A majority of my meds are for comfort or false peice of mind.

I totally agree with what you are saying. In a lot of cases I can use my two bandannas or bare hands to apply pressure to stop what I call medium level bleeding, not artery and small area. They are in no way sterile, but when help is only a day or two away this makes little difference. You could die pretty fast from blood loss but most infections take longer to kill.

I also keep a small zip lock bag of aspirin and band aids just to keep the other hundred unfortunate people from knowing about my real first aid supplies. With small children these can be a real life saver because bandaids will cure any small imagined cut.

My real first aid kit is heavey on life-saving bandages such as trau-medics. I use stacks of gauze and stretch gauze to treat smaller wounds. I have no bandaids whatsoever in any of my real kits. Everything is kept in original packaging then vacumm sealed to help keep them sterile. Sterility can always be compromised but this gives me a better survivability curve.

I keep some bandages, gloves, and CPR mask where I can get to them in a hurry.

I might not die from diarreah but I have had it so bad that a couple of immodium could have saved my life if water had been in short supply. No I might take them and make matters worse if I really had no clue what caused it. Hopefully I can make a good guess from a sample of stool or what I have been putting in my body. I'm not a perfect expert so mistakes are a possibiliy but this goes towards all areas of surviva.

I agree that many meds will make situations worse, but mine are geared towards minor injuries where I just want to be more comfortable. In a real survival situation I will treat conditions as I have been trained, have practised, and have done in the past.

One final note. Most FAKs I have seen have no real life saving gear. I am guilty of copying Doug's PSK by keeping Vicodin ES and Zithromax in my kit. No they won't save my life but are their to give me that 1% edge over the situation. I have used and seen the results from these meds many times over and I still have the beliuef that they will help. This belief will probably aleviate some of my fear in a survival situation enough to help me out with that critical 1%. I think most FAKs are geared towards everyday comfort supplies and these people should either state the true reason for these kits or take a long hard look at the true necessities of first aid.