Doctor who prescribes my Xanax and Ambien left practice, have Appt. with new Doctor..

[RaizdByWolvz]

I have been going to my doctor for almost 2 years, every 3 months I go and he wrote me for 60 .5mg Xanax, and 30 10mg Ambien, with 2 refills. I called last week to make my next appointment to go in for my prescriptions and the receptionist informs me that my Doctor is no longer there at the practice but scheduled me an appointment with another Doctor. They have all my files of course showing that I have been prescribed the xanax and Ambien. Should I be worried at all that the new doctor I will be seeing won't want to continue my treatment? I have no history of any early refills and have never asked for a dose increase with them or anything like that, nothing detrimental that would send any red flags for them to not continue with my treatment. The Xanax has absolutely been a godsend with keeping my panic attacks away, and I have awful sleep problems that the Ambien has solved. What do you all think, should I be ok with the new doctor continuing treatment? In the back of my head I worry that if I am discontinued treatment, of the withdrawal that I may face from the discontinuation of the Xanax. Thanks everyone, just want to know what you think on this matter.

 

[aspiringchemist]

All you can do is be honest. No one can say what the new doc will do. However, the changing trend these days is to.down titrate off benzos as quickly as possible. If anything he would go after alprazolam first.

Pretty unprofessional of your doc to leave practice without informing you or providing follow up to new providers, especially if you have a 3 year long working relationship in which you attended appts every 90 days. Sorry man.

There's something called continuity of care which means that a doc is allowed, protected, and in a way obligated to continue the Tx that is working if discontinuation would cause withdrawal syndrome.
best case nothing will change
worst case, you'll be starting your new taper off benzos.

I feel your anxiety and agony, I go through this with pain docs as well as my psychiatrist and i have been on Rx clonazepam for approximatwly 3 years 0.5mg BID. When I first got the script I discovered a new anxiety, anxiety that my anxiety medication would be taken away lol

I have found it best to just be honest. Calmly and politely explain what your symptoms are and why these medications are what work. Have you tried other, less addictive medications? If so, it is good to inform the doc of this as to not waste time. Like in my case, I was a test rat essentially for years and none of the so called "safe" medications made any difference; both pain and psychiatric.

Dress nice for your appointments, people are stupid animals (even doctors!) and something as subtle as looking similar to another will make them feel more comfortable with you

IME, the harder you push, the harder they pull away. Try your best to have a civilized conversation and hope that the doc is capable of doing the same. If you have their name, look em up and see what community members have to say about their methods of care.

if you truly need these medications you could offer to provide urine samples at each refill appt, this will show that you use medication appropriately and that you are not abusing other substances that could interact poorly with alprazolam or zolpidem.

I know this isn't a benzo or z drug but I have found adding a beta blocker (propranolol) into my benzo dose greatly reduces the physiological symptoms of panic, therefore I am able to remain in greater control.

my 2 cents

 

[Gorillaboy21]

That'd be messed up leaving you hanging like that . That's a gamble I play by abusing benzos on the streets , if someone stops getting them or selling them or replying to me it's the same as a doctor leaving you lol.
Let us know what happens , I'm curious .
How much of everything do you take a day?

 

[Keif' Richards]

I'm sorry man, but this isn't the type of thing that we deal with here at Bluelight. We want to be here to support you emotionally and physically throughout the process, but remotely, there's nothing that we can really do for you. Also, and I am not upset or accusing you of anything, but threads with "My Doctor..." tend to reflect badly on the site, as people will read this and instantly assume that we are here to help people milk prescribers. I'm not saying that you're doing this, but please be aware.

You just have to wait and see how the new prescriber handles things.

 

[T. Calderone]

I will leave this open for now because I have a question for you. Do you see a counselor or therapist? Every psych doctor I've been to also encouraged me to be in counseling. This way you're not relying on medications exclusively to get you through.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I will leave this open for now because I have a question for you. Do you see a counselor or therapist? Every psych doctor I've been to also encouraged me to be in counseling. This way you're not relying on medications exclusively to get you through.

Right. I'm in total agreement. I don't want to come off as harsh at all. I feel like there's something in this thread that can help people, I just want to make it clear from the onset that we're not going to be doing any strategizing in regards to your prescriber. Again, I'm not saying that this is what you're after, it's just an important rule here on Bluelight, because we're constantly in a state of defense regarding our principles. We're here to help and not to hurt, despite what many think and I just wanted to get that out there.

 

[RaizdByWolvz]

Hey thanks for all the replies. I'm in no way trying to milk a doctor for meds, I've been diagnosed years back with panic disorder, general anxiety disorder. For years on and off I have been prescribed a Benzo either Alprazolam or Clonazepam. The Doctor i have been seeing for the past 2 years has me on .5 alprazolam BID for panic/anxiety and Zolpidem 10 mg QHS for my struggling sleep. I'll never ask for a dose increase as the amount I have is absolutely sufficient and I dont abuse them by taking more of a dose than what is prescribed. I don't see a therapist, though I would and am open to it other than the fact that right now financially it's very tough for me to add on any more appointments that would cost more money. I believe the doctor who I will be seeing on Wednesday was the one who 1st started me on the Alprazolam before I regularly visited with my Doctor who just left the practice. So since she started me on it and I have been stable at that low dose, I am hoping she will keep me on my prescriptions after looking at my records since they were both at the same practice. I'm not looking to hear what I should or shouldn't say to doctors. I'm stating the facts and keeping hopeful that they will continue me on the same treatment as I have been on for 2 years. Worst case I hope not to happen is for the Doctor to just abruptly stop providing the medications considering I've been a stable patient at their practice for years. I will post back after my Appointment this Wednesday to let you all know how it turns out. Thanks all. Thank you for pointing out the Therapist part, I would gladly go to a Therapist for my anxiety issues along with the medications to get more out of treatment. Just need to find a bit more time and funds.