If you’ve ever had to take medication on an on-going basis, whether for a week or a month or for years, you probably have experienced forgetting to take your meds. We often have the best of intentions, but then something happens to upset our schedule or it simply slips our mind and before we know it, we miss a pill—or more.
Sometimes it’s not even forgetfulness but rather lack of motivation. Sometimes the pill may have side effects we want to avoid, even though deep down we know the medication is ultimately good for us.
It is not unusual for clients who are seeing me for depression/anxiety to say they are “feeling worse” this week and after a bit of investigation, we find out that they haven’t been taking their meds or the full dose they have been prescribed.
Well, NPR has a fascinating story up today about an artist in France, Mathieu Lehanneur, who has some conceptual redesigns of medicine to make us more likely to take them.
From an inhaler in the shape of a coffee cup to a pill dispenser for children that becomes sick itself if the medication is not taken, these ideas are really interesting.
I tend to find that building medicine and vitamins into my routine, taking them at meal times every day, generally works pretty well for me not to forget them. But that’s not nearly as fun as an “onion-like” medication where you peel off one layer a day!
What do you think? Would something like this make you more likely to take your meds? Or at least more fun?