I have health insurance. It covers my family. It does not suck. It does, however, require us to use a mail order pharmacy for maintenance medications. We’ve been using them for years.
I would like to get the following off my chest. Ahem.
You’ve been on this fucking antidepressant for two years now. It works. This is good. When you go off it, even for a few days, you are a Grade A 100% pure asshole, and you take it out on those around you.
You are a big boy. You know how many pills are in your bottle. You know that you take one pill a day.
YOU ALONE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING SURE YOU DON’T RUN OUT OF HAPPY PILLS.
It is not the doctor’s fault you didn’t request the new scrip until the last minute.
It is not the health insurance company’s fault because they make you use the “stupid mail order pharmacy.”
It is not the “stupid mail order pharmacy’s” fault. They processed your scrip as soon as you sent it in at the 11th hour, as can be seen by the handy online tracking which you failed to bother to look up.
It is not the mailman’s fault. The scrip shipped last Thursday via standard mail, as is protocall. The fact that it had not arrived by Monday is not at all surprising.
It is not MY fault that you screwed around until you ran out of meds and are now going through withdrawl waiting for the next shipment. You were well aware that it takes several weeks to process a new scrip, and you screwed up.
So quit snapping at me over stupid little imagined shit. I’m tired of walking on eggshells around you. I’m tired of carefully selecting my words so that you can’t even imagine offense in the simplest of questions. I’m tired of watching you rage and stomp around like a grounded teenager. Mostly, however, I’m just tired because I’m not allowed to ask you to roll over when you’ve been snoring because you’re lying on your back again. And last night I gave up and slept on the couch.
And the damned cat kept chewing on my toes.
THAT is why I’m not particularly pleasant this morning.
Ah. Yes. Good one. I become a cranky bitch without my “crazy pills,” as we them. Not to mention that the one I’m on has MAJORly unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. And yet I still manage to screw up occasionally. You have my sympathies in a big way. I’ll apologize on your SO’s behalf. But I won’t apologize for the cat, because that’s just What They Do.
I’m not sure if you want to enable this, but his doctor should be able to write him a prescription for a few pills until the mail-order bit arrives. Insurance should be about payment for, not *access to * medication. If this were for a physical condition, you/he would probably not hesitate for a minute to do this. Of course, if the medication is very expensive this may not be a path you want to go down.
I told him this. The insurance allows for the doctor to write the first month for a local pharmacy while you’re waiting for your mail drugs. I suggested, since it was so late when he requested the new scrip from the dr’s office, that he do so. But that was too much trouble. He also could have driven to the dr’s office and picked the scrip up instead of waiting for it to arrive via mail before mailing it to the pharmacy. But that was too much trouble. He also could have contacted the dr’s office two weeks earlier when he started dithering about his meds getting low.
But no, it’s everyone else’s fault.
Good news! The mail came and there were pills in it! All of life is sunshine and rainbows again! Well, maybe not that good. But I shouldn’t want to throttle him for quite a while. And he reports his headache is gone already.
As long as this is a form of mini-rant, may I chime in on another major/minor annoyance? My doctor prescribed Nexium and Hyzaar (among others) several years ago, and I’ve been able to keep my BP and reflux under control very nicely, thank you. Along comes a new insurance company that keeps some bottom-of-his-class doctor on staff for the sole purpose of signing letters to patients to tell them that they reall don’t need these expensive meds, but should look into cheaper (for the insurance company) subtitutes such as Prilosec and generics. And who is my fucking doctor again? Who knows my fucking history? Who actually, you know, fucking TALKS TO ME ON A REGULAR BASIS?? So do you really think I’m going to take the advice of an insurance industry shill? NO, MOTHERFUCKERS, I’M NOT! But I still had to have my doc send in a letter to these pricks to justify the meds that keep me going.
Devious suggestion: Pilfer about 2 weeks worth of pills and hide them someplace appropriate. Then if this happens again, you’ll be prepared.
Of course this does start you down the slippery slope of providing the meds… but really, if it bothers you as much as it bothers the person who can’t be arsed to take care of his own prescriptions, maybe you just do it for your own sanity.
Don’t do it Solfy. I am a depressive and an asthmatic. I am married to a depressive. If he forgets his Rx, he is the one with the nasty withdrawal symptoms. I appear to get nothing. No mood swings. I could probably taper off them, but I prefer to do that in summer. Guess which one of us remembers to order refills, and makes time to pick them up?
I guess I have the advantage of already having learned the importance of keeping up with my meds from decades of fear of slow strangling death. This does not mean I am eager to be responsible for someone else’s medications. A depressive who goes off a regularly scheduled medicine is kind of choosing to be an asshole and does NOT have a right to take it out the family. Yes, he feels bad, painful, jittery, paranoid, whatever. He KNEW this was coming, it has happened before. SUCK IT UP and be super extra nice to the people who are tolerating your manipulative withdrawl.
How does she do this without his going thru the Jerkitude that is him missing his meds? Stealing meds and hiding them from someone who needs them doesn’t seem likely to help…
But I won’t apologize for the cat, because that’s just What They Do. 
