Self medication can also be known as do-it yourself medication. It can be known as an act of medicating yourself without the prescription of a doctor or following the rules of a professional. I know so many people do this especially people like me here in Nigeria. I’m only speaking for Nigerians on this because this is where I live and I know how we do our things right here.
Why do people engage in self medication?
I think one of the major reasons why we engage in self medication is because a lot of us may not have enough money to see the doctor and even if they eventually see the doctor, they may not have the money to get the medicines that has been prescribed to them.
Unfortunately, a lot of people do not have limits to these things. They don’t know when to stop self medication and it can be very bad.
Source
Self medication can be very good because it serves as a means of first aid but at the same time, it can be very dangerous so have to be careful of the rate at which we engage in self medication.
At what point does self medication become dangerous or risky?
This is self explanatory and I don’t really think anyone needs to tell us about this. If you are the observant type, you will see on medicines that if the symptoms persist after three days, we should see the doctor and it is as simple as that.
I’ve seen an instance where a lady was having malaria symptoms and she started to take malaria pills everyday.
The medicine got exhausted but instead of her to go see the doctor, she kept on taking it hoping that she will feel better but unfortunately, she unknowingly had a miscarriage and that was when she knew she was carrying a baby.
Even though she was never ready to have a baby, it’s a huge loss and also imagine how much money she spent to treat herself just because of the wrong medication she took. It may be anyone so we have to be careful of self medication.
Just take a look at that huge loss. If you engage in self medication and you found out that you’re not getting any better, go to see the doctor. That’s where test can be carried out to know what exactly is wrong with you.
Little ailments that we overlook can take ones life and we all have just one life to live so it’s better to see a doctor after three days of taking medicines and not experiencing any change.
Source
No matter how broke we can be, when it comes to our health, we should never manage money or resources because it may cost our lives and you only live once.
If we’re alive, we can even make a hundred times of the money we are trying to manage so taking care of our health should be our priority at all times.