Good alternative script for anxiety/racing mind instead of a benzo

[Jnowhere]

I went ape shit almost, after being shorted on a med, not the really important ones but still. They treated me like garbage; and at first I was very polite. Switched to a small pharmacy, they even gave me narcan twice, free.

Also a big pharmacy; how they treated my dad when he was sick and dying like shit. They almost found out how bad my temper can be.

The cops once got involved but did nothing but bitch, sent like 4 cop cars and we were unarmed. This was during Covid and they, at a fast food drive thru, they messed up an order; a puny little punk called my dad something bad and very disrespectful. I went ape shit and they saw it my eyes. Boy, can I bring the drama. Not proud but we did get our money back. Not, something I should have done.

But, cough a lot during Covid and the cops will only, bitch; not for that, but for interrupting him. Big angry marine type, the belligerent ones that get fired and brought up on charges type, a real asshole, unlike the others, actually.


They( at the fast food place) locked the doors and called the cops. There were at least a half dozen employees, and no threats or weapons involved, and no obscenities by me and they locked the doors and the lard ass manager and those punks their knew I wasn't playing and like little wusses got really scared. They knew It was go time. I shouldn't have been like that, but I was very protective of my dad. That wasn't right but people today can be such assholes. Please excuse my language.
My dad wasn't mad at me, at all.

My dad got banned from a big pharmacy for complaining, he was a senior citizen and noticeably smaller than me. They screwed up his meds.

He also made a harmless coment and It got him banned from another and I got him and myself out before I lost it and it became go time, in a real bad way. Ready to take them all on. I was healthier and bigger then, I have had health issues more so lately.

I kept my bad behavior in check, but I was really disgusted at their's. Never mess with someone, at the time, who doesn't give a shit about the consequences. I got us out.

But I behaved myself before I lost it and did anything. I can control myself, now. I am glad I kept my cool.

 

[Jnowhere]

Oh, I literally could not agree more about the research thing! I'll spend HOURS thoroughly researching as much as I can bout ANYTHING before putting it into my body.
Some of those side-effects (like tardive dyskinesia or akathisia) are certainly terrifying. I'm not overly concerned about getting them myself because I take such a low dose and also infrequently, but I have made sure the people I live with let me know immediately if I start making any tardive dyskinesia movements (I demonstrated myself what they typically look like and showed them some videos online of it).

I'm technically a type 3C diabetic but I just tell people type 1 because NOBODY knows what type 3c is and they're extremely similar.
Basically, type 1 is an auto-immune disease where the immune system attacks the healthy insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, eventually destroying them all and leaving the person unable to make any insulin. Type 3c is caused by pancreatic failure (in my case caused my pancreatitis) where the whole pancreas is destroyed, leading to the same end result as type 1. There's a couple differences. type 3c is "worse" than type 1 since the entire pancreas is destroyed rather than just the beta-cells, so I also need to take a med called Creon for PERT (Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Treatment) as the pancreas is also responsible for various digestive enzymes. Hypo's are more dangerous, too, as normally when your blood sugar gets very low the pancreas sends messages to the liver to release emergency stores of glycogen which provides a sort-of safety net, but mine cannot do that.

I hope you know I meant the seroquel

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I hope you know I meant the seroquel

I assume you just meant all antipsychotics, generally.

 

[Flynnal]

You need to understand what, at the end of the day, drives decision making for politicians and the vast majority of the medical industry. It is not your well being, it is money and power.

Which is why having access to a massive dose of barbiturates comes in pretty handy. That way one need not have to deal with feeling powerless and abused.

 

[Psynaught]

Sorry to hear that!
Were you okay on those couple days you had none?

Fortunately, I live in the UK so have never had the ran-out problem as on the rare occasions my pharmacy IS out, they give you this print-out thing so you can take it to any other pharmacy and get it filled there instead.
I DEFINITELY agree about mom 'n' pop pharmacies being better. I moved to a smaller pharmacy (from one in the equivalent of a Wallgreens) and the customer service is VASTLY different. Nothing is a problem and they really go out of their way to help. Once - due to a fuck up by my doctor (so it wasn't even the pharmacies fault) - I had zero morphine for two days and was really suffering. The pharmacy closes at 5:30pm and when my doctor FINALLY sent them my script he said he couldn't do it until 6pm. Any normal pharmacy would have been like "we'll be closed then, you'll have to wait until tomorrow) but not only did the pharmacist stay open until 6pm just for me, but he personally drove to my home after work to deliver the meds to me*

*I have mobility issues and cannot physically get to the pharmacy myself.

Fortunately I had a back up supply I got from a previous doc. She was so bad she was brought up in front of the medical board on charges. In all the chaos I was able to keep an extra 2 week supply which I always have as a back up. I try and keep a back up supply of all drugs.

 

[Psynaught]

Which is why having access to a massive dose of barbiturates comes in pretty handy. That way one need not have to deal with feeling powerless and abused.

Yeah, the inability to get pain drugs is why I bought a pretty huge supply of back up pain meds. I have Tramadol (which I have had so long it is about to expire) Oxy and a bunch of Fentanyl I bought by mistake.

 

[daturetard]

They're definitely not the same thing (METHamphetamine vs a mix of Amphetamine Sulphate and DEXamphetamine) but they are very similar.

I realize that they're very closely related but I could look at structure and say 'Loperamide; AKA FENTANYL' going all the way down to 'melatonin; aka DMT'. I get this is a comparison fallacy, but all of these mild alterations to chemical structure cause massive differences in pharmacology. Meth is closer to amphetamine than these two, a better comparison would be 'Khat; aka Bathsalts'. Anybody who has taken Khat knows this to be far off as anybody who has taken meth and Adderall knows the comparison between them being overexagerated/plain false.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

You need to understand what, at the end of the day, drives decision making for politicians and the vast majority of the medical industry. It is not your well being, it is money and power.

You think I haven't known this for years?

Ironically, they'd make more money & have more users of their drugs if they loosened the restrictions on them.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Clonidine (Catapres) is absolutely under-utilized in psychiatry. I really feel that a lot of people who start taking Benzodiazepines could get the relief they're looking for from this medication.

I look at Benzodiazepines as "doing the work for you". You take the pill and it fixes the problem. Clonidine is a great mid-point. It is a drug primarily used to treat hypertension aka high blood pressure. Hyper-tension is a telling phrase. When you have high blood pressure, you feel tense, keyed up, nervous, jittery, likewise our response to stress or danger as in our "fight or flight" reflex triggers an increase in blood pressure and heart rate.

When you take Clonidine, it seriously lowers that tension. This feeling leads to a psychosomatic feedback loop in which your body is telling your mind that it's relaxed and this in turn allows you to better navigate stressful situations.

My experiences with stress/anxiety are pretty typical I think. My heart starts pounding, my chest tightens, my muscles get tense. I then rapidly cycle between my mental stress and then noticing my physical stress and this sends me into a tailspin that is difficult to get out of. Clonidine can be a great way of eliminating one part of this feedback loop.

Seriously, I believe a very large proportion of folks who get started on Benzodiazepines could find success with Clonidine. It really has no addictive liability. It would be in the same territory as like, sedating antihistamines like Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) - there are people who abuse Diphenhydramine, but it's not considered normal for someone to want to do so.

I was prescribed Clonidine for the first time over a decade ago during a detox. I've used Clonidine for that entire decade with success and really no negative consequences at all. I don't take it every day. If I'm having trouble getting to sleep, I might take some. If I'm having an especially stressful moment, I can take some and it really helps.

Even if you find yourself taking it every day, it's not a big deal. If you have to stop taking it, you just need to taper yourself off over the course of a week or two to avoid rebound tension. Anyway, Clonidine is amazing if we're looking purely at a cost-to-benefit ratio for an anxiety drug.

 

[marcoman]

Clonidine may be a good option for me...as my B/P is often a bit on the high side anyway. I may ask my weirdo doc who cut me off my benzos.