Very sad.

But I do understand why people do it, even if I don’t agree with their actions. There are so many reasons why Dr’s don’t or can’t listen to a patient. Time is obviously an issue, but so it the lack of doctor-patient relationship. Too many people have been forced to take their health into their own hands. Thank god there is the internet to do research.

And then there are those who think that they need help concentrating, so they take some ADHD drug because my generation has grown up being told that drugs like Ritalin will help you focus. Way too dangerous! I think I’ll stick with my 6-pack of Mountain Dew to get things done!

Basically, I’m choosing the health of my liver, kidneys, heart, and other major organs over self-medicating. I guess these people are just going to have to learn the hard way.

And to joanne…there are ways to get prescriptions free or at low cost without doing something illegal. For many drugs, the drug companies have programs for people who can’t afford the drugs. And doctors often have samples of drugs that they can give out. That’s how I’m able to keep taking one of the drugs I’m on. My doctor knows I can’t afford it, so he keeps giving me samples. Lack of money is no reason to do something illegal. There are plenty of programs out there for people to see doctors no matter if they have insurance or money. Using drugs illegally is just wrong and dangerous.

DB’s Medical Rants: 20 somethings play around with prescriptions. One word: yikes. Fascinating article quoted though, and worth the read.

If you can’t get resonable care from overworked MDs who don’t have the time to listen or think about what is wrong with you perhaps you are actually safer making these choices yourself. I know more about the side effects and pharmacology of the meds I take than my MDs. I know my own body better than my MDs. I am sorry as that sounds super arrogant and I am not by nature arrogant. It is just a lesson that I have learned over the past year or so when my MDs screwed me over because they didn’t understand what they were doing.

We can’t get reasonable advice from our drs much of the time due to time constraints or lack of knowledge. We get much more volume (and totally questionable) advice from others who are getting treated for conditions much like what we are going through. It could be completely wrong but it also is at least something.

The trick with all of this is that there are certain areas I know very, very well-neuropharmacology and endocrinolgy. I would go as far as saying I know more than the ave GP about these areas. So I am comfortable making my own med choices here. I don’t know a damn thing about heart disease or infectious disease, thus I would consult an MD. But I really wish it was more of a consultation-where I discuss my understanding, they discuss errors in what I understand and I am free to question there ideas and make suggestions and then I leave and make my own choices.

It might be a worthwhile idea for you guys to pick your favorite condition-for instance thyroid disease, cancer, or whatever send thrills racing through your cute puffy little MD brains-and go visit an online support group for that particluar illness. What you’ll find is what we tell each other, wrong right or somewhere in the middle.

And yes I have done the above med sharing thus earing myself a spot in the eternally burning “self medication hall” of hell.

I definitely don’t condone/agree with those who actively deceive their doctors to get a certain RX. Likewise, I disagree strongly with those who actively suggest that a friend to whom they give drugs not have to see a doctor if it’s something that concerns them–if it’s worth taking a prescription drug, it’s worth getting it checked by a doctor (assuming it isn’t a chronic, known problem, and even then, there are masking factors that can fool unwary physicians, much less laypeople)

I liken these people to jailhouse lawyers (woohoo! medicine and legal in one comment!): they know everything about their one case, every trivial loophole/detail in the law(s) that apply to them, etc. but couldn’t BE a lawyer of any kind. You can read a drug monograph, memorize it, and rattle off Cmax’s, 2nd/3rd level metabolites, half-lives, clearances, indications and dosages, etc. but that doesn’t mean that you really know (say it’s an antibiotic) _in the real world_ what advantages that abx has over another abx in which circumstances, in which patient populations, given which specific bugs, becuse it’s partly subjective but mostly synthesis of more than just the raw data of a disease vs. the drug.

I write about the above like I know what I’m talking about, but I don’t. It’s just how I see it at this point, because I’m sure I’m missing something. I look forward to the time when I do actively start developing these skills in a real clinical setting.