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The ritual of taking medications: the pill wheel

Fery Pashang, PharmD
Meds
August 21, 2021
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Woodworking / Illustration

The problem with the act of taking medications is that it’s so mundane that we don’t see any problem with it.

This machine-cut, flat, unemotional, same-size-fits-all object that we defencelessly welcome in our very private body has a role. Medications occupy our existence by interlocking with our cells and taking control of our body, fighting, provoking, sedating, and changing the music inside our body. Yet, what does this mean to a patient, and how the patient views routine drug taking? The ritual of taking medications to reach the “wellness utopia” has been replaced by the mundane act of repeatedly “popping a pill” while ignoring the unique and complex experiences and events that take place by doing this act.

Fery Pashang is a pharmacist and medical artist. She can be reached on Instagram @artidotedesign.

Image credit: Fery Pashang

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