Medication organisation

[peaceloveandtwirlywoos]

Couldn't find a medication topic so have lumped this in here as it's probably a symptom of my mental illness that I'm so crap at organising myself. I've been on back to back anti-depressants/anti-psychotics etc for around 15 years. I'm currently on 200mg sertraline, which suits me very well, and a couple of other tablets for different illnesses, but all of which will be life-long and which make me feel very poorly when I don't take them regularly.
Despite knowing I have to take these tablets every day and knowing I can't function or care for myself or my toddler without taking them, I frequently forget, or leave it too late to get a repeat prescription, and end up having a day or two where I don't have any. The doctors surgery are fed up of me asking for urgent prescriptions, and tbh I'm embarrassed to ask sometimes, so I suck it up and go without (like today). Of course once I've gone without I really don't feel well enough to walk 20 minutes down the road to collect the prescription anyway.
I find it all very embarrassing considering I'm 30 years old and responsible for a child as well as myself, but I just can't seem to get it together. I get annoyed when DH berates me about it, but maybe I relish it as well, in a perverse way, because I need to be looked after and "parented" by him. I've got both dependant and avoidant personality disorders.
Anyway, how the hell do I sort myself out? At my previous doctors surgery, the pharmacy would order my prescription and fill it every month, so I just had to turn up at a certain date and collect it, easy peasy. The current one requires me to order it myself, then collect it. I enquired about whether they offer this ordering service but they don't seem to.

I think that's daft of the GPs. Do you have to stay at that surgery? I'm sure you're not the only person who has difficulty remembering to order prescriptions. Most surgeries will offer a repeat service and a lot of surgeries now offer electronic prescriptions where they can send the script via computer to the pharmacy so they don't have to collect.

I'm like you in that before repeats, I was dreadful at remembering. I started going to the pharmacy in my local supermarket instead as they offered a repeat service and I could collect it when I was going to do my shopping.

Hiya Keema how are you doing? Thanks for replying. I do need to find out if the other local pharmacies do a similar service to the one I used to have, but as I don't drive it's handy to use the closest one to me. Bah. I'm a terrible adult!

Nah, it's pretty normal adulting from my experience. I'm great at remembering stuff for the kids and rubbish for me. I went to the GP yesterday for something that had been bothering me since March. I'm amazed still I actually made it 😄

I have lots of meds and they all run out at different times so I really feel for you!

Can you set a reminder on your phone (or write in diary or calendar)? Set the reminder for, say, a week before the meds run out, and write the reminder in as soon as you get the new pack so you always know where you are. Then when you have called the dr for prescription, or taken the form in, whichever you have to do, set another reminder for the day you have to pick it up. I agree the system is not ideal, but try to find a way to make it work for you.

I don't know if you also have problems remembering to take the meds, but I make sure I take mine by sorting them out the night before and putting the evening pills in a pot to take straight away, and the next morning's pills in a pill pot by my bed. (Or you could prepare a weeks worth if you have a weekly pill holder.) I take them as soon as I wake up, before I get out of bed. That way I can't forget (in theory... In practice I forget maybe twice a year). Also if I'm not sure if I've taken them, I check the pot - if it's empty, I have taken them!

I take 5 different tablets a day so have to keep track of everything, but it's hard remembering so I use an app on my iPhone called Medisafe. It's been really useful for me, it sends me reminders when to take my tablets. When you start using it you enter how many tablets you have of each medication and then you set when you want a reminder, so it can tell you 5 days before you run out so you know to order more. You then tell the app when you refill each time so it keeps track.

MHarper that sounds amazing! Thank you!