From Kimberly Read & Marcia Purse,
Your Guide to Bipolar Disorder.
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About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, MD

It appears to be characteristic of people with bipolar disorder that they tend to forget their medications or find reasons to skip doses. These are tips from members of the Forum Community, written by people who deal with medication issues every day.

Posts may have been edited for grammar, spelling or clarity by the Guides. Because this article was originally published several years ago, we have removed the discussion links, as the threads themselves are outdated.

How do you manage your meds?

from Tanika
My boyfriend knows that I struggle with the meds every day. So he pays me $1 for every time I take the medication: $3/ a day and $90/ a month. It is a minimal amount of money but he know I love to shop.

from Wonder
After my last hospitalization it was arranged that I would get a 7-day pill box, separated morning, afternoon, and evening, and my mom would fill it up for me each week. For some reason, this helps! I haven't missed a dose yet, and it's been about two months.

Do you have someone who could fill up a pill box for you? Sometimes it helps just to get the decision out of your hands.

from Sarah Beth
I have had many problems with forgetting to take my medications, mostly because my meds are adjusted and readjusted all the time. Sometimes I get confused. So I have found specific habits that have proven to be wonderful. They are as follows:

1. I keep a "Med Journal." This contains all changes or adjustments of medications, including dates of change, and dosages and times of new med combination. Also, after each recording of a new combination or dosage that is prescribed, I make a chart in which I check off every time I take meds. If I do forget my meds, I record the dose I miss, and if I can still make it up, I record the time that i take it. Also, I write down days that are unusually strange so that at my next pdoc visit, I can be specific to the date of when i felt a certain way. I take this with me to all my pdoc AND therapy sessions.

2. I have bought a good med case. Even though it looks way too huge to have. I know people taking meds don't like to have a huge med case to carry meds around. I have found a wonderful pill case, and I am sure you can find it somewhere if you look for it! It is a tray that has seven separate cases with four compartments (Morn., Noon, Even., Bed). Each of these seven cases fit like columns in a chart with labels for the days at the top. So each morning before I leave for the day, I pull out the "column" that has that day's meds and carry it with me throughout the day in my purse. Instead of carrying a seven-day case, I get to carry just one day's meds. This also helps me to be able to remember (despite my absent-mindedness) if I forgot a dose, because if the meds are still in one of the four compartments, I didn't take it. This was confusing when I used to put a full day's meds in just one compartment together ... lots of counting of pills and worrying.

3. I set Saturdays as my med-distributing day, so Saturday is always the day when I split my pills that need splitting, and I put each dosage in the correct compartment for the entire week. If something happens where my mom gets an adjustment or change over the phone during the week, I immediately rearrange everything accordingly so that I won't get confused.

These habits not only help me, but they are so easy for my mom to keep up with my meds and not get confused, like medication sometimes can get. I hope this helps someone!

from Scooby
First I bought one of these spice racks that turn around and hold 16 jars for spices. I took the spices out and organized the bottles and used a label maker and put a label on each lid so I can see it quick.

I have my vitamins there as well as my bp meds, and I keep it in a handy place.

When I travel, I have a little case to fit into my shaving kit that holds a week's supply.

from TLRK
Every Sunday evening I sit down and put all my meds in a med minder. Between mental health and physical health I take up to 23 pills a day. [The med minder] is set up by days and has four compartments. My med minder is kept on the sink so i can pick it up on my way down the stairs. I take my first pill on my way down the stairs because it needs to be taken 1/2 hour before I eat. Straight to the coffee pot, where I have an alarm clock with 2 alarms, times are already set - I just have to turn them on. I set the alarms because I lose track of the time during the day or I don't take the time to eat, whatever. I know that my evening meds start when Judge Judy comes on TV. A friend of mine made me a special clock. The cuckoo bird only comes out at 9:00 pm, so I can take bedtime meds. This method works on the days that I am at home.

On days that I need to go out morning meds are taken the same, but I have a electric calendar that is set to go off fifteen minutes before I am supposed to take the next dose of meds.