Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | List of forums | Search | FAQ

Re: Straterra approval. » readyforchange

Posted by Lasagne on August 5, 2003, at 22:26:16

In reply to Re: Straterra approval., posted by readyforchange on August 5, 2003, at 18:23:29

If you have any other tips on how to manage the use of drugs, like just taking them( I have a hard time remembering to)that would be great.

RESPONSE:
Hi: I have a household full of ADDers. Somethings that have worked for us are setting up a routine and using check-lists and timers. Prior to using these tools I often forgot to take my medication or I would forgot if I already had taken it and then would sometimes double dose everything. Neither situation was good. If I forgot my medicine then I would get a headache, if I doubled up on my medicine I felt wired.
At any rate, get yourself a white board that you can hang up in a place that you first see when you get up in the morning or in a highly visible place in your house. Write down on the board what order you will do your routine and check the items off as you do them. You may want to use a different color marker for each day for your checkmarks, in case you forget to erase from a previous day and then confuse yourself as to whether or not you took your medicine today. After establishing this routine, you will no longer need to do the checking. It will become habit.
Another thing that is helpful in conjunction to setting a routine is preparing ahead of time. If you know you are going to have a very hectic morning then set all your medicine out the night before. You may want to have a nightime routine written on your board to get you in the habit of doing certain tasks each night before going to bed. Also, set your car keys or wallet/purse near your ready to go medicine. You know each day that you cannot leave without your keys or your wallet, so by strategically placing your medicine near them will also minimize the forgetfulness.
If you are on the go alot this is another thing you can do. Each night before bed you get your medicine ready for the next day and place it your bag/purse/whatever. If you have a cell phone or watch alarm you can figure out how to set it at whatever intervals you need to take your medicine. When it rings/beeps then you will know it's time to take your medicine.
My oldest son has severe ADHD and he will always forget to take his medicine at a certain time if I am not home to monitor him. So what I started doing was getting his medicine out and ready for him and then I set our kitchen timer to go off at a certain time. Before I leave I get his attention and point out where I sat his medicine and that when the timer goes off he needs to take his medicine. The timer will not stop beeping unless he gets up to turn it off, in which case he is now in the kitchen where his medicine is waiting, so it minimizes the forgetfulness.
Also, setting your medicine up into pill organizers by each day of the week is very helpful. They sell these at all pharmacy's/drug stores. If you pick up the Tuesday pill container
and you see that your medicine is gone, then you know that you already took it for that day. I had to use this method for quite a while until I established a good routine of taking my medicine.
My husband also has ADHD and he has certain items set up in his laptop computer to give him daily reminders. There are various scheduling software programs available to help you if you are the type of person who is tied to your computer the majority of the work day.
Well, I think I have exhausted all my ideas on how to remember to take medication. Hopefully one of these ideas will work for you. It's not easy for us ADDers to be so organized, but it is possible through retraining through the use of charts and various other systems.
Good luck!


Share
Tweet  

Thread

 

Post a new follow-up

Your message only Include above post


Notify the administrators

They will then review this post with the posting guidelines in mind.

To contact them about something other than this post, please use this form instead.

 

Start a new thread

 
Google
dr-bob.org www
Search options and examples
[amazon] for
in

This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | FAQ
Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Lasagne thread:133458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030802/msgs/248437.html