I have a fent patch saved for such an emergency, like if i every need to go to the ER. No way in hell i'm trusting the ER to treat my pain if I get hit by a car...i'll handle the pain treatment, they can just make sure i don't bleed to death or something.
I know I don't have comparable issues, but I just want to rant about how that's what psychiatry is becoming. It's gonna be long because I'm ironically hypomanic at the moment up for 3 days, but it's been a long time coming for me to tell some of these stories.
I have BPD. For a long time it went undiagnosed and wrought havoc, because my family didn't believe in mental illness or psychology (I was just a bad person). From both a harm reduction and basic human perspective, I was failed very early on. This led to a colorful career of drug use when the disorder started to manifest. It began with self-medicating with weed and pills and then graduated to a 4 year opioid addiction.
I went to rehab and enjoyed therapy and had a lot of meaningful discussions, but the issue I have is with the psychiatrists I've seen. The counselors get a pass because they helped me improve in so many aspects of life. I've seen 2 psychs: one in rehab and a regular one after the readjustment period. I saw the rehab psych maybe 3 times, 5 minutes each time. As my PAWS was fading I was seeing the regular psych. This dude let me suffer for 6 months. The medications he pushed ruined my mind and body. My AD made me more emotionally unstable, took my appetite, sex drive, and exacerbated my already severe insomnia. Mood stabilizer didn't dampen my profoundly destructive manic behavior. I was so anxious I had a stutter and couldn't make eye contact. The absolute closest thing I got to an effective sedative/stabilizer/anxiolytic (sp) was a non-narcotic sleeping pill that cost me $400 a refill.
I made it known every visit that I felt unimaginably terrible. A former substance abuser with a difficult mental disorder complaining about not receiving desired treatment raises a lot of flags I'm sure. It's cause and effect though. The substance abuse was an unfortunate effect of a fucked up family life and a disorder known for causing substance abuse. I've been able to stay clean for long periods of time despite the shit I was going through. Had access to abusable drugs the whole time too.
Think about it: your choices are a cheap schedule IV benzo that works flawlessly with a small dependence issue, and one that *might* work, while simultaneously making other things worse, ALSO with a horrible dependence issue.
Which do you think would give you the better quality of life? Shouldn't that be the main goal of medicine?