|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
tanklor1
Joined: 13 Jun 2006
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:05 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
It is a valid argument to say Koreans are over medicated, because everywhere you look, there's a pharmacy and clinic. I wouldn't over generalize, it just means some Koreans are over medicated. With so many pharmacies and clinics, someone has to be supporting them. A pharmacist job here is not to just dispense medicine, but to discourage people from using them, because it cuts into a pharmacists pay. Of course there are the government controls this pharmacist mentioned causing for there to be no free market dynamics in the Korean pharmaceuticals industry. I agree with the statement about back home people believing they need a pill for everything. Not all Americans are brain washed to think they need a pill for every thing and abuse drugs, only some do that. Here is one example to be concerned about, yet they allow and support to go on for years. My mom gets 4 large white Vicodins, 4 blue football xanaxes, and 2 white Ambiens prescribed per day, but normally doesn't take all that so she sells part of it to the neighbors. Despite her bad health, I've been concerned many times, because when she gets down, she'll over take the Vicodin and then crash off to the ER in an ambulance from withdrawals 2 days after the script is prematurely gone. I took an Ambien a night about half the time for years with no ill effects, but never got into Xanax and Vicodin nor tried to get more pills as I don't want a cocktail like that. Drugs are OK if you don't abuse and only use in moderation, but are a real problem for those who lose control in trying to get high or dampen sad feelings. Ambien would be a serious problem if you are doubling or tripling up, but I never do that as 1 does the trick of dozing me off to sleep. It's not knock out stuff that gets you high, it relaxes you to fall asleep. I've never known anyone who isn't suicidal to abuse Ambien nor see what you would get out of it so I never saw it as a drug to abuse like people do with Vicodin, Xanax, and weed.
It's not a doctor giving me a fuss, it's the pharmacist. Maybe it's a face saving measure to act like it's not OK to even take cold medicine for 3 days? I would hardly consider taking 10 single doses of Ambien a month, drug abuse. When seeking some psuedophed, it doesn't warrant a talking to like I'm a baby expected to feel guilty over having a cold. And it surely doesn't warrant being asked about my sleeping situation repeatably after giving an answer more than 10 times. This niggling is not about having concern for my well being, it's about trying to ween me off from taking any medicine, because it's costing him money with the government system he told me about. If I were trying to take sleep medicine every night, trying to double up the scripts, and visiting more doctors, then it would be a legitimate concern, but fact is, I'm just not doing that. If I choose to take a little medicine within reasonable limits, there shouldn't be a question about it. Every country has jerks, but Koreans do act a bit ridiculously afraid and concerned about things that aren't a problem while others that are a problem go unaddressed. I'd consider motorbikes on the sidewalk and pollution to be more valid concerns. It's not about addressing concerns, it's about trying to cover for embarrassments and financial costs in any situation. As this pharmacist admitted, it's a cost control concern that's costing him money when he sells drugs as illogical of a system that is. Maybe it's smart to go to a different pharmacy every time you need something, because they don't value repeat customers here on account of it costing them. |
I ain't not no person that goes on criticizing people but that first paragraph scares the crap out of me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Asia,
As you have said, it is part of his job to try to get you to take less medication -- part of his job! He is doing his job! Now, if he does his job in a rude, condescending manner, go somewhere else!
I understand your frustration -- a few years ago, my girlfriend had breast cancer, and they had to take the breast and lymph nodes along that side -- she was in the hospital for 8 days...needless to say, she was in a fair bit of pain. The surgeon was giving her Tylenol for the pain -- Tylenol! Like, the over the counter stuff! She was crying in pain when we were alone, but when I tracked the surgeon's happy arse down and insisted that he give her something to take the edge off, he was quite resistant to the idea...however, I was quite insistent, and she got the drugs she needed to get some rest....
The thing is, she is a Korean, and although I DID get the doctor to up her meds, she only took the stronger stuff for a day or two -- she voluntarily stopped taking the better stuff and took the Tylenol, and even quit taking that a few days before she left the hospital.... Her fear/disdain of drugs was greater than the pain she was in, and this seems to be a fairly common Korean attitude about it...and really, in all fairness, is this "worse" than the opposite, over-medicating situation elsewhere?
You don't like it -- fine, go elsewhere...but realize that you are NOT being treated this way because you are foreign -- you are being treated this way because doctors and pharmacists treat folks that way in Korea...different paradigm. Personally, I will take having to be insistent about getting information or medication over having to wait 4 hours to see a doctor. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010
Location: Multiverse
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
OFF is right.
Regular use will create tolerance as well as rebound insomnia.
Best to try some yoga or tension / release exercises befoore bed and if you don't get sleep, do some energising breathing exercises (lots on youtube) before work / take some red ginseng or some other stimulant to get you through the day
Then after 2 or more nights of no sleep, by all means use the meds... Then try other things for next 2 days and no meds regardless if you sleep or not and then use meds wehen you feel you can't get through the next day without sleep.
So use it as a kind of magic bullet / last measure when you really feel like 'I'm done, no way I can go too work tomorrow without sleep.'
I swear by hatha yoga for curing insomnia but I guess it won't work for everyone. I swear to God that I had insomnia for over 2 years and then after doing 2 home 50 min sessions with this dvd I was cured!!! Swear to God and you guys must know I'm no tree hugging hipppy by now...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yoga-Absolute-Beginners-Healthy-Living/dp/B00005RKRS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1284535074&sr=8-4
Try it, could be the best 2 man won you ever spent. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| oldfatfarang wrote: |
OP. I hope you get a few good nights sleep, but for goodness sake, if you want people to read your problems and give advice, then please learn to use short paragraphs.
Also note, PSYCH students in my country are told that sleep meds are, ultimately, addictive. Your body will eventually habituate to them. Psychiatrists usually presecribe meds in conjunction with therapy and/or life style changes. Just relying on meds isn't gonna work in the long run. Maybe that's what your pharmacist was trying to tell you in his 'foreign language'.
Good luck. |
Ha ha, English is wordy unless you just give short direct statements lacking any depth and dialog. I know this is how Koreans are treated; not because I'm a foreigner. I too read Ambien is addictive, but I can't see where the recreational quality is to be had nor seek that. A recreational quality like weed, cigarettes, alcohol, and narcotics give is absent with Ambien. What they are talking about is if you take too much too often, it's effects are lessoned or habituates. I agree, just relying on meds to cure a problem doesn't cure it, it requires lifestyle changes. And this involves change of environment in case of insomnia. If living in a high population area that's too noisy with neighbors barking dogs, their weird hours, door slamming, stomping on your ceiling(their thin floor), and such in close confines, it warrants moving a bit out of the ways and commuting a few minutes longer to go to work, shop, and eat out. I would be OK with moving on the outskirts of town, but it's not my choice in this situation. I do feel high strung where I can't relax where I feel kinda claustrophobic having no space around me such as a yard and houses spaced apart with sound proofed apartments. I've lived in many apartments and it's only wood rooming houses that I found to be a problem until I got into this thin concrete walled place here with no yards where buildings are so close to each other they are attached.
I only needed sleeping pills when in the city in a cheap rooming house, around annoying people like my mom, and having to get up too early requiring me to turn in much earlier than I'd ever go to bed as to get 7 hours of precious rest. When on vacation or living in comfortably quiet place, I don't need them nor take them. Many people who get up very early for work and live in conditions where it's hard to relax benefit hugely from a little Ambien. It's better than going without enough rest and being painfully exhausted at work.
Last edited by AsiaESLbound on Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010
Location: Multiverse
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
^
Sorry and no offense meant, but I concur. I can't get through the 1st sentence of that block of text before I switch off and stop reading.
English wordy or not, people are trying to tell you their reading habbits.
If you want a customer to buy - you study their wants and needs no? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tanklor1
Joined: 13 Jun 2006
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| oldfatfarang wrote: |
OP. I hope you get a few good nights sleep, but for goodness sake, if you want people to read your problems and give advice, then please learn to use short paragraphs.
Also note, PSYCH students in my country are told that sleep meds are, ultimately, addictive. Your body will eventually habituate to them. Psychiatrists usually presecribe meds in conjunction with therapy and/or life style changes. Just relying on meds isn't gonna work in the long run. Maybe that's what your pharmacist was trying to tell you in his 'foreign language'.
Good luck. |
Ha ha, English is wordy unless you just give short direct statements lacking any depth and dialog. I too read Ambien is addictive, but I can't see where the recreational quality is to be had nor seek that. A recreational quality like weed, cigarettes, alcohol, and narcotics give is absent with Ambien. What they are talking about is if you take too much too often, it's effects are lessoned or habituates. I agree, just relying on meds to cure a problem doesn't cure it, it requires lifestyle changes. And this involves change of environment in case of insomnia. If living in a high population area that's too noisy with neighbors barking dogs, their weird hours, door slamming, stomping on your ceiling(their thin floor), and such in close confines, it warrants moving a bit out of the ways and commuting a few minutes longer to go to work, shop, and eat out. I would be OK with moving on the outskirts of town, but it's not my choice in this situation. I do feel high strung where I can't relax where I feel kinda claustrophobic having no space around me such as a yard and houses spaced apart with sound proofed apartments. I've lived in many apartments and it's only wood rooming houses that I found to be a problem until I got into this thin concrete walled place here with no yards where buildings are so close to each other they are attached.
I only needed sleeping pills when in the city in a cheap rooming house, around annoying people like my mom, and having to get up too early requiring me to turn in much earlier than I'd ever go to bed as to get 7 hours of precious rest. When on vacation or living in comfortably quiet place, I don't need them nor take them. Many people who get up very early for work and live in conditions where it's hard to relax benefit hugely from a little Ambien. It's better than going without enough rest and being painfully exhausted at work. |
Maybe you should stop making excuses on why you need it. Don't want to disapprove someone I don't know but it's obvious that you spend a lot of time thinking and using this drug.
I'm siding with the pharmacist.
Spam if you will but, in my opinion, 20 sleeping pills does seem excessive to me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Hotwire wrote: |
^
Sorry and no offense meant, but I concur. I can't get through the 1st sentence of that block of text before I switch off and stop reading.
English wordy or not, people are trying to tell you their reading habbits.
If you want a customer to buy - you study their wants and needs no? |
I hear you and my post is tiny compared to many I've been seeing on this forum. Many I just scroll down and click the little red x. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010
Location: Multiverse
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Just do like I did and break it up into one or a few sentence paras.
Nobody's fault, but web forums dont have decent spacing between lines like books do so it's naturally hard on the brain.
So just insert your own spacing and make it look nice and pwetty! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yea, it is hard to read this stuff. The size and spacing look are so technically small looking. Why is English the best language? It can be most useful for technical business and science applications. How about some of those posts that are 5 to 10 screens long? lol They aren't mine!!!
This really isn't about how legitimate is to use 10 Ambiens a month, it's about how I'm expected to submit to some ridiculous guilt trip and be ashamed of myself when I'm ill or need some medicine. If it's not OK to use medicine in reasonable moderation, they wouldn't be available. The only way you can really cause a problem with Ambien is driving after taking them, prone to sleep walking, and taking more than 1 at a time. I feel it's my prerogative if I feel a need to use them within reasonable common sense limits. I really don't give a rats arse anymore what some pharmacist says. What qualifies him to be so judgmental about the medicine his customers take? Doesn't he know I'll just shop around for another drug dealer? I'm sure he does, but he basically told me in an indirect way I'm a liability to him so he's telling me to stop getting scripts or go to another pharmacy. I know 10 sleeping pills in a month isn't hurting myself nor anyone else, but I didn't know it was costing a pharmacist a little of his government bonus pay based on filling fewer scripts though he can't refuse to fill anything that walks through his door.
It would be different if I were over taking meds, coming to work hung over and late, smelling like cigarettes, smoking around kids, riding a motorbike on the sidewalk where women and children walk, failing to do laundry, refusing medical care if seriously ill, and too lazy to brush my teeth and wash up every morning. Since I started using a half sleeping on school nights, I feel must more rested, energetic, and know I'm performing better at work. Guns aren't the problem; trigger happy idiots are the problem.
Last edited by AsiaESLbound on Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010
Location: Multiverse
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
the guy you descrtibe is both a quack and not representative of Korean doctors / pharmasists, trust me.
Ambien didn't do jack for me when I had the insomnia and my doc had me on a cocktail of ambien / xanax / buspar. he even gave me a steroid shot in the butt every day to keep my body strong.
He never gave me any jip about it at all, nor did the pharmo.
Ditch that guy and go elsewhere.
Though I do have a suspicion that most of what he says is bs but he's just out of concern for you trying to get you to cut down on the pills and not get reliant on them, a lot of docs try to dissuade from getting reliant on them (see Fight club?) Try seeing if you can see it from that perspective and see if that's a possibility...
I've a lot of experience with k docs and I kind of see patterns in their styles... Actually doctors in my home country are the same about sleeping meds. As a newb on hyour career with insomnia they want to try and get you to try everythign else first before you get into a pattern of reliance.
I'd advise trying the yoga dvd I linked in all seriousness. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:56 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Hotwire wrote: |
the guy you descrtibe is both a quack and not representative of Korean doctors / pharmasists, trust me.
Ambien didn't do jack for me when I had the insomnia and my doc had me on a cocktail of ambien / xanax / buspar. he even gave me a steroid shot in the butt every day to keep my body strong.
He never gave me any jip about it at all, nor did the pharmo.
Ditch that guy and go elsewhere.
Though I do have a suspicion that most of what he says is bs but he's just out of concern for you trying to get you to cut down on the pills and not get reliant on them, a lot of docs try to dissuade from getting reliant on them (see Fight club?) Try seeing if you can see it from that perspective and see if that's a possibility...
I've a lot of experience with k docs and I kind of see patterns in their styles... Actually doctors in my home country are the same about sleeping meds. As a newb on hyour career with insomnia they want to try and get you to try everythign else first before you get into a pattern of reliance.
I'd advise trying the yoga dvd I linked in all seriousness. |
Ambien is a very mild drug. It's like a mild weak version of Xanax, but not a benzo. It just mimicks an effect similiar to a benzo, but much weaker than Xanax. Many people don't get results from Ambien so they seek Xanax and stronger drugs. My mother gets Ambien, but doesn't care about them as she prefers her Xanax and Vicodin to suit her high drug tolerance. This quack pharmacist is also probably telling me to not use Ambien, because many Ambien users seek out Xanax at some point later on which I'm sure he's seen hundreds of times. I'm not going to lie, I'd take a half of blue football Xanax pill if I had it. People wrote many times to not get hooked on Xanax though. This is where you must not take every day, but use with discretion only on occasion. I can get by on a half of Ambien, because I haven't built up drug tolerance due to having so little of it and not taking it most nights.
Do you get yourself beyond exhausted doing yoga so you just crash in the rack early? I noticed if I'm on vacation running around exploring old temples and getting in lots of exercise, I'm crashed out by 9, but it's not like that in every day life. I hike 1 hour a day 3 or 4 times a week, but it's not the exhaustion you get out of physical labor or touring jungles and very old places in hot weather. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
The pharmacist does seem a bit of a dill...agreed.
However, Zolpidem IS a hypnotic, which, "...becomes addictive if taken for extended periods of time, due to drug tolerance and physical dependence or the euphoria it can sometimes produce." <--- I know you've already argued against these observations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolpidem
Korea IS definitely a hard place to get a good night's sleep sometimes. I have never taken a sleeping pill, not once. Does that make me better than anyone? No.
IMPROPER prescribing of medication, and probably diagnosis, is the problem both here and back home. I'm no doc, but neither is the pharmacist, nor you.
Less than 10 years ago in Korea, you could walk into almost any pharmacy and ask for almost anything if you knew what you wanted(IF it was available)...no script necessary. As mentioned earlier, Korea's hard-nosed when it comes to "drugs". That is, drugs other that alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and red ginseng. Yet, some changes are made for a reason. I apologize for not providing any stats to back up that assertion. Anyway, a pharmacist is not a doctor(even though lots of docs DO suck sphincter!), so you should go to another place when needed...the dumb-ass probably thinks you're taking a big tab of Green Monster™ when he sees "hypnotic". |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bliss
Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeonggi
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
To the OP, The solution is just so simple simple simple....
Go to a different pharmacist!
(one who doesn't speak English well) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Alphabet_Stew
Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Location: Earth
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:57 am Post subject: Re: Does your pharmacist give you lip about your medicine? |
|
|
| AsiaESLbound wrote: |
| I see my English speaking pharmacist walking around in the city center quite regularly when shopping and commuting to work who always asks me about my sleeping situation repeatably, because I bought 30 pills of Ambien from him during the past 3 months |
He may be genuinely interested - because Ambien (Zolpidem) is a prescription medication used for the short-term treatment of insomnia
that is SHORT term - not three months..
If you have LONG term insomnia - perhaps try something different such as Xanax. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kiknkorea
Joined: 16 May 2008
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:58 am Post subject: |
|
|
| nathanrutledge wrote: |
| you go in there and buy more sleeping pills than most Koreans would and get upset that he thinks there is a problem? It doesn't matter that in the US it's no big deal. Here it is, the guy is concerned, and rightly so. Taking a sleeping medication when you DON'T need it can lead to a dependency. He would be remiss if he let people get drugs without talking to them about it. |
Good post.
I really don't see what the huge fuss is about. I'm a private person, but if a pharmacist asks me how I'm sleeping because I've been getting sleeping medication for the past 3 months from him, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Just change pharmacists and try and chill out a bit. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
