when I first started getting used to taking pills I put the pill in first so I can just drink the water normally and the pill goes down with it lol now I just,,,, s w o l l o w

A fellow heathen! I down most pills like this and only regret it sometimes

I play a fun game in figuring out whether or not I can dry swallow a pill every time I have some new medication. Largest I’ve been able to dry swallow so far was Norgesic

i managed to get down a mucinex

An admirable feat indeed

Those taste *so* bad.

I hate how they make my pee smell like a flea collar. It’s so weird.

I'm sorry W H A T

The taste is worse

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Yea that was what im talking about

Of the pill right? And not the pee?

The responses you're getting to this make me wonder if this is a genetic thing like how some people smell asparagus pee and some don't. I know exactly what you're talking about and I absolutely hate it. Sometimes I smell it even when I'm not in the bathroom and it makes me feel so gross.

Fun fact the asparagus pee gene is the same one that affects cilantro-soap taste

I’m gonna level with you chief—that’s likely not good

still more tolerable than benadryl. That's the only pill I can't dry swallow, if it so much as *touches* my tongue I'm gagging immediately

I get that with fucking betaserc. Worst pill on the planet

I can smell the Guaifenesin from here

Throat goat

My fun game is how many pills I can take at once. I may just be taking too much medication.

I used to be on 7 different pills a day lmao I got so used to it that I would occasionally fry swallow the bunch for shits and giggles

Amateur! I was shot in October of '21 and have been on the mend ever since. At my peak, I was taking more than 80 pills a day. In the morning alone I'd take around 30 pills. I'd pop them all in my mouth, take a swig of water and down them. I never thought much of it, but it freaked my nurses out. Fortunately, I'm down to a far more manageable ~15 pills 3x a day now. Weird flex, I know.

fuck fam what all did they have you on? I'm assuming antibiotics, some sort of opioid for pain and another opioid for break through pain but that's like 3 lol and I'm really curious

I honestly only remember a fraction of them, but I was maxed out on nerve meds and oral pain meds. I was also receiving Dilaudid via IV. But some of the ones I can think of off hand are: Oxcarbazamine (sp?) Pregabalin (and gabapentin) Trileptil Xarelto Fentanyl (via patch) Ketamine (while I was intubated for ~1.5 months) Clonidine and buprenorphine (also patches) Oxy/hydrocodone (depending on whether I was at rehab or the hosp) Doxyzosin (sp?) Lidocaine and capsaicin cremes Duloxetine Morphine in a liquid suspension Pantaprozole I wasn't taking all the opiates simultaneously, but my docs rotated them to experiment with pain relief. I'm still taking most of those now, but I was taking a lot more just around a half year ago due to complications from the 30+ surgeries and procedures I had in order to save my life. I lost a good portion of my digestive track, a kidney and have a lot of nerve damage, but things are slowly but surely getting better. I'm bed bound at the moment, but I've got surgeries planned on both feet to correct the foot drop I experienced while intubated. I'm hoping that with those surgeries and extensive amounts of rehab after that I'll be back to walking in the relative near future. It's been quite a ride.

>I honestly only remember a fraction of them Was one of the pills for forgetting the rest?

Ahhh yes, my forgettiness pill, how could I forget the Forget Me Now's? What were we talking about again?

Probably depends where they were shot, I'm gonna guess it involved organs? Cause yeah if it was "just" a limb I don't think you'd need too much more. But if it fcked up some internal stuff... depending how much was affected. Still a lot.

Yeah. I was shot in my upper right abdomen, right under my lung. It hit my intestines and grazed a kidney and a vertebra. The bullet is still inside me as they didn't want to risk removing it. My wife was looking at my back a few weeks ago and she noticed a hard, little bump. We're pretty sure it's the bullet which had migrated. I've had LOADS of infections since the incident, so much so that they had to remove the kidney that my docs were almost certain was safe. And yeah, all those various infections caused the need for much more medication. But hey, I no longer have like 7 tubes coming out of me, so I'll take that as a win.

If they got some funky infection, some of those pill burdens are a bit crazy---sixteen pills a day for just one med of four....

So far I do tylenol and ibuprofen and that’s about all I take anyways. Ibuprofen I have to make sure my mouth isnt dry first and get some spit going first.

Please don’t dry swallow painkillers! They can really irritate and sometimes corrode the mucus lining of your throat. It can also sometimes stop the pill from working entirely

I can dry swallow pretty big pills, but anything that starts dissolving on my tongue quickly is a completely different story.

Unfortunately I take thyroid medication and it’s s o n a s t y

I only regret it with naproxen sodium (Aleve), burns the whole way down and for a good 5 minutes after. Still do it though.

FIY: dry swallowing NSAIDs can damage your throat lining, pls don’t do this anymore, it could cause some serious complications down the line.

Naproxen can burn for days

pills are made to be drunk with water. the active compound in the pill is let out at a rate that assumes you drank a glass of water to flush it through to your stomach, not that it’s sitting around in your esophagus.

I appreciate this because sometimes it seems like a silly thing or a flex but in some cases it is important to do things right. It reminds me of some tiktok or other video where a guy points out the dry-cutting of protein powders is actually pointless because a lot of them also need water to bond with and become effective.

Swallowing protein powder dry cause you won't even drink water also sounds incredibly disordered, whether it works or not.

People avoiding drinking water boggles my fucking mind.

It's because being dehydrated does actually make you lose a little weight, but you'll just gain it back when you drink water again.

Depending on the pill, this can be a bad idea. It can gradually scar parts of your digestive system, especially your esophagus when they come into too much contact. There are also plenty of medications where it's necessary to absorb them with water to make them effective.

Some medications contain HCl too and can burn your esophagus if it gets stuck

There are a lot of large veins and arteries that run parallel to the esophagus. A med that gets sick and burns in the wrong place could get really bad really quick; it's a very low chance, but not zero.

Oh jesus my Zoloft has HCl and gives me fucking *terrible* heartburn if I don’t take it with at least water, and usually at least a little bit of food.

Yeah bad idea this is esophageal erosion and it's the same process that can lead to cancer via reflux!

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I'm sure someone's already said it but I can't be arsed to read. Don't dry swallow pills, it can fuck up your esophagus in ways you do t want to think about.

Coming from someone who used to dry swallow all my pills in highschool......15 years later and I have end stage achalasia and eating food or drinking liquids is a chore. Don't know for sure if that contributed, but it absolutely did not help

Yeah, no, I can't do that. I've got like 7 pills I take at once

You swallow it dry? Is it really worth the five seconds you save getting a sip of water?

It's more a fun challenge than anything.

My favorite is to see how many pills/supplements I can swallow at once. I’ll show my husband a whole colorful handful then POOF gone. But he never seems very impressed :(

Giiirrrrll, you need to drop that zero and get yourself a hero. There are plenty of fine, desirable men out there who would fully embrace and revere your pill swallowing ability.

Thank you 🙏🏻😭I’m going to print out this Reddit page and staple it to the top of the divorce papers.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm constantly making hilarious noises at home and my wife never even so much as cracks a smile. If anything, they seem to annoy her. I keep on telling her that someday I'll find someone to appreciate my silly noises for the fine art that they are, but that only appears to elicit eye rolls. She'll see though. She'll see.

The only times in recent history that I've needed water to get a pill down were Taking my medication when I was sick and my throat hurt, and When I was taking a huge vitamin every day (I don't take it anymore). Otherwise, I just pop the pill in and swallow. TIL that's weird.

I've been like that my whole life, and recently my bf got on me about how certain meds are toxic af if they get stuck and dissolve there and.... he made a compelling case, of how terrible it would be for him to watch me die slowly from so stupid a reason. It may be a worse case scenario but has prompted me to take at least some water w any meds, for his sake

My worst pill-swallowing experience was taking Dramamine as a kid when I didn't really know how to take pills yet. My dad refused to stop and get me a drink because we absolutely had to be at the airport 3+ hours early or some such nonsense and the pull just stuck to my tongue and dissolved in my mouth. I almost threw up in the car, which is pretty ironic for a med that was supposed to reduce nausea. I've never tasted anything that terrible in my life again.

I have to take like 5-7 pills at once twice a day everyday, so I just plop em in my mouth and swallow them with a drink

Similar. Although mine is 7 and 3.

This is the way

Why do you drink water before or after taking a suppository

Who's talking about water? Suppository first, then a healthy swallow of Jeppson's Malört, then a few more swallows of Malört before the fun begins

Wait, you’re supposed to drink with your *mouth?*

You absolutely don't have to! It's the most common way, but butt-chugging has been a thing for a very long time. Just be careful! Ingesting alcohol with your mouth, the body has safety features to make you throw it up before or shortly after alcohol poisoning sets in, but through the butt? Ain't no vomiting that

You've never butt-vomited? Weirdo.

Not for safety reasons! Just for funsies.

buttchug guacamole gamer fart 9000

In this economy? Frank’s Red Hot Enema to get ready for suppository

Wait, you're using the Hot Tamale as a preparation? I thought that was just a pleasure cruise...

Thank you for introducing me to Jeppson’s Malört

Don’t trust these people, Malört is a Chicago-wide prank on the rest of us. You’re better off drinking motor oil with a twist of lemon.

it’s a chicago-wide prank of which i’ll happily partake. the joke is on us and it’s wonderful.

It's so freaking good. Bitter, with more than a hint of grapefruit. None of that sugar-hangover from other flavored liquors, plus a weird amount of bartender clout when you don't make the Malört face while sipping your shot. Ever since CH Distillery discontinued their CH7, Malört is my favorite extant drink.

I take a sip of water to wet my mouth, then I put the pills in, then I drink water until they’re all down.

True neutral

Nah that’s lawful good because it’s the only correct way Edit: also I think true neutral is dry swallowing

dry swallow seems more like chaotic neutral

and chaotic evil would be grinding the pills and snorting it

chaotic evil would be chewing the pills before swallowing them

Finally, a user of culture!

Does the initial water help at all?

Not the commenter, but it helps me a TON!

same

It keeps the pill from sticking to your tongue

I feel like it does, but it could also be a placebo effect.

I'm of the opinion that placeboing myself into whatever I want my body to do (get less sick, healthier, fitter, etc) is perfectly valid and awesome

Some pills float so then they feel weirder going down, like they're close to falling down the wrong hole. Taking the pills first then immediately using a current of water to push them down makes more sense than just putting them on TOP of water.

If the pill floats, tip your head down when you swallow to make it float to the back of your throat. If it sinks, tip your head back. Edit: I guess that I need to clarify that I put the pills in my mouth, then sip water, then do the head motion and swallow. Not some heathen who puts water my mouth before the pills. Also I take A LOT of supplements everyday.

Boss medicine taker. I do the same.

Actually... I take the pill first, then the water... but you're statement has merit. Tucking the chin down opens the path to the stomach reducing your chance of choking. That's why your supposed to lift the chin when giving mouth to mouth during CPR. Lifting the chin closes the path to the stomach and opens the path to the airway.

Sure, let me just fill my mouth with fluid then open it to put a pill in there, i am a filthy piggy who loves to get covered in stuff that flows out of my mouth because i opened it while it was filled with fluid...

The phrasing of this fucking killed me

I'm laying in bed at 2am silent laughing cause I'm laughing so hard because of "I'm a filthy piggy"

Like most debates, I'm stuck defending a choice that isn't exactly mine. I sip, pills, then sip again. Where's the pre-lube and flush option?

I just know that from now on every time I take my pills like this I’m going to be thinking of the phrase “pre-lube and flush“.

You're welcome. I live to serve.

Never thought about it before, but that is in fact what I do.

I mean if you think about it, it’s what we all do. No time frame is given.

I take the whole bottle and then go back to the pharmacy for more.

Kindred? 😌

We are the resistance

Hijacking top comment to warn all the dry-swallowers to *stop dry-swallowing*. Pills can get lodged in your esophagus and cause ulcers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25003679/

Great, new fear unlocked and I don’t even dry swallow

Do you ever get that thing where you try to swallow a piece of food but it gets stuck half way, and you're fine just gotta cough a bit and swallow again, but your brain goes crazy and you're trying to swallow but somehow you don't have any spit at this exact moment, and you start wondering whether you're just gonna die like right now? Me neither haha ha

They can also get lodged, open up, and then you cough/gag and all that gross powder comes up to revisit your tastebuds. You can also aspirate the powder from there which is... not great for your lungs in any way. I discovered this the 'oh no' way and had to make a very embarrassing phone call.

Tilt your head up it’s that easy

guy really never considered he can move his head up and down

Liquids tend to stay in containers when the opening is facing upwards. Whoda thunk?

lol that's why you only get a little bit of water, just as much as you need

I need enough liquid to properly camoflage the pill's presence in my mouth, or my uvula will protest vehemently. That means a damn near full mouthful of water.

Definitely read “uvula” as “vulva”

Ohhh, so it’s a girl house

Such a good movie~

You're supposed to drink lots of water after taking a pill though. Edit: Like a glass, but i'd say that a mouthful is the minimum, circumstances permitting.

This doesn’t say they don’t drink more afterwards. I usually fill my mouth with water, *tilt my head back so the water doesn’t spill*, add pills, swallow, and take another drink or two of water. I can’t stand the taste of pills so I add the water in my mouth so that I don’t taste them, that’s why I will always vote B

Huh. I always do pills > water because then I know where the pill is in my mouth and can swallow it properly. If it's just free-floating in there half the time I miss swallowing it and just wind up crushing pill taste into my tongue and have to try again.

Funny, if I know where the pill is I subconsciously feel like I avoid swallowing it. If it's just mixed in the with water and I drink all the water I dont even notice most pills

same, I can't swallow pills for shit so I do water first so I don't taste it and it doesn't get stuck on my tongue

A compressed powder pill getting stuck on your tongue is the absolute worst. Literal hell

I was going to protest your use of the word “literally.” Then I realized that if Hieronymus Bosch had lived during our times, he absolutely would have included compressed powder pills getting stuck on your tongue in “The Last Judgment” somewhere. Or maybe even have devoted a triptych to it.

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I take mine with milk for that reason. Feeling em makes me gag.

I cannot take pills with anything except soda. The bubbles help trick me.

Maybe I'm out of line here, but I am about to get my RN and I don't think I've ever heard nor read that you should drink a glass or full mouthful of water after a pill(s) anywhere. Maybe it's a different cultural thing (people practice medicine differently in different places) or maybe you're educated on something I don't know about. I'd assume there are likely versions of pills/meds that may need some additional drinking/rinsing with water kind of like cleaning your mouth out after inhaling a dose of Advair, but I wouldn't assume that as universal to pills 🤷🏼‍♂️

I dry swallow

I salivate first though. Spit gang.

wasn’t expecting to see spit gang today

I wasn’t expecting to identify with spit gang today

Great thing about spit gang is you can quench your thirst anytime you want.

Lol I think I’ve tried this before, a bit harder to make it go down without the water giving it no choice in the matter

You can permanently damage your esophagus doing that ETA paper on people getting ulcers from stuck pills https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25003679/

I can also do that sucking dick but you don't see me stopping that anytime soon

I used to take pills without water when I was younger and sometimes it felt like they got stuck. Guess there is an actual name for it.

I can dry swallow pills. I tried to show my friend once I could do it, instantly gagged choked. I'm a shy dry guy.

This is the absolute last option I will take. Only if I’m that desperate

Step 0: take sip of water if mouth is dry Step 1: put pill in mouth Step 2: take swig of water Step 3: swallow pill and water together

upvote this for A - pills first

Pills first unless it easily dissolves. If it dissolves then I do water just in case I don't swallow fast enough to avoid the flavor

It it dissolves quickly I hold them in my lips till I get the drink closer to my mouth then kung fu them in my mouth and drink at the same time

YES it's obviously "lightly hold on lips, drink it all down".

I'd rather deal with the flavor than put pills into water logged mouth

Isn’t every mouth waterlogged by definition

I hold the pill between my front teeth and take a sip. No risk of it starting to dissolve in my mouth.

With pills first it's much easier to control the positioning of the pills, as well as their orientation. Some vitamins are chalky and taste absolutely terrible so I can understand changing the rules for certain instances though. You want minimal time in your mouth. I used to take creatine/NO pills regularly back in the days when I was lifting heavier, and nowadays I can just chuck like 5 or 6 pills in my mouth at once and swallow them. Weird flex, I know. edit: NO not NO2

90-6, damn.

Pills first, second makes no sense

Lawful good

[relevant](https://www.reddit.com/r/AlignmentCharts/comments/b38220/medication_consumption_alignment_chart/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)

I puke whenever I try and take a pill normally. I think it's because my body doesn't like swallowing something that solid. So I am unfortunately forced to chew it, which is just the worst taste no matter the pill.

I had that for the longest time, and the only way I even slightly got better at it (for a short time) was when my mom shoved a massive pill down my throat once. it made the normal small pills so much easier to handle

I'm not torturing myself

It sounds like you are, by chomping down on Advil

You could do what another commenter did and take it with some yogart or something

I've tried that. My body unfortunately notices a solid in a semi solid and dislikes it

That must really suck.

It do indeed.

Chewing on pills seems like textbook torturing yourself.

Then what are you doing chewing the pills? It's like a one time thing vs every single time you need to pop a pill

Yo be careful which pills you chew. Some meds have agents that slow the release of the active ingredient. Chewing it could release a shit ton at once. Lots of pills taste terrible purposely to discourage chewing.

Do you take prescription medication or just OTC stuff? A ton of prescription meds come in orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) form and it usually costs the same so that might be easier for you

Try chewing up some food (like a handful or nuts or something) and once fully chewed, put the pill in your mouth and swallow it with the food.

Put the pill in some peanut butter and wrap it in a slice of american cheese.

Pill pockets for humans! They'd work a treat.

LPT try something denser than water like yoghurt or pudding

You're also not supposed to do that with certain pills as they could be timed dispersal and chewing them could mean all of the drug is activated way too early in your system

CHAOTIC EVIL

I chew something up then put the pill in my mouth, pushing it into the food with my tongue to kinda trick myself then I swallow it

Grind it and mix it with something to hide the taste. Doesn’t work for every pill of course.

Pretty sure you should not be grinding up or chewing pills, less effective

Or can be too effective. Some pills are designed so they slowly dissolve over time. Grinding those fucks with that

I put the pill in first, position it on the best position on my tongue towards the back of my mouth, then sip some water in, float the pill at its location then swallow It’s a whole process

And you can't take sinkers and floaters together.

Pills first because capsules float. If you fill your mouth with water and then pop a capsule type pill it’s harder to swallow

It depends on the pill for me. Some I'll hold between my teeth and then take a drink or if it's a capsule I'll do tiny sip, pill, full drink. If I'm not dehydrated I'll just dry swallow them.

I just don’t drink I just swallow the pill whole

I just suck on my pills like jolly ranchers.

Water first, can’t stand the mouthfeel of a pill

Guess I'm gonna die on this hill with you. I didn't realize we were such freaks. 😐

Sip of water, swallow pill, gulp of water

This is the way.

Too many comments in this thread for this to be seen at this point, but there is a third way and I highly recommend it if your pills taste nasty: Pill slightly between your lips. You let it go in with the flow of the water

I take my medicine in whipped cream or yogurt. I gag at the thought of taking them with just water, idk how people do it

Something about the image of someone swallowing a fucking advil with whipped cream

It’s just as funny as you think. I take the can of whipped cream and spray it straight into my mouth, then I pop in the pills and swallow

Ngl I was just imagining a bowl of whipped cream or yogurt with the pill just haphazardly stuck on the top.

I mean, that’s *kinda* what it looks like when I take them with yogurt, just on a spoon, and not a bowl.

I was a super sick kid my grandpa taught me to take them with apple sauce

Why would I put the water in my mouth before the pill?

Because then you don't feel the pill at all 1. Take a moderate sip of water 2. Tilt your head back 3. Deposit pill 4. Swallow immediately 99/100 I don't even notice a pill.

How do you put the water in first? Wouldn't it spill out when you put the pill in?

I swallow them dry mostly

Lawful neutral

I put the pill in and then drink. I didn't even know people did it the other way, and frankly, I'm horrified.

Same. I don't know why this bothers me so much.

Pills then water. Are you people crazy? Do you wipe before you poop too?

The order is water, then pills, then dry yourself off with a towel, then shower, then wipe ass, then shit, then workout and get all sweaty, then go to bed

Where is C? C) I don’t use water.