Feeling fine isn't the testEveryday life

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Feeling fine isn't the test

A short book about stopping your medicine when you feel better and taking it when you remember

27 chapters11,445 wordsAbout 52 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit, and the habit has two shapes. The first is stopping a medicine…2 min
1The half-empty packetThere's a packet of blood pressure tablets in the kitchen drawer. It was a month's supply and it was dispensed in March. You took them every morning for…2 min
2Why stopping seems sensibleNobody stops a medicine for no reason. Stand in the reader's kitchen and the reasons line up, and I want to give each one its due before the book starts…2 min
3"I feel better, so it's done its job"This is the belief that stops antidepressants at three months, preventer inhalers in the summer, and the tablets for an ulcer as soon as the pain has…2 min
4"I feel fine, so I don't need it"The silent ones are harder, because here the feeling isn't misleading you. It's simply not connected to anything. High blood pressure, the NHS says, does…2 min
5"I missed a few days and nothing happened"This looks like an experiment. You forgot the tablet on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then it was the weekend, and by Monday you had a result. Nothing…2 min
6"I don't want to depend on it"Of the concerns people report about their medicines, this is one of the two big ones, and the researchers who measured it found that over a third of…2 min
7"I'd rather not put chemicals in my body"This one is held sincerely and it's worth being fair to it. Nobody wants to take something they don't need. A tablet a day for the rest of your life is a…1 min
8"The side effects are worse than the illness"Sometimes they are, in the sense that the illness is silent and the side effects aren't. A statin that gives you aching legs is a daily cost against a…2 min
9"I take it when I remember"This is the fade, and it's the version that most readers will recognise even if they've never made a decision to stop anything. The tablet was every…2 min
10"I'm better now, so I'll come off the antidepressant"This gets its own chapter because the stakes are different and because the NHS is unusually direct about it. You'll usually carry on taking an…2 min
11"My chest is fine, so the inhaler can wait"Asthma is the cleanest case of the holding ones, because the two inhalers look alike and do opposite jobs. The reliever, the NHS explains, is for when you…2 min
12"Four days and I'm better, the rest can go in the drawer"The short ones are different, and the honest thing is to say that the advice around them has changed and to be precise about what it's changed to. For…2 min
13"It's only a blood pressure tablet"The tablet is small and the condition is invisible, and it's easy to conclude that whatever it's doing is small too. So this chapter is about what the…2 min
14"I'll double up tomorrow"Here the leaflet earns its keep, because the NHS advice on missed doses is short and it's the same across most of the medicines in this book. If you…1 min
15"The doctor never said why"Sometimes that's true. Appointments are short and a prescriber can explain the dose and forget to explain the point. The reader leaves with a name and a…1 min
16"I know my body better than a leaflet does"You do, in the sense that counts. You know when you're low, when your chest is tight, when the tablet makes you sick, when your sleep has changed. No…1 min
17"Half a tablet is a fair compromise"The quiet reduction is the quiet stop's more thoughtful cousin. You didn't stop. You cut the dose, or you take it every other day, because the full dose…2 min
18What the quiet stop costsLet me put the costs in one place, since they're spread through the book. There's the outcome cost, which is the one the studies measure. About a…2 min
19What it does to the appointmentImagine a GP with ten minutes and a screen. The screen says you've been on a blood pressure tablet since March. The reading today is high. The screen's…2 min
20The conversationHere's the method, and it's one sentence long. Any change to a prescribed medicine, whether stopping it, cutting it, restarting it after a gap, or…2 min
21The hookThe second half of the method is for the fade, and it's about design rather than resolve. Pick the hook. One fixed thing you do every day without deciding…2 min
22The decisionHere's the rule, in one sentence you could say out loud. I take it the way the prescription says, and any change starts with a conversation, not a quiet…2 min
23The holiday, the new prescription, six tablets a day, the cost, and when it's more than forgettingThe holiday. A fortnight away with the packet at home is the commonest way a fade starts. Count out the days before you go, into an organiser or a…2 min
24When you've stopped againYou had the conversation, you set up the hook, it worked for six weeks, and then a bad month came and the organiser has been full since the tenth. Or you…2 min
25The packet, countedGo back to the drawer. The packet is still there and the count from chapter 1 is still true. Nothing in this book has changed the number of tablets in it…1 min
·NotesThese notes give my sources and their limits. This book is not medical advice and does not replace the leaflet in your medicine box or the advice of a…10 min