Mia: The attitudes of others – Taking ‘many’ medicines (3)
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Mia
Female
Age at interview: 30
Number of medicines: 12
Cultural background: Israeli-Australian
Mia was frustrated when her doctor did not accept that non-pharmaceutical methods to deal with her anxiety did not work and she needed prescription medication.
It was a tricky thing. It sounds like a strange thing to say, but being an intelligent person who has the capacity to sit and think things out about whether I should try the breathing or try relaxation techniques or any of those things that at the time seem really ridiculous. You have tried them all. I am not a person who runs off to the doctor very easily so by the time I get to the doctor I have tried everything else. So having done all of that it was very frustrating to be told that all over again, but I knew that I had to submit to their process before they would … and I understand that, you can't just go in demanding drugs.
So I went to the counsellor and she once again suggested all of the relaxation techniques and the breathing techniques and perhaps I should set a challenge for myself and do this and do that. I peeked over her shoulder at the notes she was writing and they said something along the lines of, that I am very resistant to the techniques and so she was not that pleased with how I was responding to her way of doing things, but the fact that she was telling me all of these things that I had obviously tried already on my own just from having thought of them myself … being in a situation you try and think of things that will make you feel better. So I had tried all of those things already and I was referred to her by the GP. So he was getting all of those notes back. I was going back to him saying, I still feel crap.
I had to ride out that process … rather than convince them to give me the drugs, I had to ride out the process to which they adhere to, at which point they say, I guess the next step is giving you drugs. Thank you, finally!
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.