Handling medication in 5 easy steps.
Starting a new medication can be tough. Learn what clinicans don't tell you.
You might be unsure whether a new medicine, supplement or diet you've been offered is right for you.
That’s perfectly OK and you’re certainly not alone in feeling this way.
If you’re like me, you might have become skeptical of anything working, or anticipating it having gruesome side effects because well, you’ve lived with illness all your life. You’ve tried a lot of things and heard a lot of things too.
But, I know you probably went to the doctor or clinician, naturopath or herbal medicine provider, nutritionist or dietician, because you want a better experience than you're having now, right?
Something needs changing and you’re willing to experiment, and good on you for being willing to experiment!
However, I know that experimenting doesn’t come without fear or doubts.
Here is what I invite you to do, based on my own experience of trying a new medicinal, herbal or nutritional intervention.
Expect the best.
If you’re looking out for how it’s going to fail you before you’ve even started, it probably will.
I remember when I took a particular medication the second time round, after having tried it years before. The doctor recommended I give it another go and at the time, I didn’t feel like I had another good option.
So, I took it.
However, I was riddled with angst that it wasn’t going to work. I prepared myself for the same side effects I experienced the last time. It’s all I could think about.
I was expecting the worst, and lo and behold, I ended up having a really rough time with that medication.
I was miserable.
Just days after, I gave it up and vowed never to try it again.
Funnily enough, after some more years had passed and I found myself with the same condition and back in the doctor’s office, I was prescribed the very same medication. I voiced my concerns to my doctor and he advised me to adjust when I took the medication, based on new evidence, and I left that appointment with hope.
This time, I really wanted to trust that things would be different. I wanted to experience success.
This time, I went in expecting the best.
Thankfully, I lasted a lot longer this time. I was able to take this medication for far longer than I had done before. I felt my condition improving, was far happier, and felt safer for taking the medication.
Loosen your grip on your plans.
Your body may take time adjusting to any new intervention and you might find yourself disappointed. This is the time to really go with the flow.
Right now, my body is contending with a medicine I’ve never tried. I’m about two weeks in some days I’m fine and on others I’m incapacitated.
I won’t lie. It’s frustrating. I’ve got things to do! I have a job. I have responsibilities. I have social commitments. I have hobbies!
I’m guessing you do too, right?
Many years ago, I was a stickler for my schedule. If I didn’t do things in the order that made the most sense, or do a particular activity at an appropriate time, I experienced huge disappointment. I felt like I had failed, or I had let someone down.
Being chronically ill was already quite disappointing, so I was used to flare-ups making me have to change my plans.
To have even more disruption from medicine, which was supposed to make me better, felt like I slap in the face.
However, these days and this time round, I have completely relinquished inappropriate control of my agenda.
Sure, I have a list of things I’d like to get done, but I approach it differently.
Yesterday, I set out to work my normal full day. By midday my stomach was irritated, I was nauseous, and I was sweating from yet another hot flush; all side effects from my new medication. I tried working through it but couldn’t concentrate one bit.
My agenda? It went right in the bin.
The last thing my body needed was to plough through a to-do list it was going to make me pay for later.
Instead, I honoured myself with the self-care I needed and wanted. I lay on my bed with a hot water bottle on my pelvis, messaged some friends, and did a crossword. It was rather nice!
I thought too bad I didn’t get anything on my agenda done but this is when and how the magic always happens.
Just a few hours later after resting and ignoring my agenda, I felt so much better and though it was ridiculously late in the day, I actually really wanted to do those things that had been on my list.
I had this resurgence of energy and motivation!
Miraculously, I got every item done including several work tasks, a long walk in nature, and watching the last World Cup 2026 football game of the day.
It turns out that when I let go of my agenda, I take the pressure off me at a crucial time when my body needs minimal stress. When that pressure comes off, everything falls into place. It just looks different to how I had originally planned.
It’s worth it every single time. The women I work with have the same miraculous experience and we all think it's witchcraft or magic.
It's not. It's just letting go of control that doesn't serve us, and we're infinitely happier for it!
Let the sadness or frustration out.
Your feelings deserve their time in the sun.
Whether you’re waiting for the medication to take effect, or you’re beginning to feel unpleasant side effects, it’s worth talking it out with someone safe than keeping it in.
You will feel relief, I’m certain of it!
Earlier this year I was trialling a new medication recommended by my doctor. I was hopeful for great results but after a week in I started feeling really strangel. I felt flat, like my emotions weren’t all there. I had horrific temperature fluctuations and I experienced dryness in my body like I’d never felt before, to name just a few side effects.
Needless to say, it was awful.
Instead of powering through, sucking it up and pretending everything was OK, I let myself be vulnerable.
When I went to my improv class, I let my classmates know I wasn’t feeling so well. When I met up with my friends and coaches, I told them in greater depth and poured my feelings out.
Sharing my pain and frustration was vital at that time. It turned out that this medication was overly aggressive for my body and while it got rid of my original complaint, the side effects far outweighed it and I was suffering more overall.
Speaking with safe people was medicine in itself while I contended with this drug and waited for my body to adjust.
I’m glad I did because I was still able to get through that course of medicine with a smile on my face, showing up dignified wherever I went.
Read on to find out what happened next.
Plan your happy.
If you can’t do your normal activities now you're on new medication, this is the time to experiment with trying things you’ve not done in a while or things you’ve been wanting to try.
Normally I’m swimming, doing pilates or yoga most days, working long hours, sleeping through the night, cooking fun meals, reading, walking…
Sadly, some of these normal self-care activities can’t happen, or can’t happen as often. I’m finding myself getting headaches, feeling dizzy, having low energy, and feeling electrifying sensations in my pelvis.
So instead, I’ve been reminding myself of things I haven’t done in a while that I know make me happy yet require far less energy.
The key thing here is the planning part.
I’ll give myself a minimum of three lovely things to do on a daily basis that I know are manageable for me at this time while my body is adjusting to this new medication.
For example, last Thursday I planned to watch the animals in my local park, draw the landscape whilst sitting on a park bench, and polish all the leaves of my houseplants!
Yesterday I sent friends some voice notes, smelled the flowers in the park, and made myself a delicious milkshake.
I’m having a lot of fun discovering new things to do and I'm just tweaking what I was doing before.
By planning my happy I’m keeping myself in good spirits rather than let my new aggressive medication drag me down.
Consider what it would be like without the medication.
Honestly, are you better or worse off than you were before?
If you’re better, hooray! - that medication sounds like a great intervention.
If you’re not, you gave it a try and you’ve probably learned it isn’t for you. Either way you have information you didn’t have before.
That medication I mentioned above in Step 3. was a killer. I took it for a month and I truly did my best. I expected wonders, let go of my agenda, spoke my feelings out, planned my happy and overall the side effects were simply too much.
I was better off without the medication but I was grateful for having tried it. I learned it wasn’t right for me.
On the other hand, a medication I started almost a year ago has been a game-changer. It made one of my main symptoms so much better that I can’t bear the thought of being without it.
In both cases, I have key information. One medication wasn’t a good fit and the other was.
Ultimately, I am the expert of my body and I can stop taking any medication if it’s intolerable.
You are the expert of your body. Only you can tell and only you can decide what works for you.
The happy outcome?
I have become more resilient when it comes to any intervention with my body. Where I was once incredibly fearful, from all the negative experiences I’ve had, I’m now more prepared and well equipped.
I can confidently try a new medication, food or supplement because I have the 5 steps above.
Sure I have a progressive incurable hormone-responsive full body inflammatory disease but I am not letting that stop me.
I deserve to live a happy life and I’m delighted to report that as I write this, I’m living it!
