I agree with the hypochondriac syndrome that can cause a person to take a lot of medicine. Additionally, I think drug makers have a lot to blame as well for this - everything we hear about quick fixes for this pain, for that pain, how you'll feel much better within an hour, etc really makes a person want to choose drugs over natural healing. I recently started reading a lot about the Paleo diet, and strongly considering starting it. What the proponents of this diet really say makes a lot of senses - our long ago ancestors, although did not live till very old didn't die from diseases but mostly from natural disasters. And they were all lean healthy machines not requiring medicine.
It's so "easy" to start using medicines when we have them at home and just want to get high, it's easy to start consuming, it's not so easy to stop.
That is why I find scary the pharmaceutical industry, they create drugs to "cure" some conditions, but it seems that they don't care at all about the side effects.
I was just commenting this on another post, they go for the quick fix and they seem to miss (deliberately) the long term effect that it might cause.
I would never take a regiment of pills without first looking into what I can do to manage the issue naturally. Many of the drugs prescribed for common conditions are hard on your body and have a list of side effects a mile long. If I can help myself naturally forget all those pills and side effects. Are you sure your Father in law isn't a hypochondriac? He many be taking things he doesn't even need and causing untold damage to his health.
This has been confirmed through testing that medicine addiction is something common that actually occurs. However, personally, I haven't experienced it or met anyone whose gone through this.
I understand how you feel about this. I have to agree with the previous post about it being prescribed so it is legal and no one is going to bat an eye about it. It is possible it is a mental situation and he would need the help of a psychiatrist. Personally I do think there are people who think that all they have to do is pop a pill and anything is going to be okay. There are many side effects to taking medicine so we have to be careful even if it is prescribed.
This is a wise approach, exactly what I would do. The problem is that many people trust doctors blindly, but that doesn't cure them and sometimes they become dependent.
Yep, that is true caparica, we need to think for our own head and not just do what doctors ask, we have to know that most of them don't even care about us.
That can be true, but not all doctors are uncaring. I have met quite a few that go well beyond what they should have to. The problem is the pharmaceutical industry is always looking to sell you something. It may be the same dangerous pill that just got banned from use, just repackaged at a different dosage, with an additive, and a different name. That is who you have to worry about. Almost every medication that comes out winds up being found to cause serious issues later on down the road. The FDA just doesn't do their jobs very well is all. It's all about the money the business generates and not the consumer.
Not all doctors are uncaring and this will be a wild guess, but I believe that these days it can go 50-50 or less in the percentage that really cares.
I think that we can just blame ourselves really, if we follow bad advice from doctors, who's there to blame?
That's not so easy caparica, sure that we are to blame as well, but we were taught and raised to trust the medical community, but I feel that slowly we are learning to see that what they offer is not as reliable as we thought.
OK, I can understand that and in most cases the addiction is caused by our abuse, not from prescriptions. Either cases, I feel that from a certain point on we know what we are doing.
Yes, but in those cases it's too late most times. I recall when I was addicted to a light drugs and was obsessed by it, everyone around me could see it except me.
Yep, that's what happens, for us it's just a normal need and we are pretty much blinded by it, we don't see that our normal need is not normal for other people.
There are some really good suggestions in this thread! Make sure the drugs are all from the same pharmacy, this prevents abuse and even drug interaction. I had a situation where one drug interacted with another which made me sick, then the doctor gave me drugs for that, instead of just changing the first two drugs. It is possible each drug is trying to alleviate the adverse affects of another drug. Finding a psychiatrist is definitely important. Most are adept at drug counseling. I had a situation where I was taking six medications per day, and none where addictive. Do you know what the drugs are? Are they addictive drugs? Not all drugs are addictive.
All the drugs being from the pharmacy don't solve the problem at all LostmySis, I knew a person that had a pharmacy in the family so she stole her drugs from there...
This sounds like a very complicated situation, but definitely a cause for concern. I have known of a number of older people who were put on multiple medications by different doctors they were seeing for different issues, ultimately they ended up over medicated and much worse. The solution was that they had to go to a different doctor and have their entire regimen re-evaluated. They went off most if not all the medications, then rechecked their conditions to see which really needed to be treated with medication and which was manageable without. Usually, if someone ends up over medicated, some of their issues are merely side effects of medications. It sounds like you are having difficulty finding the right doctors here. If possible, I suggest you make some phone calls and see if you can get in contact with someone who has dealt with this kind of issue before who can help get things straightened out.
That is a good idea really, finding the right doctor can make all the difference, like everything in this life it's necessary luck to do that, but we can also look a little and ask around.