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AIBU?

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Original poster

Do you work in a pharmacy? Do you judge people on their medications?

107 replies

BloodyPlantagenets · 15/01/2016 18:25

I always wonder about this when I pick up my prescriptions. I'm on a cocktail of antipsychotic and antidepressant meds and I always think they head tilt at me a bit. I'm interested to know whether this is my paranoia talking or whether the pharmacist sees the prescription and makes a judgement.

What do you think? I'd love to hear from people who do that job and I promise it's not upsetting me, it's just a thought I've had for a while.

OP posts:
spanieleyes · 15/01/2016 18:27

Pharmacists see ALL sorts of prescriptions, antipsychotics and antidepressants would hardly be enough to bat an eyelid!

SleepWalkingToTheGrave · 15/01/2016 18:29

I used to be a dispenser years ago. Had many scripts for many different types of meds.
Never judged anyone. Honestly most of the time we were just too busy to think about that sort of thing!

It says more about them, if the pharmacist is silently judging you without knowing anything about you!

godblessamerica · 15/01/2016 18:30

Everyone judges, it's human nature. No one will give you a second thought after about a minute

Original poster
BloodyPlantagenets · 15/01/2016 18:31

And by 'head tilty' I mean they seek to be very gentle and calm with me. Which isn't what they're like when I'm buying athletes foot cream, for eg, they seem to be brusque and busy then.

OP posts:
GetSchwifty · 15/01/2016 18:36

How do you know that the people who work there aren't on medication themselves, or the staff at your gp?
We all have our struggles, they would be pretty horrible people if they were judging you but I doubt they are.

IAmAPaleontologist · 15/01/2016 18:38

I sometimes wonder! I live in a small village so the pharmacist recognises pretty much everyone and has seen me on antidepressants, then buying pregnancy tests, she has given me anusol, more antidepressants in ever increasing doses and has sold me more ovex than I care to admit. She also knows all about what I'm training for as a career so considering my current prescriptions I sometimes wonder if she thinks I shouldn't but I doubt it, I'm sure she and the vast majority of of pharmacists are non judgemental.

Kennington · 15/01/2016 18:38

Have a friend who is one. She is more concerned with getting the dose correct.
Plenty of people are on these drugs so it isn't as if it is unusual.
I have a medic colleauge who tells everyone about the various psychiatric drugs he takes.....no one cares now!

Bailey101 · 15/01/2016 18:39

I had a friend who worked as a dispenser in boots and I remember her telling me that they had regular customers who came in for huge amounts of painkillers and whatnot and how sad she always felt for them - she wasn't judgey at all, but she felt so bad that they were suffering Sad

RebootYourEngine · 15/01/2016 18:40

I find that some pharmacy employees treat me different when i am handing in a sharps box to when i am in there for something else.

I now use a great pharmacy who dont judge on anything and go to collect my prescription before i even ask.

Original poster
BloodyPlantagenets · 15/01/2016 18:40

Good pint getschwifty. And I didn't necessarily mean judge badly, but I did wonder if they join the dots between prescription and condition and naturally treat people slightly differently.

OP posts:
elliejjtiny · 15/01/2016 18:42

I used to work in a pharmacy. We wouldn't have given you a 2nd glance. We did use to gossip a bit about the man getting hormone treatment to become a woman, the man addicted to childrens cough medicine and the women who used to ask for thrush cream out of the corner of their mouths (not because of the thrush cream but because they sounded funny talking like that) Oh and the man who was adamant that he wanted a canesten pessary to treat his oral thrush. I was only a teenager then though, I'm a lot more sympathetic and mature now.

Original poster
BloodyPlantagenets · 15/01/2016 18:42

Reboot that's the kind of thing I mean. Assuming different things based on what you are taking (or handing in). It must be quite hard not having a small moment when people come in for methadone or enough tranquillisers to fell a horse, for eg.

OP posts:
Original poster
BloodyPlantagenets · 15/01/2016 18:43

See Ellie! I knew it.

OP posts:
DoomGloomAndKaboom · 15/01/2016 18:45

I think a good pharmacist would take a quick once over the prescriptions and have a quick mental run through in case there were any interactions etc that you/prescribing dr didn't know about.

I imagine the head tilting is to do with that, if there's any at all.

Pharmacists are more concerned with handing over the right medication in the right dosages etc.

ZenNudist · 15/01/2016 18:45

I think you have to treat pharmacists the same was you treat doctors and nurses. They are used to embarrassing human ailments, they are professionals and no they don't judge, they've seen it all.

TheWildRumpyPumpus · 15/01/2016 18:46

The only time I've EVER witnessed a pharmacist looking anything other than totally neutral was when a girl came in while I was waiting for my prescription to be made up and tried to get an extra dose of methadone before she was due.

I've been on a full complement of ADs in the past and they've never treated those prescriptions any differently to the migraine meds I pick up at different times.

Vaginaaa · 15/01/2016 18:48

It's like any job. Some of the staff will be professional and others won't be. I wouldn't worry about it.

elliejjtiny · 15/01/2016 18:49

reboot I went into boots asking for 1ml syringes a few years ago with the dcs. The pharmacist was very sniffy with me as she explained about the needle exchange scheme. She became a lot more friendly when I explained the syringes were so I could give my 6 month old his reflux meds (I was always buying them as they were so tiny I kept losing them).

JessieMcJessie · 15/01/2016 18:49

I worked in a pharmacy as a teenager. Didn't dispense but often processed scripts and handed over the prescriptions. We had loads of methadone users. Didn't bat an eyelid after about the second week to be honest. Our very chatty dispenser never once gossiped to me about what people's prescriptions said about them and I never heard her say anything to the pharmacist either so I doubt very much she was judging.

CerseiHeartsJaime4ever · 15/01/2016 18:50

I used to pick up metformin for PCOS. I am slightly fat. I just KNEW they thought it was for diabetes. One even asked me as he thought the dose was quite high for diabetes. Hmm

UndramaticPause · 15/01/2016 18:57

The pharmacist who dispenses my medication always asks me, if the shop is quiet, how things are going if my dosages change. They even spent their own time looking into natural pain relief for me because it was an interest of theirs so the following month gave me a folder with some studies and options in it for me. I thought that was lovely and sent a thank you card to them for it.

I'll wait for someone to tell me the pharmacist overstepped the mark there Grin

ImperialBlether · 15/01/2016 19:10

ellie, your syringes for your baby had needles in them?

TiredButFineODFOJ · 15/01/2016 19:13

I've dispensed and it's generally so busy that you hardly register people or what they were prescribed (obvs you make up the prescription, check it, get it signed and checked then check the address of the person. But in a group of 2-3 people I couldn't put the face to the tablet, if you see what I mean)

They may be trying to be kind and give you the right support to ask questions.

But yes, pharmacy dispensing isn't really a hotbed of gossip and judgement. Most people are on antidepressants, they are easily the most common item, hotly followed by blood pressure/thinning tablets. And on a good day, mixing up a cream with the spatula knife :)

Marynary · 15/01/2016 19:16

I used to pick up metformin for PCOS. I am slightly fat. I just KNEW they thought it was for diabetes. One even asked me as he thought the dose was quite high for diabetes.

How is that "judging you". They thought it was for diabetes because the vast majority of metformin prescriptions are for diabetes. It is licensed for diabetes not PCOS.

Imissmy0ldusername · 15/01/2016 19:27

I had to get a prescription filled for my first ever dose of beta-blockers, and in all fairness was probably looking a bit "up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the other side" IYSWIM a couple of months ago. The pharmacist came out and chatted to me about dosages, and had a good old listen (I may not have given him much option) as to what had caused me to need the prescription. I don't know whether I would have been so open had I have been in a teeny tiny pharmacy in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere, with my neighbours listening in!
When I was younger, and had to get various bits & bobs of a more intimate nature dealt with at the pharmacy, I used to use the phrase "style it out" in my head, quite regularly, and in all honesty, that, coupled with having done a stint behind the counter shadowing a dispenser while I was on work experience was enough to get me by.
I miss working behind the counter, not because I know why people are getting all these interesting sounding tablets, but because counting them out was so bloody therapeutic!