Diagnosed with anxiety but having a hard time getting script benzos

[canadianpeduser]

Hey everyone.

As you can probably tell from my handle, I’m in Canada. Was diagnosed with anxiety 5 or so years ago. And since then it’s been near impossible to get a dr to prescribe me any type of benzo. I feel like I could definitely benefit from them. I don’t like clonazepam as it’s too strong for me and turns me into a zombie. I had a one month script of lorazepam recently but that was from hitting the hospital and I wasn’t given any refills. And Ativan/lorazepam barely works for me. The amount I have to take to notice anything is 4-6 mg at once. So I found diazepam and nitrazepam to work best for me.

Is there a specific type of Dr i should be looking for?

And yes im an addict and I put down street drugs a while back so there is a possibility I might be flagged in the system as an addict. I don’t want to seem like im drug seeking (even though I guess I partially am)- but for medical reasons to have a better quality of life. My anxiety is crippling at times and I have the odd panic attack here and there. It’s tough because I know my pharmaceuticals and when you go into a dr with the attitude like knowing what you need they tend to view it as drug seeking.

It would be heaven to be able to get a script of diazepam as thats what’s worked for me in the past. I have coverage and all that but my only road to getting any real pharma benzos has been to order overseas. I would be grateful if anybody could help me out with how to approach this.

Thanks

 

[Just a little pinprick]

Hey everyone.

As you can probably tell from my handle, I’m in Canada. Was diagnosed with anxiety 5 or so years ago. And since then it’s been near impossible to get a dr to prescribe me any type of benzo. I feel like I could definitely benefit from them. I don’t like clonazepam as it’s too strong for me and turns me into a zombie. I had a one month script of lorazepam recently but that was from hitting the hospital and I wasn’t given any refills. And Ativan/lorazepam barely works for me. The amount I have to take to notice anything is 4-6 mg at once. So I found diazepam and nitrazepam to work best for me.

Is there a specific type of Dr i should be looking for?

And yes im an addict and I put down street drugs a while back so there is a possibility I might be flagged in the system as an addict. I don’t want to seem like im drug seeking (even though I guess I partially am)- but for medical reasons to have a better quality of life. My anxiety is crippling at times and I have the odd panic attack here and there. It’s tough because I know my pharmaceuticals and when you go into a dr with the attitude like knowing what you need they tend to view it as drug seeking.

It would be heaven to be able to get a script of diazepam as thats what’s worked for me in the past. I have coverage and all that but my only road to getting any real pharma benzos has been to order overseas. I would be grateful if anybody could help me out with how to approach this.

Thanks

the doctors who refuse to give you a script are actually doing you a favor, and I’ll leave that right there…

I have a regular doctor that I see and he is not easy to get a script from but I asked him a few times over the years for 2mg Valium’s for some flights I was going to be taking over the next month and I went back and asked him for a refill after a few months I then turned that into coming back every other month for a refill,he would run some test too submit too insurance to add to writing a few scripts and handing me a couple referrals,,unfortunately this is the way things work nowadays,you wash my back and I’ll wash yours

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Like @Just a little pinprick said the drs are caring for you by not giving you what you think you need. They are great for emergency situations (acutely) but long term they actually make your anxiety worse and you need more and more to get relief is my understanding of it. This is NOT an experience I’ve had. But I’ve never taken benzos long term. Not my DOC.

I realize you want these because they do treat anxiety excellently. Few things are better at that BUT long term you are looking at cognitive decline and increased anxiety.

Not to mention the other risks. Other things have side effects but less severe like depending on the type of anxiety it is. Buspirone is great for some PTSD related anxiety. Abilify is too and I usually wouldn’t ever recommend a AP but its side effect profile is light compared to the others. I personally like vraylar but idk about its use for anxiety.

I used to take both buspirone and abilify and worked great but side effects were not worth it for me. My anxiety wasn’t crippling just impactful.

He’ll even gabapentin may help and it’s probably the closest thing to a benzo they may be willing to write. It may cause cognitive decline too but it seems like anything increasing gabapentin can cause that or modulating gabapentin whatever.

If you are dead set on finding a doctor so you don’t get them off the street see a cash doctor if you can. Idk about in Canada but cash only tend to be more lenient in their prescribing sorta speak

 

[canadianpeduser]

Well this is after years of trial and error , been on and off SSRI’s, ive taken gabapentin and lyrica before and they didn’t help. Weed used to help but I don’t bother anymore since it seems to make me very lazy and I can’t think properly. I understand your guys’ sentiment and I can appreciate that but having something on hand especially for the panic attacks i get here and there it makes for a shitty quality of life. I don’t want to be addicted to benzos-ive seen what it can do to somebody. But I’m at a point where it’s getting in the way of my life. Hence why I brought it up here. I’ve tried all kinds of things- and a small script of say 30-60 diazepam per month I’d maybe take half of them if that. It’s something I find I have much more control over than say opiates or even a stimulant script which ive had both of them in the past. And yes I struggled with addiction to fent and coke/meth in my past. I know myself well enough to see when things start becoming unmanageable.

Im also prescribed zopiclone which is pretty close to a benzo but those have stopped helping my anxiety. Im prescribed 15 mg per night and on bad days I’d take half of that during the day and take the remainder of the dose for bed alongside my quetiapine. It helped for sure for a while but I’ve been on them so long now they’ve lost their effectiveness . I sometimes take breaks for a week at a time or so to lower my tolerance. I plan on doing something similar with a benzo. I.e not taking for more than 2-3 days straight at a time as to not develop a psychological and physical dependence

 

[deadhead4lyfe89]

Hey everyone.

As you can probably tell from my handle, I’m in Canada. Was diagnosed with anxiety 5 or so years ago. And since then it’s been near impossible to get a dr to prescribe me any type of benzo. I feel like I could definitely benefit from them. I don’t like clonazepam as it’s too strong for me and turns me into a zombie. I had a one month script of lorazepam recently but that was from hitting the hospital and I wasn’t given any refills. And Ativan/lorazepam barely works for me. The amount I have to take to notice anything is 4-6 mg at once. So I found diazepam and nitrazepam to work best for me.

Is there a specific type of Dr i should be looking for?

And yes im an addict and I put down street drugs a while back so there is a possibility I might be flagged in the system as an addict. I don’t want to seem like im drug seeking (even though I guess I partially am)- but for medical reasons to have a better quality of life. My anxiety is crippling at times and I have the odd panic attack here and there. It’s tough because I know my pharmaceuticals and when you go into a dr with the attitude like knowing what you need they tend to view it as drug seeking.

It would be heaven to be able to get a script of diazepam as thats what’s worked for me in the past. I have coverage and all that but my only road to getting any real pharma benzos has been to order overseas. I would be grateful if anybody could help me out with how to approach this.

Thank

Hey everyone.

As you can probably tell from my handle, I’m in Canada. Was diagnosed with anxiety 5 or so years ago. And since then it’s been near impossible to get a dr to prescribe me any type of benzo. I feel like I could definitely benefit from them. I don’t like clonazepam as it’s too strong for me and turns me into a zombie. I had a one month script of lorazepam recently but that was from hitting the hospital and I wasn’t given any refills. And Ativan/lorazepam barely works for me. The amount I have to take to notice anything is 4-6 mg at once. So I found diazepam and nitrazepam to work best for me.

Is there a specific type of Dr i should be looking for?

And yes im an addict and I put down street drugs a while back so there is a possibility I might be flagged in the system as an addict. I don’t want to seem like im drug seeking (even though I guess I partially am)- but for medical reasons to have a better quality of life. My anxiety is crippling at times and I have the odd panic attack here and there. It’s tough because I know my pharmaceuticals and when you go into a dr with the attitude like knowing what you need they tend to view it as drug seeking.

It would be heaven to be able to get a script of diazepam as thats what’s worked for me in the past. I have coverage and all that but my only road to getting any real pharma benzos has been to order overseas. I would be grateful if anybody could help me out with how to approach this.

Thanks

if you do get put on benzo’s, you should really think about it deeply first.
. I have complex PTSD from trauma abuse as a child-teen, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, agoraphobia. I isolate way too much.there are many times where i don’t leave my house for a really long time or i keep getting stuck isolating.

I was put on clonazepam 12 years ago and it really helped me because my anxiety was and kind of still is ruining my life. It’s debilitating but people need to remember that the benzos are really just a Band-Aid.

.You have to also work in therapy and learn the mental tools for anxiety too Because if you don’t, what might happen is what happened to me. I’ve been on it for 12 years but most of that time I wasn’t in therapy and it was just a Band-Aid and now i have a tolerance and I’m so used to it.now It doesn’t really work very well anymore, it just kind of does and it’s better than nothing BUT now I have to learn all these therapy tools for anxiety/ anxiety disorders which I should’ve learned a long time ago,many years ago

And now sometimes I wish I wasn’t on benzos but getting off them it’s gonna be scary. It kind of sucks being on medication for life in a way. And getting off of them, Some people have seizures and die, but I know that that probably won’t happen being slowly tapered off over time,years I just very highly recommend really think about it before you get on them because getting off them is really scary and the withdrawal is so horrible. Worse than heroin withdrawal.

.if you can try to not take it everyday for years like I was/am prescribed to do. It would be ideal and nice if a doctor was fully understanding and understood the extreme degree of the anxiety disorder and the life ruining agoraphobia and would just prescribe benzos every once in a while and not take them every single day for years.

.also look into gabapentin first it's easier to get and works really well when taken right and you figure out how to do it right and take the dose that your body responds Well too(everyone is a bit different with it) I wish I would’ve tried that first, but there is a downside to it,You build up a huge tolerance super crazy fast.

 

[jasperkent]

the doctors who refuse to give you a script are actually doing you a favo....

Like @Just a little pinprick said the drs are caring for you by not giving you what you think you need....

I agree.
In addition to the dependency issue, benzodiazepines always increase anxiety in the long run.

Avoid 'em.

 

[kosmik87]

Look into "Mirtazapine", helped me.

 

[Dextro .45]

Passion Flower is found at any health suppliment store….in a tincture 60ml glass bottle

Passion Flower has a nearly identical MOA as benzodiazepine drugs, being a GABA-A Aganist / PAM , just like Valium, Xanax, Ativan etc …….on an empty stomach take the glass dropper measured to 1ml and maybe take 2-3 X the dose recommended (after a listed small dose on label to see how your body reacts to it.

Passion flower - acts on benzodiazepine receptors subunits a1/a2 & a3 (anxiolytic properties)
Valerian- effective sedative and mild anxiolytic
Kava kava — Calm & Relaxation on bottle

Best option….go to any walk-in clinic and ask for Clonidine 0.1mg tablets X 30 ….and if you’re lucky, Gabapentin or even better Pregabalin (Lyrica) robust anxiolytic & anticonvulsant properties, used for neurological pain, RLS, anxiety, etc

Clonidine isn’t a controlled substance and is used off label a lot as an anxiolytic agent and sedative. It reduces norepinephrine in the CNS, lowering BP & HR, super fast onset and can easily be mistaken for a benzodiazepine if I gave either Diazepam 10mg or Clonidine 0.1mg tablets to 20 test subjects with panic attacks and severe anxiety and mental / physical tension

Clonidine is Soooooooo freaking effective as a rapid acting anxiolytic

In Canada we’re kinda lucky cause we can obtain any CII online shipped by Canada Post Xpresspost 1 - 3 days to your front door. Only within Canada ensures no legal issues , no customs to clear and get seized etc

Pro-Diazepam (Avizafone)
Pregabalin
Diclazepam (2-chloro Diazepam) synthasized by same chemist who made Valium

…..and genuine Rx benzodiazepines, opioids, GHB, Ketamine, LSD, Psilocybin, Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin, etc

Online shit is sooo sketchy if you don’t know…..some dip shit from China or another country takes payment, substance never shows …..I ain’t sending $500 euro to some Yahoo in Europe fuck that

I have legal scripts for many CII items but benzodiazepines……..

Etizolam & Deschloroetizolam (Etizolam very hard to find now, sucks) had 5,000mg + ten years ago lol
Avizafone (Pro-Diazepam) water soluble, rapid acting pro drug converting to Diazepam (Valium)
Diclazepam > Delorazepam >> Lorazepam (Ativan)

With a good family doctor, you could get a low dose script for a long acting Benzo like Valium 2/5/10mg tablets 15 monthly as needed only when anxiety

 

[Coffeeshroom]

I'm sorry, so a doc not wanting to RX'd you benzo when it can seizures or worse is okay cause they having your future in regard. F'bull. Do bloods and take it from there. Ppl don't know what they ectually allergic too and not and something small that helped for years to control " said or something " your body can build up a tolerance and at the same time an allergic reaction.

So for me l, best is to get bloods done.

 

[Them Witches]

Clonidine is Soooooooo freaking effective as a rapid acting anxiolytic

I have been on Clonidine for 25 years now. Daily I take 0.9mg now. It is effective and always works. Some days, I wait til the evening to take the 0.9mg all at once before bed with Lunesta 3mg. Clonidine is a god-send for me. I take it with Roxi, Methadone, and Ativan to increase all of their effects and jobs they need to do.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For everyone else on this thread, here is some information about Clonidine.

Xylazine is derived from Clonidine. Clonidine is 40 times stronger.

Clonidine causes withdrawals similar of Opioids mixed with Methadone, that lasts 3-4 days. This is why Xylazine adds withdrawal effects when mixed with Fentanyl. All Alpha2 receptor drugs cause withdrawals.

DO NOT, IV Fentanyl after taking a relative strong dose of Clonidine within 24hrs. It is like mixing benzos with opioids and causes overdose.

 

[ageingpartyfiend]

Benzo's - great short term help but in no way a longterm solution (usually the exact opposite of a solution)

Edit - you owe it to yourself to try everything you can to reduce your anxiety before resorting to benzo's mate, and try it properly too because there is no magic pill that will help longterm

Sort diet out (slow release carbs, no sugary nonsense, cut right down on processed food), start a proper mindfulness practice, excercise, practice sleep health, etc. Boring I know. Works though.

 

[4DQSAR]

Look into "Mirtazapine", helped me.

But DO obtain a prescription for it after consulting a doctor.

 

[docpavor]

Sort diet out (slow release carbs, no sugary nonsense, cut right down on processed food), start a proper mindfulness practice, excercise, practice sleep health, etc. Boring I know. Works though.

Just reading this gives me anxiety.
Don't get me wrong, those aren't bad suggestions. But they don't work if boredom is one of the causes for your anxiety.

 

[tryptakid]

Just reading this gives me anxiety.
Don't get me wrong, those aren't bad suggestions. But they don't work if boredom is one of the causes for your anxiety.

Benzos may temporarily ameliorate your dissatisfaction with being bored while leaving the root causes unaddressed and certain to resurface at a later time. It is almost certain that anxiety related to boredom could be addressed by taking proactive steps to be less bored such as increasing human connection, exploring hobbies, taking steps towards improving overall health, engaging in some type of educational training or course of interest, and spending less time online/using devices/seeking social interaction through social media surrogacy. Taking drugs to get rid of all negative emotions isn't sustainable or healthy. When there is an obvious underlying root cause to one's suffering, that provides a great opportunity to overcome the issue and grow stronger.

In therapy, I often try to remind my patients when faced with a difficult solution to improving whatever challenge they're facing that there is a difference between "I can't do this" and "i won't do this". Often, we say "i can't do anything to be less bored" when we really mean "I won't do anything to be less bored". Acknowledging that discrepancy and inherent fallacy is the beginning of taking back control over your own life.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Im an addict & all my healthcare professionals knows this become I'm on Suboxone.

Yet I've had a klonopin script for years & years now.
Doctors are treating benzos like they're hardcore narcotics now a days. It took me about 3 years of convincing my doctor that I needed a benzo. "

What finally did it was coming into their office, full blown anxiety, them checking my blood pressure & realizing I was in like stage 2 hypertension, even with all the clonidine, propranolol & prazosin she had me on. I told her it's my anxiety & that if I don't get help for it, it could give me a heart attack or something. Which was true. My anxiety was always insane when going to my appts.

So she finally agreed & put me on clonazepam. At my next visit, my blood pressure was stable. Which proved my point.

I can take or leave my clonazepam most days. I've had weeks where I've taken them everyday & then stopped & was fine. But I know benzo withdrawals can be disastrous & even deadly.
But I think I'm just an anomaly. I don't really like the way benzos make me feel most of the time, but they really do stop a panic attack in it's tracks.

I did not find taking klonopin long term to increase my anxiety at all. But everyone is different. My mom was on klonopin for 30 years til the day she died.

I think your best bet is to see a doctor, put up with whatever they wanna give you at first. And if it's not working, you'll be able to prove it to them by being anxious at your doctors visits.
And when they see that nothing else is helping, THEN they might be more open to putting you on a benzo. But if you have "addict" on your record, they're most likely going to give you clonazepam, since it's a "less abused" benzo. They aren't gonna go handing out the good ones right away.

Build trust with a doctor, try out what they wanna give you first. Don't try to push the benzo thing too hard at first.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

PS : Coming off clonidine without tapering can actually kill you too.
I think people should have mentioned that as well in this post before suggesting it. It can cause rebound high blood pressure bad enough to give you a stroke.

It can also lower your blood pressure to a point where you faint when you stand up.
But it is an OK sedative.

 

[Coffeeshroom]

PS : Coming off clonidine without tapering can actually kill you too.
I think people should have mentioned that as well in his post before suggesting it. It can cause rebound high blood pressure bad enough to give you a stroke.

It can also lower your blood pressure to a point where you faint when you stand up.
But it is an OK sedative.

Yes this is important as many who fo suggest using Clonidine for wd's to taper at the end but I think the shorter the use, the better..

 

[Señor Moreno]

the doctors who refuse to give you a script are actually doing you a favor, and I’ll leave that right there

More or less agreed. There are situations, like muscle-skeletikal diseases, some sorts of maligne convulsionant conditions and so on, where a benzo is required, cause the nature of those diseases are reason enough to use them long term. The seriousness of that kind of situations worths any potential dangerous complication of long term use of benzos. I mean, your life could turn into a hellish existence with bnz dependence, but in those cases your life already is hell, so long term use of benzos makes sense.
Fighting anxiety and/or insomnia is a different game. As many have said before, benzos can and often do worsen anxiety in the lomg run, just like long term opiate use worsen your primary pain problem cause they cause hyperalgia, your threshold of pain is just lowered as time goes by.
Benzos are similar, they end up making your baseline crippling anxiety even worse, your natural resources or techniques to fight anxiety lose their effectiveness if you rely on benzos as your only anti anxiety response for too long.
Another thing is having a benzo here and there to prevent or revert panic attacks, but because of the very nature of anxiety itself, you won't use it only during real harcore panic attacks, you will be using them every time that you feel that your anxiety is too high, or because you have a bad day, or for social anxiety, job interviews, public talking etc... so that benzo rx you have will allways become a double edged sword.

I don'tknow if I am explaining myself clearly enough as English isn't my first language, but I hope that you (op) can get what I mean.

I didn't read all the thread's post, but probably someone has already pointed you to old antihistaminics like hydroxyzine, betablockers, clonidine and other options that you should try before deciding that benzos are the only thing that can help you

 

[canadianpeduser]

Passion Flower is found at any health suppliment store….in a tincture 60ml glass bottle

Passion Flower has a nearly identical MOA as benzodiazepine drugs, being a GABA-A Aganist / PAM , just like Valium, Xanax, Ativan etc …….on an empty stomach take the glass dropper measured to 1ml and maybe take 2-3 X the dose recommended (after a listed small dose on label to see how your body reacts to it.

Passion flower - acts on benzodiazepine receptors subunits a1/a2 & a3 (anxiolytic properties)
Valerian- effective sedative and mild anxiolytic
Kava kava — Calm & Relaxation on bottle

Best option….go to any walk-in clinic and ask for Clonidine 0.1mg tablets X 30 ….and if you’re lucky, Gabapentin or even better Pregabalin (Lyrica) robust anxiolytic & anticonvulsant properties, used for neurological pain, RLS, anxiety, etc

Clonidine isn’t a controlled substance and is used off label a lot as an anxiolytic agent and sedative. It reduces norepinephrine in the CNS, lowering BP & HR, super fast onset and can easily be mistaken for a benzodiazepine if I gave either Diazepam 10mg or Clonidine 0.1mg tablets to 20 test subjects with panic attacks and severe anxiety and mental / physical tension

Clonidine is Soooooooo freaking effective as a rapid acting anxiolytic

In Canada we’re kinda lucky cause we can obtain any CII online shipped by Canada Post Xpresspost 1 - 3 days to your front door. Only within Canada ensures no legal issues , no customs to clear and get seized etc

Pro-Diazepam (Avizafone)
Pregabalin
Diclazepam (2-chloro Diazepam) synthasized by same chemist who made Valium

…..and genuine Rx benzodiazepines, opioids, GHB, Ketamine, LSD, Psilocybin, Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin, etc

Online shit is sooo sketchy if you don’t know…..some dip shit from China or another country takes payment, substance never shows …..I ain’t sending $500 euro to some Yahoo in Europe fuck that

I have legal scripts for many CII items but benzodiazepines……..

Etizolam & Deschloroetizolam (Etizolam very hard to find now, sucks) had 5,000mg + ten years ago lol
Avizafone (Pro-Diazepam) water soluble, rapid acting pro drug converting to Diazepam (Valium)
Diclazepam > Delorazepam >> Lorazepam (Ativan)

With a good family doctor, you could get a low dose script for a long acting Benzo like Valium 2/5/10mg tablets 15 monthly as needed only when anxiety

I’m prescribed clonidine and I would disagree it works as well as diazepam . I don’t get any anti anxiety from it personally but it does help with blood pressure

 

[4DQSAR]

It's long been accepted that while benzodiazepines were seen as an amazing breakthrough because of their exceptional TIs, they turned out to be just as dependence-forming and addictive as the medicines they supplanted.

If, sixty years ago The Rolling Stones were singing about 'Mother's Little Helper' AKA diazepam, I think it safe to suggest that quite quickly users realized that they were in fact a very bad idea.

Short term (2-4 weeks) is about all you can expect before tolerance sets in and anything about 12 weeks and physical dependence sets in. So now you are just as anxious... moreso in fact, because now not only do the pills not work but you now NEED them.