Does anyone else hate taking medication?

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Even if it's prescribed by a doctor, and even if I'm certain that it will help and the side effects will be minimal (based on past experience of using it when it was first prescribed), I for some reason have an aversion to medication. And it's not just because of my bad experience with Adderall.

I was prescribed Wellbutrin over a year ago for major depression. I was also more recently prescribed Seroquel mainly for insomnia. I've also noticed it helps my moods (I noticed a difference on the very first day of taking it). I'm not sure if it's simply because I'm getting more sleep on weekdays, or if it is actually directly helping my moods (I know it's used for bipolar disorders sometimes, which I'm starting to think I may have; insomnia is an off-label use).

Anyway, these past couple days have been significantly better, because my moods seem to have stabilized. Just from deciding to try actually taking the medication the doctor prescribed.

But I STILL don't want to take it. I don't really know why. I think it's because I don't like the idea of having to take a pill to feel relatively normal. But if it helps, and doesn't have many bad side effects, if any, why wouldn't I take it?

In the past, as soon as I missed a dose I stopped taking the medications for a while. Like once I forget one time, for some reason I never remember, or want, to take it. And then my moods just get worse and worse until I finally go back to taking it, and the process repeats. I don't really know why. Is this normal, or am I just a stubborn idiot?

I don't blame you. I don't like taking things which make me drowsy. It causes me to be depressed.

although having to take regular meds is a hassle, it is better than having aches and pains and addlements that are ameliorated by the meds, so I will keep taking 'em. Strattera actually was good for me ['cept for the GERD side effect], I felt clear-headed and orderly on it.

I know what you mean about not wanting to have to take a pill to feel normal. Would you feel the same way if you were taking meds for something like kidney failure? For some people, meds for a psychiatric issue could actually be life-saving (saving them from killing themselves) and it's weird to me that some people (not necessarily you) don't get that. (None of that last sentence was directed specifically at you- I'm just writing and thinking at the same time).

My son hates the process of taking it (different than what you're describing I know), so I give them to him in a smoothie...
they're fairly healthy (usually just fruit and plain yoghurt), easy/fast to make, and taste good, and he gets his medication without a scream fest. What could be better?

That's kind of what I'm talking about when I'm calling myself an idiot. The medication helps me significantly, and if I'd just taken it in the past instead of stopping after a week, I probably would have been feeling better a whole lot sooner (13 months ago to be exact). I probably wouldn't have ever hurt myself or gotten as suicidal as I was. It's silly for me not to take it.

It's like the logical half of me understands it, but he's a scrawny weakling, and my emotional half is a big bully and never listens to him. That's the best way I can describe it

Yeah, I kinda feel like it's a weakness to be dependent on medication. Going off them though would/has been a disaster for me. So I've resigned myself to their necessity in my life.
I look at it as a strength to admit when you need help. And to try to make the best of yourself and your life.
If you haven't seen "Silver Linings Playbook" check it out. Its an insightful film about this topic.

I find it very illogical for me to take medicine since it is not a solution. The pills do not change anything it is just a pill to trick your brain to produce a chemical reaction that may or may not help. Thus, what is the point in taking them . However, I still take them since I am terrible at long term planning.

I was forcibly medicated for years as an adolescent. Always hated it, always resented it, always hated my parents for forcing those poisons on me. (Maybe that hate goes away if your parents are otherwise good and decent folk who do right by you. I wouldn't know much about that.)

Psych meds are generally awful. If the black box warning for increased risk of suicidality in youths prescribed antidepressants had been released a few years sooner, I might not have made an attempt on my own young life. In my experience at least, that resolve to take your own life - or at least the memory of that resolve - never goes away, so it's a thing you end up guarding against and struggling with for the rest of your life. No matter how good things get for you or how bright the future looks, you don't ever dare lose sight of how far you're capable of falling.

Psych meds played a role in me going through that.

Then there's 160 pounds I put on in two years (to be fair, while the meds made that possible, it was institutional neglect and abuse that brought it to fruition).

And last but not least my old friend Tardive Dyskinesia, a side effect of anti-psychotic drugs like Risperdal, which is nice enough to be both permanent and practically untreatable. It means uncontrollable movements in the face and limbs. It's a socially debilitating stigmata that never goes away, an ever-present reminder of times I'd rather forget.

When I became an adult and gained enough independence that my opinion meant something, I stopped taking meds. On the whole I've been fairly successful in my life since then (albeit not great at present). I only very occasionally fantasize about leading an army of my fellow disaffected in a campaign of bloodshed, plunder, and vengeance against the entire institution and profession of child psychiatry.

I probably should be on medication. I won't take it unless I'm in the worst psychological/physical pain imaginable. I don't know why. Stupidity? I like pain? A form of self-harm/abuse?
I think the last suggestion is fairly close to the mark.

A chemical reaction is a change and sometimes a helpful one. It is a solution and does change things.

Not me. If it's been prescribed then I need/want it and I take it.

Although, I did stop taking Dexedrine a couple of years ago once I realized it was making my symptoms worse. I've since managed to treat my symptoms via diet/herbs/probiotics and no longer require Dexedrine as I have the natural abilities now that once had to be brought about via pharmaceutical enhancement. Since I had requested the prescription and the dosage in the first place (after thorough research) I figured I had the right to discontinue it's use at my own discretion w/o discussing it with my GP. I knew what I was taking it for and what it did for me, but learned what it was (contributing to) doing to me and stopped taking it after ~3 years on it. I used to take Effexor for a few years, too, with some of that time overlapping with the Dex. I no longer take any pharmaceuticals.

As for going on/off meds in cycles… that is relatively common. I know people who take their meds and are doing fine in life and then they figure they're fine and don't need the meds so they go off them and then life gets crappy again and they have to hit some sort of rock bottom before they decide to go see their doc and get back on their meds again. It's not a good cycle to be in. If you need the and they benefit you, take your meds. If you (truly) don't need them as you're happy and healthy and you're functioning properly without them, then don't take them.. but until that point, take your meds.

Yes, I resent taking medication, but try not to dwell on it. The optimistic part of me wishes that I could just be me, without any chemical interference, but you know, wishes are for Disney movies, so yeah, I need them. Like you, I should have started taking them a year before I did, the ‘before and after’ aren’t comparable. It’s not perfect though, I’m emotionally numb; all I can really feel is sadness and neutral and the side effects for the first two weeks were tough.

I take blood pressure medicine and Coumadin, but as for the medication I was taking for anxiety, I quit. It often made me feel spaced out and cloudy. I've tried to deal with my anxiety in different ways now.

I am on meds (hypertension) and escitolapram for my SAD and I find it horrible. Feels my body isn't functioning properly. Hate being on them, and quit now and then (usually this period ends with discussions.... (GP & psychiatrist) so in the end I take them, but rather I do not.

It depends on the medication. I have never liked anti-depressants, because it best it leaves kind of a buzzy "white-noise" type of feeling in my head, the worst I have had is making it too difficult to wake up even during the early afternoon. Benzodiazepines I like them when my anxiety starts to become too much to handle. I also don't mind sleep aids because I have too many restless nights because my mind will not shut off or slow down.

Fortunately I don't have to take any regular medicine such as antidepressants but when I have to take a flu medicine or something I get anxious. There is always a question - will it help me this time or the side effects will be too bad again? Thats why I prefer staying in bed and using the medicine I already know or some homemade medicine instead of going to a doctor.

The problem starts when I don't remember what medicine helped me before or the illness is new to me. For example currently I am a bit sick "down there". I am pretty sure what it is but I couldn't remember what medicine I took last time I had it. But I remembered the side effects of doctors medicine from almost 2 years ago(it helped but it gave me a huge stomachache and my whole body was leaking, from literally all holes) and the illness returned a few months later. Then I cured it all by myself without using any prescribed medicine and I was not having the illness for over a year.
I wanted to figure out what I used back then. I went to apothecary to ask what medicine is there for that kind of illness, hoping I will remember the name. I couldn't recall a thing so the apothecary suggested me some "miracle medicine" that was "certainly" going to help me because it is really good. Having no much choice I decided to try it out... No good at all. My condition got much worse overnight. Apparently I am allergic to the medicine.
But at least I remembered what I used back then. Waking up at middle of night unable to fall back asleep due to the allergy symptoms gave me some time to think and I finally recalled the name. The problem was it was not something you buy in the apothecary but at grocery store, in the "healthy food" shelf. I bought it today and I already feel much better. No side effects.