Do people use too many prescription drugs?

I take too many, but I take far fewer now than I did at one point. There was one point in my life (and I am only 28) that I was taking about 15 pills in the morning and around 18 at night. Some were duplicates and triplicates of the same medicine because of dosages, but still, it was a lot. To further complicate things, because of medication side affects (effects - always confuse the two), I had to resign from my job, move back home to live with my parents, and give up a lot of hopes and dreams in January. Should this have happened? I'm not sure. It probably wasn't the "only" reason I got sick, but it sure was one of the largest problems that we've been able to pinpoint thus far. Did the medication (in this case prednisone and possible imuran) take care of the problem at that time? Yes, they did and without them, I don't know what I would have done. Unfortunately, my situation, which I'm sure is not the only one out there, snowballed probably starting sometime in my youth with some sort of lung infection or something lung related that never cleared up. It then, many years later caused a skin disorder that was never controlled until it got way out of hand and years of steroid treatments and a final lengthy treatment of prednisone coupled with imuran began to weaken my body farther and farther. Continued stress that I put on myself and from my work environment made my situation worse and when I finally moved to a new job that I enjoyed in an area I couldn't afford and didn't feel safe in, that was the straw that broke the camels back. My adrenals couldn't handle all of the stress and were forcing my poor kidneys to try and handle all of the energy tasks for my body (qi wise). I learned so much from the first acupuncturist I saw. I learned about myself and about some of the theories behind eastern and western medicine. In eastern medicine, you work to learn your body and practitioners help you keep it in shape by maintaining it and making adjustments as needed. In western medicine, we wait until things break to get them treated, often missing important warning signs. So then many of the underlying causes dont' get treated and medicines don't work because they aren't treating the root of the problem. It's all very interesting and I am still very interested in learning more. I can't wait until I go for my next acupuncture treatment. That is my best medicine and my best hope to get off ALL of my medicines for good. That and the knowledge I hope to gain from studying eastern medicine.

I think we do take too much medicine wether its over the counter or prescription. I have been on medicines for moNths and was getting tired of taking them. I am getting better and feeling better so now it seems like the end result is worthwhile. I just think we will all have side effects from alot of them some worse then others.If you dont have to take pills then the best thing is dont.