[Blueberrybook]

Ugh, I took my morning meds and, geez, even those are a lot, especially considering I'm on this giant capsule of an antibiotic right now. Then, I take stuff in the afternoon, vitamins before dinner (and the short-term antibiotic), and bedtime meds. Some days I feel like I do nothing but swallow pills all day, and it is frustrating.

I have tried going off some meds, but then I do even worse and wind up close/in the psych hospital. Though of course I have my manic/hypomanic moments when I convince myself I'd be better off or weigh less without meds and stop taking them a week or so, but hubby usually notices, and he does not like full-blown manic episodes. He doesn't seem so concerned about depressed episodes and even seems to like me best hypomanic, but he wants me on meds when completely manic. Otherwise, he is against me taking medication which is contradictory, go figure. Mostly, my husband is pretty supportive on other things just doesn't have a good understanding of how bipolar works and that hypomania even exists, and we tend to have different parenting styles, which we really need to work out. But on issues that are deep (PTSD stuff, bad to no real relationship with my dad, he is there for me, trouble making friends, problems our daughter has at school because she is so quirky, things do pop up at school quite frequently).

[Hobbit House]

Yes, I also take quite a cocktail of meds, morning, afternoon and before bed. Seems like all I do is count pills. I’m also diabetic type two and have high triglycerides , so I also take meds for those as well. The alternative however is worse.

There was a period that I took medications 4 times per day. It was too much. Not only psychologically, but I would often forget to take the afternoon batch, and sometimes also my Synthroid, which I used to take before breakfast and my official "morning" batch of meds.

With the agreement of my psychiatrist and another doctor, I managed to trim my medication times to twice per day instead of four times. That really made a huge difference for me. I almost never forget any of my medications now. I also cut down on the supplements. I took them for various reasons, but had to really sit down and analyze which ones were helpful, and which ones truly weren't. A lot of them weren't, so I quit those supplements. That eliminated a lot of pills. Some were expensive, too.

My morning and evening medication piles are still pretty big. I take a lot of meds, but a few of my medications I take more than one pill for. I take three, 200 mg pills for Tegretol XR in the morning and three, 200 mg pills for Tegretol XR in the evening alone, totally 1200 mg per day. There is no way around that given the pill dosages available for that medication. When I first started taking a lot of medications I was like a kid taking one pill at a time. Now I'm able to swallow down as many as 8 at a time, depending on the pill sizes. Taking meds doesn't bother me anymore. No biggy. I take them with breakfast and dinner. It takes less than 20 seconds total (less than 10 seconds morn/10 seconds evening) since I have them in pill boxes. Once per week I spend about 15 mins total filling my boxes, and even my husband's.

I'm glad that your husband supports you and seems to understand at least some of your psych issues. As for the bipolar ones, have you invited him to a psychiatrist or therapist appointment? You could arrange in advance that they give a bit of a talk on the illness and how he can support you.

[bpktvikesfan]

with the aid of my pdoc i have gone to one time a day for meds. They are prescribed for two to three times a day but i take them all in one dose. Maybe not the best practice but i am sure to get all my meds (as i forget doses) and my pdoc is fine with it.

[Blueberrybook]

Depending, I can sometimes skip the afternoon meds. They are all anti-anxiety ones. Lately, I've had to take them because I haven't been able to jog or walk, my best anti-anxiety outlet, though often overused. Today is the last day I'm taking off from running (got a UTI), so maybe I can take less of those for awhile, just depends what's going on & how bad my anxiety is.

[~Christina]

I only take meds with dinner and my bed time.

I just can’t be bothered taking meds through out the day or morning. No thanks.

[BipolaRNurse]

I only take meds twice daily, but it's a LOT of meds. In addition to my bipolar meds I take four blood pressure pills, fish oil capsules, vitamin D, thyroid medication and a baby aspirin. Technically I'm supposed to take meds four times a day, but I've condensed it to 2x/day because I can't remember the breakfast and dinner meds. (I actually don't eat breakfast, and if I took it at lunch then it would be too short a time before the next one is due. I also don't eat at the same times every day.) I hate being reminded twice a day that I have so many chronic illnesses, but not taking meds is not an option.

[Wild Coyote]

I have cut back to twice a day, fortunately. I do have prn meds that may be needed during the day.

I feel for anyone in a position of needing to take meds all day long; I have been there... and could easily be there again.


WC

[pirilin]

I swallowed 64 pills a day before the diagnosis. Vitamins and supplements only.
Guess I'm a pill popper.

[Unrigged64072835]

I take meds three times a day; with my multivitamin it becomes four times. I don't remember all the time; it happens. My morning and evening meds are the most important.