teen med compliance

[mopinko]

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

eom

[Droopy]

1. It can be a life long struggle

to get some people to take their meds. I once met a woman on a psych ward who was in her 70s and obviously manic who would not take her meds.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is that people who have to take meds often get to feeling good and don't think they have to take the meds anymore and stop using them. It doesn't occur to them that the reason they are feeling so good is because the meds are doing their job. That happened to me once and after about 4 months off my meds I relapsed and found myself back on the psych ward.

For some illnesses, lifelong medicating is a necessity. If whoever you are talking about is such a person, you've got to find a way to get them back on his/her meds. I've learned my lesson the hard way. It almost cost me my life. I hope the person you are speaking of doesn't have to learn that way.

[mopinko]

2. my kid

17 and terrific, bright kid when she is on her meds. evil when off. bi-polar, so probably a life long struggle ahead. if someone comes up with a way to keep her on, well, i can't even express what that would mean to me.

[yardwork]

3. Argh. I never thought this might be a problem.

My kids take meds for anxiety and one takes meds for ADHD (and he needs it, believe me, he needs it). We remind them but we've never had a problem with them resisting taking the meds, since they both started at a fairly young age.

It never occurred to me that as they get older they might resist taking their meds.

[mopinko]

4. well she hasn't been dx'd that long

so it has been a struggle all along. plus, i am not that good at that kind of thing. loving mom, yeah, organized, hahahahahha. my youngest has to take meds for crohn's disease, and i was taking a lot of meds for a while. i am ready to run screaming barefoot in the snow from all these pills.
she was doing so great, then decided she didn't like her meds, and they weren't helping. so she just started tossing them.
so, she is on something new, which she is taking erratically. i am trying just to let her make her own mistakes, while she is well supported, and hope she learns. not very good at that, tho. especially when she is ranting at me, cuz she is undermedicated. had a beauty of a christmas, we did.