One thing that I haven't seen much of on survival sites and guides is the importance of carrying extra medication with you if you take a daily prescription. I have major depression/generalized anxiety disorder and take a few medications for it, two of them daily and one as needed. If I don't take them for a couple of days, I start getting withdrawals and not to mention a full dose of my depression/anxiety returning. If I were in a survival situation, withdrawals or strong depression would be a death sentence. I've read that a positive mindset is essential for survival (the will to survive) and depression alone would squash that.

It wasn't until recently that it dawned on me that I need to carry an extra supply of medication with me. Normally, I just have it in my medicine cabinet at home and take it at night. With some extra prescription samples from my doctor and some extra pills from days I forgot to take my meds, I put together a weeks worth of spare medication that I carry with me in the backpack I take just about everywhere with me. I put the pills into a pill key fob since it's a small container that holds the exact amount I need. I figured that a week would be just about perfect as I could ween myself off of it or stretch it out by taking smaller doses if I knew it needed to last longer than that. It is a relief knowing that I have it with me in case something happens.

I've carried a first aid kit, ibuprofen, and Tylenol with me daily in my pack, but I didn't carry my prescriptions. When I asked other people who I know take daily prescriptions, I found that very few people carried any extras in case they couldn't get home in time to take them (except for those with asthma and diabetes who usually have had enough scares to remind them.) The only time they took anything with them is when they knew they would be traveling and could put it in their suitcase.

I'm not writing this post so much as a nag to bring your meds with you, but rather to just bring up the topic and see what others do to prepare in that sense. Any tips, tricks, or insights?

I have some pain killers and antibiotics in my first aid kit. But my prescription meds I don’t worry about, none of them are life critical in the short term. I’m on meds for cholesterol & blood pressure, but they never were high to begin with so even if I went a month without them it’s not a big deal.

I carry 72 hours worth of my pain killers and High Blood pressure meds, plus Advil and Benydril in my EDC bag - there is another 2-3 days worth in my drawer at work. In addition, my little pocket tin has 1 days worth. I used my seal-a-meal to make up the packets

We've had some good discussions about prescription meds in the past. If you haven't tried searching the old threads already, a couple good ones were this or this where you might find some more useful or interesting ideas.

Knock on wood, I still don't need any prescription meds, but I should take notes because maybe some day I will.

The two threads mentioned will be a good start.

One thing to always keep in mind in planning for any survival scenario is to ask "what can kill me the fastest?" Then plan to avoid that (whatever it is) as the first priority.

Thus, in a desert, survival is first dependent of water, as you are likely to die of thirst before starving to death. In the arctic, warmth is number one, because you will freeze to death before you die of thirst. And so on. Doing something really, really, stupid will always kill you faster than anything else.

Think about meds the same way. A diabetic needs insulin to live, and must have a supply. OTOH, if your taking a "statin" because your Cholestrol is 250 without it, doing without it for a week or two or a month, probably will not kill you, even if it is not "good for you." So, I would not worry about taking a 2 month supply of lipitor with me at the cost of some spare insulin pens. . . Decide what meds you need to keep functioning, and which are only "good" for you, and prioritize.

as always, YMMV

Well said, bws48. Lipid metabolism, blood pressure regulation, depression and a host of other commonly treated chronic medical problems are associated with the stressors of every-day life, related to adrenaline secretion and stress responses better suited to dealing with saber-tooth tiger attacks than traffic jams and workplace annoyance. Survival emergencies may eliminate the stressors for which we are poorly adapted and which cause illness, and substitute stressors for which we are better adapted. This has an organizational parallel: every ER I have ever worked in worked better in a crisis (mass casualty incident, weather-related emergency, that sort of thing) than it worked day-to-day. Crises occasionally have an unanticipated upside.

In my uneducated strictly PERSONAL opinion,,,,,

I believe most Dr's would agree that a weaning off process will take 10-14 days at an absolute minimum.

Based on actual experience, talk to your Dr and explain that you would like to have an emergency stash and most will write you a prescription for a 10 day supply with no refill authorization, OR when you are due for a new prescription, they may write you a normal prescription times double dose so you can take the extra and make yourself an emergency stash. It greatly depends on how well your Dr knows and trusts you to do as you say you are going to do. It doesn't hurt to ask and I have yet to hear of a Dr laughing at a patient's concerns in such a matter.

That's how I got my 10 day supply of (broad spectrum) antibiotics that I carry with me when I deploy to work. I've used them once and let my Dr know when I used them and I scheduled an appointment as soon as I got back home. It is always prudent to have a follow-up visit after taking/needing those antibiotics. I also called his office prior to taking them and described my symptoms and asked if he thought it would be a good idea to take the antibiotics until I could get home.

Perhaps our Dr's down here are more understanding of the medication possibilities since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought the need for emergency meds to be on hand, more to the forefront.

Thanks for the links to those threads. Though I was just thinking about short term, those threads are a good reminder to make sure I have enough for longterm preparedness. Another thing that some of the posters brought up was the shelf life of some of the meds and to rotate them out. That's a good thing to keep in mind as well.

On an even more basic level, carry band-aids, Tylenol and pepto-bismol.

The solution is quite simple, actually, and basically free.

Hike4fun in the older thread pointed this out, but it is important to understand. Instead of paying 100-200 dollars for the expensive extra month that your doctor wrote and your insurance won't pay for, just refill the med 6 days early. Bingo, a one week supply for emergency. Do it for 5 months and you have a 30 day emergency supply. Insurance companies almost always allow someone to refill when 80% of the time has passed, i.e. 24 days out of 30. By letting the insurance pay for the meds and just refilling them early, you are saving boatloads of money as well as developing an emergency supply.

I was lucky I had my pain-meds in my kit when I flipped over my quad and slid on my head... that would have been a bad/worse day.

I guess it turned into 4 months of recovering either way.

Your physician would have to approve of that (or should esp if pain meds involved). Otherwise you could find yourself on a drug seeker list at the pharmacy and cause yourself problems.

I second the "refill meds early" plan ...have been doing that for years and have several stashes of xtra meds (rotated of course).
Containers used vary ...and your pill requirements affect your choices too. Some pills are smaller than others and stashing 30 days worth is clearly easier with smaller pills.
I never travel without at least a 30 day supply...and have a weeks worth on my key chain and another in my desk at work.
In addition each first aid kit has a stash...and the little personal sized one I keep in my luggage has a separate stash than the one in my shaving kit.
Like reading glasses ...I tend to "salt" them around in the hopes at least one will be at hand when I need it.

Speaking of medications, I just saw this article that says a study by a major health benefits company shows that we've finally reached the point where more than half of American adults and children (actually, among insured Americans, to be accurate) are taking at least one prescription medication for a chronic condition. Wow, including children? To me, that's a frightening percentage for various reasons.

There is a field of medical/health research that has never really taken off yet, and that is finding the underlying reasons for health disparities across societies. For example, many new immigrants (even the really poor ones) arrive in America pretty healthy since they tend to be young, but once in America, quickly develop the typical scourges of Americans like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. The offspring of these immigrants are no better off. We may have a more prosperous standard of living in the US, but is it "better"? It is hard to say sometimes, depending on how you look at it.

Anyway, back to the OP--that's a lot of Americans that should probably be thinking of medication preparedness!

Not so. Including controlled meds such as Lortab, Darvocet, etc.

In fact, were you to get an "extra" controlled prescription (Lortab, etc.) written by the doctor while you were taking the regular Lortab prescription, *that* would show up on the controlled substances database as suspicious.

The Code of Federal regulations states that 80% of the time must pass before one is allowed to refill a controlled prescription. Most insurance companies follow this allowance in the law. The safest way is to refill a 30 day supply 6 days early and make sure the insurance pays for it. It will come back as a "refill too soon" and the insurance won't pay if you attempt to get the refill before 80% of the time has elapsed. But it will pay once 80% of the time has elapsed. There are some drugs that some insurance companies exempt from this, like Prevacid and a few others. For those, you have to wait until the very day they are due. Dumb! We like to yell at those insurance plans.

Uncontrolled meds (non-narcotic) can actually be refilled as early as you want, except that the insurance won't pay for it unless it's 80% time elapsed. Just wait for that magic 80% time and save lots of money and create your own emergency supply!

Many insurance plans won't let you refill early. I have tried to help my 70 year old Mother set up some emergency plans, including a small stock pile of her meds, but her insurance company will keep track right down to the day, and will not let her refill until just in time for the new pills to arrive as the old ones are running out.

She's had a few times when the mail was late, that she actually missed meds because she ran out before the new ones arrived.

You've pointed out the big problem that I wasn't addressing...mail order!

On the retail level, we have done many nationwide and state plans (probably 25 states) There are exceptions to the rule, but they are usually a surprise and I certainly wouldn't estimate it as a significant portion of nationwide or state plans that don't follow the 80% rule. The biggest of the national pharmacy benefits managers (Caremark, MerckMedco, ExpressScripts) follow the 80% rule at retail pharmacies. However, as you've accurately pointed out, mail order has its own set of rules. They do not seem to follow the 80% rule. A 3 month supply seems to be able to be filled only a few days early. This is IMHO dangerous to the patient because of the chance of missed doses.

I can't tell you how many times seniors come to me for a two week supply because his/her mail-order outfit dropped the ball. They'll lose prescriptions and just claim that the patient never mailed it.

It's sad that many insurance plans force the patient to go mail order. If you are unlucky enough to be forced into that, it will probably make more sense to get a separate prescription and (if the insurance refuses to fill it) pay full price. Of course, look for deals at Costco, Sam's and other outlets. BTW, you don't have to be a member of Sam's or Costco to fill a prescription there. Many don't know that.