Remembering to take medication

[gracebucket]

Does anyone have any tips on remembering to take their medication? I'm at a relatively stable point provided I actually take my meds, but forgetting to take them pretty much rules out two or three days.

The ones I'm on are marked with the day of the week, which is useful for knowing in retrospect, but doesn't really work as a reminder. I've also considered an alarm but my sleep schedule is really out of whack and my timetable so inconsistent that I don't know how useful that would be...

 Thank you for any ideas.

[shyviolet79]

Hi  gracebucket 🙂

I used to have this exact problem, until my counsellor helped me to set a daily alarm for my phone reminding me to take my meds.... Each day at 8am it would go off and the words 'take your meds' would flash up on my mobile, which I found very helpful... 

 I see that your sleep is a little varied, so perhaps you could make the time later than mine... This would depend on what meds you are on, as I know some have to be taken at a set time, but if you could take them at a regular time each day that suits you, perhaps the reminder alarm might help?

The other thing that helped was that I became strict with my morning routine, meaning that each day once I was waiting for the kettle to boil I would make myself physically pop the tablets out and place them next to my cup... Soon enough this became second nature, and I very rarely forget to take them now, no matter how rushed I am... 

 There's nothing worse than having forgotten to take meds, I agree! It does ruin the next day or two, and sends you backwards unnecessarily too...

Im sorry I don't have any better ideas for you, but good luck! I hope you find a helpful technique to help you remember soon 🙂 

Chantell x 

[geoff]

dear Gracebucket, what I do is to get all my tablets sorted out for morning, lunch and dinner in different containers all around the kettle and microwave, so I take morning as soon as I hop up, and the rest as the day progress's, whereas if you have to rely on clicking open each medication packet when you need them, then it's quite easy to forget to take them, and could take the same medicine twice if you don't remember taking them. Geoff.

[Dwwmills]

I use an app for my phone called Medisafe. I downloaded it from Google play. It’s very easy to use. It is possible to put multiple medications in at different times, the symbols can be changed to look like the medication and it keeps reminding you until you take the medication. It also has a feature to remind you when to refill your medication and it keeps a long-term record of what you have taken and when. I’ve used it for about 18 months now and very rarely miss any medication. The default reminder medication sounds like somebody shaking a bottle of pills. The biggest tip I can give you is that when the reminder comes up and you’re not near the medication hit snooze rather than the take medication but as that once you have hit the take but it will no longer remind you and it’s easy to forget then. It's also free.

[pipsy]

Hi gracebucket.  I had all my medication sorted into morning/afternoon/evening containers.  also have some notepaper, strictly for that purpose.  I would put the container and pad next to my breakfast/lunch/dinner.  Each time you take your meds, put a tick on a pad next to your meal.  I didn't have any other way of reminding myself as my phone doesn't have the fancy gadgets the others have mentioned.  I got into such a habit with taking meds, after a while, I didn't need the notepaper.  I would also sort my weekly supply every Saturday morning.  That was another way I had to know whether I took them.