Prescription medications – the real problem

We have a problem….I have a problem.

First hand awareness has allowed me to have a better grasp on the issue.

There is a depth of preparedness I really did not want to see. I covered my eyes because it is, yet again, a huge issue…almost unsolvable, so I could not think about it.

Let me back up a bit…

I suffer from depression, for the last 20 years or so I have had several episodes of deep depression. I take an antidepressant for this condition, and truly the drug has been an amazing tool for me. I don’t say “cure” and I attribute any healings that I have experienced in my life to my God. So far, He has not blessed me with a complete and miraculous healing in this area so I still suffer.

I do recognize that God gives people gifts and talents so that they can do some amazing things and there are some gifted and talented scientists who develop medications that we can take to relieve our suffering, prolong and improve the quality of our life.….so I have taken my medication dutifully over the past decade+.

I have had some marvelously productive years and I never thought of stopping my medication. I would have taken it for the rest of my life.

Realizing that a pandemic is probably going to wreak havoc on the delivery systems in this country due to absenteeism and the deaths of those we count on now, I have had to do some thinking about the “deep preparations” that I need to make.

What will I do if my medication regimen is disrupted?

So many thousands and thousands of people will be potentially affected by this.

Heart medications, diabetes medications, testing supplies….the list goes on and on. Even glancing at the list, leads us into other areas that I will not lay out here, not yet.

Part of the problem is that we are only allowed to obtain x amount of medication over y amount of time and that may not cover us during the waves of influenza and the amount of recovery time that will be needed for our delivery systems. Stockpiling medications locally at our neighborhood pharmacies would be the safest thing to do. And, yet again, with everyone in town suddenly obtaining their meds from the same place and the pharmacy not being able to be resupplied, the pharmacy itself will close rather quickly unless this is aggressively addressed pre-pandemically. Perhaps it has been and I am just not privy to the answers….but I need to know what is or is not being done so that I can make wise decisions now.

So, short of full knowledge, and then in trying to solve this problem for my own family (some of us take the same medications), I sought to eliminate my medication now in order to stockpile them ahead of time, before the stress of a pandemic, when I would need them most. And quite honestly, I thought that I could cover others in case I could stay off of mine. I had no trouble at all eliminating the medication from my system. I had little to no side effects. That was not a problem and I could probably figure out a regimen of months on and months tapering….

The problem with this is that, while I am not trapped by not being able to eliminate the medication, I am trapped by my condition…I like so many others are on these things for some very good reasons, without them we suffer and in the case of heart medications etc., people die without them.

This is why I press to have our presidential candidates address pandemic issues. We need to hear how these things are being addressed, are they being addressed? If I am on my own in this too, I need to know. I have a right to know.

Certainly, I am not aware of the countless intricacies surrounding this issue. For example, if insurance companies allowed people to obtain 6 months, or better yet a years worth, of medication at one time and allowed us to obtain refills at the 6 month point, we could remain supplied. But the insurance companies would have to pay out for these prescriptions and doing so may cripple them.

 Thinking more of people with physical conditions that require medication, there has to be a way to mitigate the potential lives lost. But, yes, thinking too of us who suffer from illnesses that wreak havoc on our lives and the lives of those around us….we need to solve this problem or know its solution now.

I would urge everyone to talk to their physicians about this and call their insurance companies. Pressure from us will force change while silence can kill. We need to advocate for those who cannot.