Mental Health Overprescribing Practices by Physicians

MoreFeens4Morphine

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
243
Location
Springfield, IL
I know these doctors do exist. The only problem is I don't see how it's as big of an epidemic as my country (USA) makes it seem. I'm 20 years old and suffer from incredibly severe chronic anxiety - I'm talking at minimum 3-5 major panic attacks a day. I was on klonopin and zoloft for a few months until my psychiatrists practice got bought out by a major hospital. They immediately cut me off without even so much as a taper, the nurse practitioner told me I was on such a small amount a taper was unnecessary - are you fucking kidding me? (prescribed 1-2mg daily but often needed more). It has been since September of 2013 since I've had any kind of benzo prescribed and I've seen three different psychiatrists! I'm wondering if the reason doctors are so scared to give me medication I need to live a functional life is due to my young age. It seems once your 35-40 all you need to do is go to a pain management clinic tell them you can't walk and they give you whatever you want (hyperbole, but you get my point). I'm not one of those people who go doctor shopping like that, because it's people like them who put people like me in such a difficult circumstance but I don't know where to turn. I have no way to buy benzos off the street, hell I have a hard enough time finding a decent weed dealer - speaking of which I don't even really smoke much marijuana anymore because it induces so much anxiety. What has been your guys experiences? I read posts on here all the time with people who have absolutely ludicrous amounts of prescriptions and I just don't understand it. Does anyone have any suggestions for anxiety? I've exhausted all options at this point, and am ready to check myself into a fucken mental hospital because I can't take my anxiety anymore.

Previously Attempted Solutions That Were Not Benzos that Doctor's Gave Me
1. Buspar
2. Celexa
3. Paxil
4. Zoloft (worked well with the klonopin but nothing on it's own)
5. Pristiq
6. Wellbutrin
7. Lexapro
Previously Attempted Solutions I Have Tried Myself
1. Breathing Exercises
2. Herbal Remedies
3. LOTS of chamomile tea

Thanks for any and all input from this great community,

-MF4M

Note: I am not seeking a doctor who overprescribes, just a doctor who understands how damaging anxiety can be to a functional life. Please do not get the wrong idea about me.
 
Hey, Benzo's will fix your anxiety SHORT TERM but long term just make it so worse. When i ran out of diazepam the panic attacks i was having in public sucked balls.

Try getting GABA supplements do your research it might work for you
 
Ok i guess i will have to research those. Thanks for your input as opposed to giving me a robotic response from a moderator who isnt capable of understanding what their duties are.
 
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Most people on here are even more pretentious than opiophile, you need to realize this.
I know these doctors do exist. The only problem is I don't see how it's as big of an epidemic as my country (USA) makes it seem. I'm 20 years old and suffer from incredibly severe chronic anxiety - I'm talking at minimum 3-5 major panic attacks a day. I was on klonopin and zoloft for a few months until my psychiatrists practice got bought out by a major hospital. They immediately cut me off without even so much as a taper, the nurse practitioner told me I was on such a small amount a taper was unnecessary - are you fucking kidding me? (prescribed 1-2mg daily but often needed more). It has been since September of 2013 since I've had any kind of benzo prescribed and I've seen three different psychiatrists! I'm wondering if the reason doctors are so scared to give me medication I need to live a functional life is due to my young age. It seems once your 35-40 all you need to do is go to a pain management clinic tell them you can't walk and they give you whatever you want (hyperbole, but you get my point). I'm not one of those people who go doctor shopping like that, because it's people like them who put people like me in such a difficult circumstance but I don't know where to turn. I have no way to buy benzos off the street, hell I have a hard enough time finding a decent weed dealer - speaking of which I don't even really smoke much marijuana anymore because it induces so much anxiety. What has been your guys experiences? I read posts on here all the time with people who have absolutely ludicrous amounts of prescriptions and I just don't understand it. Does anyone have any suggestions for anxiety? I've exhausted all options at this point, and am ready to check myself into a fucken mental hospital because I can't take my anxiety anymore.

Previously Attempted Solutions That Were Not Benzos that Doctor's Gave Me
1. Buspar
2. Celexa
3. Paxil
4. Zoloft (worked well with the klonopin but nothing on it's own)
5. Pristiq
6. Wellbutrin
7. Lexapro
Previously Attempted Solutions I Have Tried Myself
1. Breathing Exercises
2. Herbal Remedies
3. LOTS of chamomile tea

Thanks for any and all input from this great community,

-MF4M

Note: I am not seeking a doctor who overprescribes, just a doctor who understands how damaging anxiety can be to a functional life. Please do not get the wrong idea about me.

How about instaead of researching drugs to cure panic attacks, you research panic attacks and figure out why you're getting them in the first place? Maybe they are signals, telling you something you ought to know.
 
Nothing at all worked for my anxiety until I was finally prescribed sodium valproate, and that pretty much eliminated it. I could actually think clearly and steadily in just about any situation, with the only side effect being increased appetite.

So finally the anxiety which was ruining my ability to do what I wanted in life, simply vanished :D

In my personal opinion, don't bother with any SSRIs/SNRIs, as I never got the slightest anxiolytic effect at all from them. Also I wouldn't go relying on benzos as that's just a recipe for addiction.
 
Can you elaborate on precisely what makes you anxious, or can we identify any common factors precipitating your anxiety?

There are many, many ways to approach this issue; you can take it from me 8( However, it's difficult to narrow down the scope at all without having some context!

Be well :)

~ Vaya
 
Express anecdotes as anecdotes, not advice - SSRIs are effective at treating anxiety for lots of people.

Oh sorry, yeah that's why I said "in my personal opinion". Everyone's neurochemistry is different. I've just found that if someone wants to tackle a really intense anxiety problem which they were born with, it's not unusual to have to explore some relatively unconventional options, when all else fails. Hence my recommendation of sodium valproate (an anti-epileptic, bipolar medication) which literally stops one's mind from racing, thoughts become steady, clear, settled, and effectively renders the person anxiety-free. It's been a great help for me, so maybe it could be for others.
 
Have you tried just going to a GP and asking to be put back on the benzos? family docks, internists, and other more generalized physicians prescribe this stuff to their patients all the time.

Also if you are in the states you can, by law, request and receive your medical records, this will allow you to explore what these doctors have been thinking.. often times they are right on but many times they are outta their minds.. I remember when I went back and read thousands of pages of mine.. you should have seen some of the nonsense in their.. once when I was at the ER to get fluids they asked me if I was thinking or planning on killing myself.. I said no not at all.. the nurse must have checked the wrong box which explained why I was transferred to a locked room ware I awaited a mental health specialist, who came in and said. So I hear you want to kill yourself.. I said actually no when I got here I had no intention of killing myself and was here because I was throwing up every half hour but since I have had to wait with no medication for you to come talk to me because of an error made by hospital staff I have now added the possibility to my options.. then in case she was dull I told her that was all in jest.. but still to this day everytime I go to a medical provider associated with that hospital the first question they always ask.. oh the second question as the first is always do you have insurance or translated how you going to pay for all this expensive shit and how much can we run the tab up to on you.. but the second thing they ask is if I want to kill myself.

Sorry it was a bit of a rant there but the point is that if you are transferring your medical records to each new provider you likely have something in there that's discouraging theses medications from being prescribed so I would make the request and read through and see what story the medical people have written for you to read..

Really they got so much wrong at times on mine that it really was pure fiction to read.. I remember at one point I was 62 with five kids.. two other times I showed up in an ambulance, which is quite neat as i have never been in an ambulance in the United states..


As a person who suffered from really bad anxiety for over twenty years I know personally how miserable it can be. I bought into the lie they told me that i had a chemical imbalance in my brain and these medications were possibly needed for the rest of my life and stayed on benzos for i think almost 18 years.

But i figured out that was not the case and I found the roots and changed the way I think on some things and did a little work identifying and accepting a few more things. The result is im medication free.. I went from having way more anxiety than the average person to having way less.. I used to get nervous talking with a group of two or three strangers.. now I would likely not even get to anxious about giving a speech to strangers..

I also have been able to cut my generalized anxiety down by like 95%.

Anxiety feels awful because it purpose is to let us know that there is something wrong with our lives an also to motivate us to fix the problem so we no longer have to feal that awful way.

So as vaya asked.. please describe your anxiety.. are there any times it seems to get worse or better, are there situations where its really noticeable, when did the symptoms start, what have you already tried to do to address the anxiety and what was the outcome.

IMO the benzos should only be used for a short time until the problem is able to be properly addressed. If they are used for any length of time they seem to create so much more anxiety that there ever was before they were introduced.. though it feels like they are still taking it away because they still reduce the anxiety really well, but for many they reduce the anxiety from a new much higher level to a lower level that is likely higher or equal to where we would be with out them. I hope that makes sense.

So I would really make it priority to see a psychologist that specializes in anxiety as changing your thinking, life, and/or behavior is ware you will most likely find the real real life and peace you need and are looking for and deserve. Until you are able to work this out then I would request a prescription from a more general doctor. You can also request a referral from the psychologist.. they will give you recommendations for good doctors and then also forward on that you are currently working with them to address the underlying causes of the anxiety but would likely benefit from some medication to alleviate some of the symptoms while this is being done.

Please dont make the mistake I did and just rely on the damn medication, cause it really not good to be on that shit for long.. remember the unconscious part of you mind is telling the conscious to find a problem and figure out the solution or make the changes. when this is done then the anxiety will be greatly reduced or disappeared. I we make the mistake of just using a chemical to stop the anxiety with out actually identifying and addressing the problem we could be in for trouble latter on. It would kinda be like putting on earphones so we couldn't hear a fire alarm and calling the problem solved. It comes back to haunt us. The portion of the brain that controls emotions is much older and more powerful than the conscious mind. It also doesn't like when we take away on of its main tools to make us do what it wants.. it has many many tools.. and if people stay on the benzos for long periods of time the sucoscouse likely will ramp up the anxiety and start to throw other motivations at us as well.. could make us really depressed or it could send some nice nerve pain, a little fibro.. just to say ok punk try and ignore this one.

Long term use of any of these brain based drugs in the future may end up being shown to cause deregulation of the hypothalamus and be implicated, with other things like high stress, unnatural day rhythms that dont follow the changes in light associated with the seasons, sleep disturbances caused by circadian rhythms being thrown off by the blue light that now fills our lives or disregarded because of how god awful hard we push ourselves and the need to follow a schedule that doesn't jive with how you are naturally, so yeah these are really good candidates to cause hypothalamic dysfunction or deregulation and have potential to be some of the root causes of fibromyalgia, crones, arthritis, irritable bowel, sarcoidosis, etc.. this is just some of my opinion and I have not seen much of that explored or discussed anywhere else.. just to let you know that its not an accepted medical theory at this point.

I feel better all the time now than i did ever on the benzos and for years I was terrified of the thought of life with out them.

So please throw down all you can about the anxiety and consider making an appointment at a psychologist who specializes or treats anxiety.. you could see a fam doc and request medication until the appointment with the psychologist. Then once you get into the psychologist you guys can talk about how to handle it from there.

Oh sorry this is so long.. but also unless its absolutely necessary to see a psychiatrist then I would see any other doctor first.. thier modern approach diagnoses through patient reaction to medications, the fact that they have abandoned the therapy end of the psychology ( many now work with therapist, or psychologist as a team), that they so often go into a complex intertwined system with chemicals that are only manipulation a small part and expecting to have great results with out causing new problems.

Or much clearer.. many psychiatrists are wacky.. it often takes months to get into see them.. they charge an arm and a leg and often people can be left picking up a large copay.. and all this to have a doctor prescribe such a common medication.. my view is slanted in regards to psychiatrists.. personally I think their entire modern approach could go down as the bloodletting of this century. So unless it clearly needed I would go elsewhere when ever possible.

Hope some of this helps. sorry for the long ass ramble.

EDIT: sorry I saw the list of what you have tried. So you have had little success with any chemical remedies which including the tea and herbals makes up like 95% of what you have tried so far.

So right off the bat I would implement a work out program at least four days a week were as soon as you can mange you get at least forty minutes of cardio aerobic exercise a session. This may have a huge effect. here is some of the science behind it. And a thread you may wish to look at as well.

Exercise and Mood
Exercise 4 Health, Mental Health, and Addiction vs. I worked all that out

Physical Exercise and Anxiety
 
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