Yup,
I'll jump on the Dr's are idiots more often than you think train. The reality is the # of prescription drugs have massively increased in the last 0-40 years that even pharmacologists aren't expected to know nearly half of them all. How's a doctor going to know? And while LSD isn't new, why spend time on it when it only gets people killed through behavior accidents only, MUCH MUCH MUCH etc etc more rarely than alcohol. As a new, (but well studied in certain types of pharmacology, cough cough, lol), RN I've seen this first hand multiple times in this last extremely stressful year alone (not working stress, but fighting bureaucracy in an extremely stupid manor (on their side, not mine)). As a new RN I know I know barely anything at this point. But, my previous Doctor and I decided on the BP med Clonidine, that can also be seriously helpful opioid withdrawals just fyi, and for my purpose could be used off label for sleep. And it worked very well for me until he retired 2 years later.
Again, LSD isn't new, still, why would a neurologist study it? It's been known for decades to be extremely safe (even Nixon, creator of the DEA knew this and raised the penalties to lock up "hippies" aka as "liberals," aka his "enemies,") and anyone who comes into the ER freaking out on LSD is just given whatever (benzos, maybe an antipsychotic depending on how bad the freakout) to help them relax, and then are discharged. Anyway, with my previous Dr giving me the clonidine retired. Trying to find a new Dr. I had one scream at me THAT HE WON'T PRESCRIBE BENZOS TO ANYONE! 3 times, each time with me reminding him that I'm asking for Clonidine, not Klonopin. His final screaming was that MY PREVIOUS DR MUST HAVE BEEN AN IDIOT! Funny thing is I'd been to the same clinic a few months before, seeing the Dr's PA, I told him my story, and he just nodded along saying yeah that makes perfect sense, hear's your script...
Another psychiatrist I saw, a drug addiction specialist, which I had brought some graphs and papers with my thoughts for how to taper off a moderate Kratom addiction (I just couldn't do CTs at all, and I couldn't stick to a taper myself, without some sort of backup, or someone making sure I was sticking to plan, or maybe making some suggestions,) he just sat at his computer and when I stood to show him some of my thought and graphs which a high schooler could have understood, he waved me away without looking up from his computer (multiple times.) He'd never heard of Kratom, but wasn't interested in my explanation, instead cutting me off mid-sentence to ask more irrelevant questions. Then 45 minutes into my "hour" long session, he abruptly, stood up and turned to look at me for the first time, and shouted at me to GO TO REHAB! Uhhh, thanks for the help, then he further diagnosed me with autism and borderline personality disorder. First off, I'm pretty good at having a conversation with just about anyone, and reading their emotions and expressing mine when approptiate, sooooo, not autistic at all, no offense to those who are as, there's brilliant autistic people out there, but I don't meet any of the criteria, and BPD? Other than some minor to moderate arguments with my parents that everyone has with their parents when they're teenagers, I've never had a physical or verbal fight with a friend, not even a verbal fight with a girlfriend my entire life. So I laughed, thinking he was making a joke, then slowly realized he was completely incompetent, at his SPECIALTY.
8 months into my bureaucratic nightmare, I was starting to lose it, since every month I was promised the problem with my application, would be fixed in 2-3 weeks, 4 max, but never was. This Doctor was quite nice, I wanted a mild benzo to take at the lowest dose as needed. She wanted to put me on a bullshit anti-depressant, I told her about the horrible effects I'd had from many different kinds I'd tried, the horrible withdrawals I'd experienced from them, tapering at 1/2 the recommended rate, and one time in my first college where I "saved" a friend who was going into an Effexor CT for at least 4 days because of her Doctor going on vacation before she got her next script. Luckily, her housemate, my girlfriend at the time called me, telling that the withdrawals were causing her to basically go psychotic, screaming at her and another housemate, throwing things across the room stuff, cussing wildly throughout the whole night, and asked if I could come help in anyway. Luckily I had Cymbalta, which I never took, which I only had because he wanted to prescribe me Effexor, and I'd told him I'd never take it for that and many other reasons, so he offered me Cymbalta, assuring me that one, I was mistaken that anti-depresents caused any withdrawal, maybe mild discomfort if not tapered (WHAT???), but the Cymbalta should help just the same, I asked if it was another SNRI, and he lied telling me it wasn't, so thankfully I took the script, researched, found out it was a slightly less dangerous version of Effexor essentially, and was also an SNRI I could substitute to get my girlfriend's friend though what would have ended in her being locked in a psychiatric ward otherwise. This was another reason that my new, nice Doctor said she'd give me genetic testing trying to find the best anti-depressant. It was free, and luckily a week later the results were in, as she came in with a shocked look on her face, out of 26 tested anti-depressants, I metabolized none of them correctly, hahaha.
Looking through the test to me it looked "wrong," in that it was making huge leaps between minor enzyme deficiencies or increases between me and the general population. I showed it to my dad, a molecular biologist with 2 drugs to his and his team's name that 30 years later still pull a combined 5 Billion, to his company, not the scientists of course, and his job now is to basically study studies. And he basically said, that it was a great idea and start that could revolutionize how drugs are prescribed, but nothing tested, really showed any type of drug efficacy, saying it was roughly 5% ready for patient use. So, with my, "unheard of results" I was able to talk her into the benzo I wanted, so she's my new Dr, lol.
The RN's and Dr's I (minimally) worked with in the hospital's in nursing school were virtually all on their game, with some gross exceptions, but not many. But everyone has blind areas. I'm an RN who's NEVER INSERTED an IV CATHETER for god sakes. Hopefully I should learn quickly once working, but still, I'm technically allowed to do it according to my credentials. I've done IV's on myself with nnMET and 4-AcO-DMT, half to study (ok 1% to study,) and half for the experience of the chemicals (eh, 99% experience for the experience, lol), still inserting an IV catheter is different than a syringe and needle, and I'd be approaching from a different direction and such.
I guess the point is, everyone has blind spots, even in their own speciality. This is far from 100% accurate, but think of the age of your Dr. and what was known at the time of their schooling. Theres a good chance they haven't updated their knowledge in that area for a while. Anyway, sorry to rant so much, Nursing School was a major eye opener for me, and this year an even bigger eye opener.
Good luck SharedH, benzo addiction is horrible in ways that would take days to write about, while this thread is kind of funny, don't forget to look at your own blind spots and what you need to help yourself, (and yes, this is coming from a total hypocrite who can't kick one of the easiest opioid addictions, but do your best) Peace
