Karen: The attitudes of others – Taking ‘many’ medicines (1)
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Karen
Female
Age at interview: 37
Number of medicines: 8
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Other people’s reactions to the number of medicines Karen takes and the assumptions they make about her because of them, are among the most difficult aspects of managing a chronic condition.
The stigma about it is the main thing. Even my family joke about me about being a junkie or a drug dealer … I know my family are only joking but there is just this stigma and I think it's only getting ... I don't know, I mean I didn't know much about chronic pain. I didn't even know chronic pain existed before it happened to me. I thought ... I didn't really think there was much that, I guess, medicine couldn't fix or make better. So I guess it was mainly what other people think and stuff. I mean, it hasn't had ... the medication has helped me to still be able to do a lot of stuff. It hasn't had bad side effects. It's more other people's reactions and assumptions.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.