Mother taking medication and I see she is overdosing. What can I do to stop her?

Hi-My mom went through a month's supply of medication by day 15. My family doctor insisted that I take charge of her medication. She was livid but I told her there was no choice. At CVS/Walgreen's, they have week long pill dispensers so every Sunday, I fill up her meds for the week, If she runs short, she knows it was her fault. (They have dispensers with morning,noon.evening,etc,)
Good luck-it's difficult but once the routine is set, it really works!

I had the same problem with granny, who at the time did not live with me. First of all I took all meds away from her, including over the counter. I would fill a pill box for her which I thought would solve the problem but then she was forgetting if she took her pills and then couldn't remember what day it was, so she would take the next days doasage. I then moved her in with me and I have now hid all medications, RX and over the counter. Her latest obsession is she complains of heartburn and wants to eat Rolaids, because to her they taste like candy! Now I give her a pepcid prior to dinner. I would definitely remove all meds from her apartment, maybe get a caregiver in her apt to hand out her meds. This is a very dangerous situation, she could possibly end up hurting herself or worse. I would speak to the doctor, maybe it's time she move into assisted living. She is a danger to herself.

Hyundai, you do have your hands full! There are 2 things I would look at first......your mother needs to be seen by her physician for a general check-up and then to address her medication abuse. She cannot just stop what she is taking, especially if she is abusing narcotics, she will go into withdrawal. This should be done with the oversight of her physician. If I understood you correctly, you have POA.....is this for medical or financial or both? Some people say that a POA does not have to be notorized, others say it does so to be on the safe side it should be notorized and then there wouldn't be any questions as to it's validity.
It's apparent that the time has come where Mom shouldn't be living alone or at least caring for herself. Is your sister willing to step up and help you with this? Is this something you are willing to take on? You might also want to look into placing Mom where she will have 24/7 care with oversight of her medication so there isn't the possibility of an overdose. It sounds like no matter what you do Mom is not going to be happy, and keep in mind that some of her unhappiness right now could be caused by the amount of medication she is ingesting. It's hard to make the decisions for what we think is best for our loved one when they have lost the ability to live on their own. This may be tough in the beginning.....getting Mom to the doctor and getting her medication regulated....but it can be done. You will need to be firm and let things that Mom says roll off you.....remember you are making changes to allow her to have a good quality of life and for you to also continue to live knowing she is being taken care of. Good luck to you!

This is SUPER dangerous. I would try those portion containers, and set up daily meds to be taken at precise times. This is one for 2 times a day, they make them for up to 4 times a day if needed. (To show you what I am referring to) They are sold at ALL pharmacies. If this doesn't work, then I would either lock up her meds and have them administered to her at the appropriate times or consider a nursing home. This is too serious to let it go!

All the above ideas are great! My dad had the same problem, and I found giving him the weekly pill containers didn't work, as he would forget what day it was and take the pills at the wrong time. I used plastic containers from around the house, with a different shape and size for the morning and evening. If there were other pills, I put them in a different sized container, each plastic container having the time of day clearly written on them (Morning, for with breakfast, Evening for just before bed, or any special time in large, clear letters). I have 2 sets of Morning and Evening, and only one set is available to him each day.

I live with my Mother and put her pills in the container and each time she is to have her meds I put them in a little Dixie cup. She only takes what I give her aside from an occasional Tylenol and Miralax. Have to watch that, she wants to take it all the time. Usually she can manage that on her own. If you cannot be there maybe just call her at medicine time and talk her through it? Would that be possible?

My mother is legally competent, no irratic behavior like your Mom.
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My Mom has done this many times. Has wound up in the hospital because of it..... Has gone thru withdrawal because of it.......withdrawal mimics heart problems and mental incapacity, hallucinations, agitation...... She has the weekly pill box, but she has been filling it herself and has been mixing her meds up. Some of the meds look just like the others.......
Also, she goes to several different doctors who all treat just that one condition - the doctors do not communicate with each other down here, so noone knows what else is going on.
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In the past, she has had a nurse come in once a week to go thru her pills (cleaning out years of bottles that had been hidden away), but Mom is quite capable of adding or subtracting as she wants. This service was provided by Medicare, but only for a few weeks.....and keep in mind, vitamins and other non-prescription supplements can affect the prescribed medications.........
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Everyone here is right, your Moms meds have to be controlled, by force if necessary. How you do that, I am not sure. Lock box, maybe. There are weekly med boxes that open one little cubbie at a certain time, and the other boxes do not open - however, this box is expensive and if someone decides to smash it with a shoe or hammer..................

I was using the typical pill box for my Mom. It turned out to be-more of a pill holder than a reminder. My Pharmacist told me about a new product., the MED-Q pillbox. It has the same type of daily containers but here's the difference. We set the times for her morning pills and her evening pills. At the programmed times, the individual box that she is suppose to take starts to flash. With the flash is a beeping alarm. The alarm keeps getting louder so she can't help but hear it. We have been using it for about three months now and she hasn't missed once. She used to double dose at least 4 or 5 time a month. Since using the Med-Q , she hasn't double dosed once. I wish I had this before for my father. It is one of those things that you wonder why they didn't invent years ago!.

I was using the typical pill box for my Mom. It turned out to be-more of a pill holder than a reminder. My Pharmacist told me about a new product., the MED-Q pillbox. It has the same type of daily containers but here's the difference. We set the times for her morning pills and her evening pills. At the programmed times, the individual box that she is suppose to take starts to flash. With the flash is a beeping alarm. The alarm keeps getting louder so she can't help but hear it. We have been using it for about three months now and she hasn't missed once. She used to double dose at least 4 or 5 time a month. Since using the Med-Q , she hasn't double dosed once. I wish I had this before for my father. It is one of those things that you wonder why they didn't invent years ago!.

After taking the sleeping pill it did not work she took another one and beside that Tylenol with codine, Ambien, Predisone for pain. Hired aid who she is blaming that she put fleeces all over her bathroom. When I told her it was mom not the aid. She did not believe it. I would put a camera in to show her but she has no computer.When I mention anything to her the guilt comes out and she screams like she was mugged. My sister thinks her shit does not smell. She has control of my mothers estate. But my mom wont tell me I know all moms friend know. When I talk to my sister she protect her not me. I did call her drs. told them not to write sleeping pills for her. She takes the pills at nite so she can not lift her head in the daytime. She is overdose , Then nite she does the same thing. I took away medicine. But , she went crazy threw me out of the house. By the way when she wants to do something she does plays my sister one way like she is not sick. Me she is always sick.If u tell her u do this why not that she state has no strenght.She is alittle forgetful , but she knows what she is doing most of the time. I hate drs telling her at her age she could eat everything. She is a diabetic, asmatha, heart problems, knee operation, (where I tell her that was a burden for her ) when u have a knee replace u only have one good leg your balance is not the same.I live next complex from my mother. I could not take more than 20 mins. there we fight .



Tylenol



Tylenol

Hyundai, we must be sisters, because our mothers sound like the same person. She is diabetic, has high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and an anxiety disorder. Her answer to feeling a little bad is to take another lorazepam. Sometimes she gets absolutely drunk. I tried to take control of her medicine a couple of times, but she became violent. I worked things a different way. She let me take charge of her diabetes and blood pressure medications, but she wants to keep them in sight. I put out the day's supply of these things in the living room where I can monitor them. But touching her lorazepam was off limits! After 50 years of diazepines, she is quite addicted. I noticed recently that she had taken 2-3X the usual dose of them, so I took them, cut them in half, and set them in the living room. Now at least she has to get up to come get one. Her usage has gone way down.

I don't worry so much about her Tylenol III. She doesn't misuse it. I flushed some old sleeping pills because I didn't want her taking one benzo on top of another. It is tough when our elders are drug addicts. My mother is nearly 86 and has dementia, so I don't really want her to go through detox. I just want her to not use her lorazepam the way she will if left to her own devices.

I've tried to convince her to get one the the boxes that will let her use her medicines only at certain times. She got angry and said that she would break it, because it didn't understand that sometimes she needed more. She said I had better not even bring it in the house or she would break it.

The semi-taking charge of her medicines has had good results. She used to make herself sick taking too much Metformin. That hasn't happened since I started our new method. She often double-dosed on blood pressure medicine. She denied all this, but I count, so I know. And she has dementia, along with tending to be a bit dishonest to start with. If she is not incompetent and will not work with you on the meds, try taking a more gentle control that makes her feel like she is still in charge. You may be able to come up with something that works in your situation. (I too worry about her being alone with her drugs.)

We must have the same mothers indeed. :) I noticed I just referred to them both as "she" without saying whose mother I was referring to. I hope you can figure it out. I do need to proofread before submitting!

my mother uses kaiser for her medical and they just love to medicate her! or maybe the doctors do it just to get her out of their offices, lolz. she is a hypochondriac, if she has seen it on tv or read about it in a magazine, she has it.

my sister and i have tried to talk to her about the number of meds she is on for years, but to no avail. after the umpteenth fall, one last june where she broke her right ankle, and the very next month where she broke her left tibia, i finally got into her doctors face with 18 pages of probable/possible drug interactions with the 15 different medications they had her on. some where potentially fatal. the doctor agreed, with my mother very unhappy but also agreeing, to eliminate three drugs and titrate down a few others. Ambien was the first medication to go, along with two other central nervous system depressants. she took her off of another one the next month. within a few months she was steadier on her feet, all her shaking stopped, her speech was no longer slurred, and her thinking was somewhat clearer. the Ambien has still left her with permanent bizarre beliefs that my sister and i cannot convince her are wrong, so Incredibly wrong, after a whole year.

my mother is in a board and care home, so her medications are Tightly Controlled. this is really the only thing you can do for a drug addict, and that is what my mother is. just because someone is getting their legal medications from a doctor, does not mean they are not an addict. they might need those medications, but if they abuse them they are addicts.

Everyone here has given some great ideas, but the most important thing to read out of all of them is this, YOU have to be the one in control of the meds. yes, your mother will be incredibly angry with you, it's one of the signs of addiction, plus no one likes being out of control of their own life. if you are lucky, when she is well again, she might thank you, but don't really count on it. my mother did thank me when her shaking stopped and she could walk again. but she still thinks i'm a controlling btch, in gratitude she took back control of her bank accounts so i can't see that she is spending away all her money again. we're not speaking at this time, but she'll call me again when she wants help. my sister and my aunts think i am freaking amazing, LOL!

Do make an appointment for the both of you to speak with her doctor(s) together. When you tell the doctor(s) what is going on, do not sugar coat the truth even though you are speaking in front of your mother. Give it to them straight. No matter how much it will upset her, she needs to hear it. No one willingly changes unless they know how ugly their behavior is.


my personal belief is that Ambien is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE drug!!! it should definitely never be used in combination with other central nervous depressants!!! i also believe that it is much too strong to be used on elderly people. this is a hypnotic and hallucinogenic drug. Ambien is very difficult to come off of, people who have abused it may destroy sleep patterns for a very long time. my mother's doctor substituted trazadone for her, i agreed only because i knew of it having used it as an anti-depressant/sleep aid for fifteen years myself. there is no "high", so it's non-addictive. you just fall asleep within twenty minutes. it took my mother several months to come off the ambien, but she is sleeping well now. she did btch, moan, gripe, and complain for those four or five months. she did try to get her doctor to increase the trazadone, but since the doctor had a more complete knowledge of my mother from speaking with me a couple times, she refused.

My Mama took too much painkillers and then because she was kind of out of it from that medicine, she wound up taking too much Coumadin and had to be rushed to the hospital because her blood was so thin they thought she would bleed internally. I completely agree that her doctor needs to see her and she may have to go to a "rehabilitory facility" to regulate her medicine. I like the little dosing containers idea too. Good Luck!

I think Mom might have some dementia problems and need to have someone who will come in to dispense pills once or twice a day and lock them up in between times.

I bought a pill box that holds a week supply with compartments for morning, noon,
afternoon, bedtime. It stays on top of the refrigerator where she can't reach it. This works out well. Once a week, I fill the box from my typed list.

Update on my mother. She let me take total charge of her medications, including her lorazepam. I have to do things one pill session at a time. Taking charge of her medication has ended so many problems. She is rarely sick at her stomach now and is less confused. Pills used wrong can cause so much grief.

I took over the medication and now she is not overdosing. Her problem is pain. Then when I not around she will take Presone , tynold and codine, I tell her u can not mix medication. She can not tolerate pain. She thinks it gout since hand swelled up. She has a bad case of arthritis all over her body. Reason for swelling on hand Drs. have no answers. By the way mother is 91 yrs. old.