A recurring myth about people who need antipsychotic medicine is that they aren’t dependable in taking their medicine. This old myth may have come from the misunderstanding of how mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, affect a person’s cognitive abilities. Although people with mental health conditions may have difficulty processing their thoughts or emotional patterns, they are fully capable of taking meds.
Building healthy habits
If you forget to take your medicine once or twice, your body won’t experience immediate adverse effects. However, frequently skipping on your meds, whether intentionally or unintentionally, can be an issue for treating your condition. You need to pay extra attention to maintaining your habit of taking medicine because it’s crucial to your recovery.
In this article, we will share three tips to help you with your antipsychotic medication.
1. Double-check your prescription and your medication
Before you leave the pharmacy, remember to check if you have the right brand and dosage. Properly observe the label for instructions on how frequent you should take the medicine. If you think that it doesn’t match your physician’s recommendation, you should ask the pharmacist to clarify it. Although human errors rarely occur, they can still happen to you. It’s better to be safe by double-checking your meds so that you would not take the wrong dosage or compound.
2. Create safety nets on organizing your medicine intake
Even people who don’t have mental illnesses can find it challenging to remember when to take their medicine. So, you shouldn’t think that your condition makes you more prone to being forgetful. However, you have a greater urgency in remembering when to take your meds.
Trusting your memory won’t be enough to ensure that you take your antipsychotics. Instead, you should invest in safety nets to help you remember when to take medicine and what to take. Having a pill organizer can help you arrange your weekly dosage. You can set multiple alarms on your phone to serve as an additional reminder that you need to take your meds.
If you think that you can’t handle this on your own, you should ask a family member or a friend to help you organize your medicine and alarms. The longer you maintain this habit, the easier it will be for you to do it later.
3. Keep your prescription with you at all times
Once you receive a prescription of antipsychotics, it’s a good idea to keep them with you in your bag or wallet. If an emergency happens and you’re incapacitated, the EMTs need to be aware of any medicine you take since it will affect what treatments you can receive. Having your prescription on you can also help you in explaining your possession of pills since some detector dogs can consider medicine, such as Diazepam, as illegal narcotics.
Conclusion
Contrary to popular belief, having a mental illness doesn’t prevent you from taking your meds regularly. However, other conditions and environmental factors may cause you to forget to do so. Taking your antipsychotics is a crucial part of maintaining your health, so you need to develop healthy habits in making it a routine. However, if you’re still missing doses even with the tips above, you should consult your physician on developing alternative strategies on adapting to your personal preferences.
The advancement of technology helps the healthcare industry through various applications, from modern medical tools to intuitive programs and software. MedManage is a cloud-based medication log app that can help patients and caregivers maintain their daily medication. Download our app today to experience a simple way to keep track of your meds!