Self Medication

Greetings to you my amazing friends. Trusting God you are all doing good? By God's special grace, I'm doing good too and I give Him thanks for making it possible for me to see a day like this.
Thanks to @suboohi for organizing this contest on self-medication.

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Self medication is the practice of treating oneself with medications without the proper guide of a healthcare provider. Often times, we get caught in this very act as most of us have at one point or the other, practiced the act of self medication. Sometimes we just get some pain relieves to take care of that headache that has refused to go forgetting that headache in itself is not a sickness but a symptom of sickness.

It baffles me sometimes to see people who have no idea about the medical profession, giving medical advices to others, even going to the length of asking them to go buy certain medications just because they are exhibiting similar symptoms like they've once had. They forget to note that many illnesses have similar symptoms and only proper diagnosis could reveal the root cause of the illness.

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Is self medication safe

Self medication is not safe as you could end up with other life threatening conditions while trying to manage the other conditions you feel are minor by yourself. Except proper diagnosis is made, one would not be able to conclusively say this is what the sickeness is all about. Aside knowing the root cause of the sickness, how do one know the exact dosage to be taken and the number of days to take such medications without the proper guide of a healthcare provider?

Some of the antimicrobial resistance we have in our communities today is a result of abuse of antibiotics through self medications. The dangers of self medication can not be overemphasized.
In summary, self medication in its entirety is dangerous to ones health and should be avoided.

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What kind of self medication do you practice?

Like I mentioned earlier, most of us are guilty of engaging on self medication like taking pain killers without the guide of a healthcare provider, supplements and other vitamins.

Though I only take pain killers as first aid, I always ensure that I visit the hospital as soon as I can wherever synonymous persist and I always let my healthcare provide know what I've taken as first aid.

Do you experience any adverse effect of your self medication?

Not at all. I've never experience any adverse effects though I'm not a fan of self medication. The only time I self medicate is when I don't have the opportunity to see my doctor. I only take pain killers to ease whatsoever pains I've got after which I visit the hospital as soon as I can.

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Give some general disadvantages of self medication

Generally, self medication has quiet a lot of disadvantages. I'll highlight a few for the benefit of those who engage in self medication or are planning to do so. These include:

1. Adverse reactions: certain drugs react with each other. This is known as drug-drug interaction. When you are not being properly guided, you will often times have adverse drug reactions when you self medicate on certain drugs.
2. Dependence and addiction: Some drugs are very addictive. Self medication can result one to being very addictive to such and will over depend on it with time.
3. Increased health cost: sometimes in a bid to cut cost, we go on self medication and when the adverse reaction comes, we often spend more than we bargained for.
4. Complications: This is common for pregnant women and those breastfeeding. It is adviced never ever to self medicate as a pregnant or nursing mother as you might be doing harm not only to yourself but also your baby.
5. Masking symptoms: When we self medicate, certain illnesses tend to hide under those medications we take. It's usually very hard sometimes during clinical observation for the healthcare provider to see and suspect possible causes of illness thus making it difficult for proper diagnosis to be carried out.

Self medication kills

I'm inviting my friends @vickyson @ashley-p @owulama to also share their views on self medication.