. You don't need booze to be ok. Said the nut job in crisis. I have read what you have to say and you are wise. You are also stronger then any substance out there.

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Medication keeps me functioning normally, with a good job, and with good relationships. Without my meds, I think I would be without both.

I would recommend finding someone (or a few someones) to hold you accountable to staying on meds. I update my dad and my husband periodically so they know what my current cocktail and dosages are, in case of emergency. You could do that with someone you are really close with and have them check in with you to make sure you are taking them and seeing your pdoc regularly.

Take your meds. If you aren't seeing results after a reasonable amount of time, see a different psychiatrist. You should be getting relief/ feeling more stable when you take meds.

I have a whole shelf full of notebooks filled despairing notes and hundreds of efforts to feel better. These were kept for many years. I also have a stack of 3/5" cards called "counseling" that's more than 1/2" thick. Each card was a contact person or organization that did not help me, until I finally found a clinic that did. I also keep a mood log. All these things are hard, cold, facts about how bad things were before I started meds, and how meds and therapy have leveled me out a lot for long periods, and not a lot for other periods. But I'm still so, so, so much better off than I was 20 years ago. For 50 years I suffered from rapid mood swings and extreme depression. Nothing and nobody helped me until I was 54 years old.

I just had a big fight with myself for the past 7 hours. I kept refusing to take my medication because I felt (and still kinda feel) they don't do much for me. I'm stuck in a rut.

I ended up taking my medication because I couldn't decide if I wanted to continue taking it or not. I figured, "well, I might as well take it for now until I can figure out what I need/want to do."

The only medications I like are Lipitor and Lamictal. Everything else can go f*** itself.

Sorry I don't have any legitimate advice, but I'm letting you know you're not alone.

I'm not married, nor do I have kids, so that isn't my reason. The reason I do it is just for me personally. I don't like the way I feel without them, although there are days when I do ponder what it would be like to live without them again. I'm not sure I want to go down that path, at least not yet. As much as I hate taking meds, right now I know it's what is best for me and my sanity and the sanity of those around me (especially my co-workers).

Fear of falling deep into the big, dark hole again.

So far I'm convinced life without meds would be even more chaotic. Who knows really though.

I used to be in denial. Not sure if thats what you are feeling too. But after coming to the brink of runining my marriage and losing my kids, reality kicked me in the ***.
Now i take my meds to keep me loyal to my husband. (When manic, ive cheated in the past).
I take them also so i can be a good parent. (I used to leave the house for days at a time without calling my kids)

I struggle everyday, i hold my pills in my hand and contemplate flushing them. Every. Single. Day.

But I want my kids and my husband in my life, so I do the right thing.

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I would not be alive today without the help of meds.

Meds also help me to maintain healthy relationships with my environment and with others.


WC

Wanting to be stable, not depressed or hypomanic/manic, and wanting the psychotic symptoms gone...

I am super med-compliant because I don't want to descend into that dark depression again. Like flowerbells, I have books and binders and thousands of pages of journals to evidence how bad the depression and anxiety were for 7 years. Then I have journals and charts of what happened after I got on mood stabilizers, and it is sooooo much better.

Another factor is that I've never had happy mania. My hypomanic symptoms are always negative. So getting away from the darkness is the only direction I want to go.

I really, really want to be happy and balanced and content in my life, and I know the only way to get there is to get the chemical issues in my brain fixed, and only meds can do that.

I think I'd have a fully blown manic episode. That's not a good situation. Just, no. So meds.

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