Just got prescribed 4 new psych drugs... am I overprescribed

[hmmhello3]

Age: 20 Sex: F Height: 5'10 Weight: 125 Race: White Duration of Complaint: anxiety and ADHD for years Location: mental health existing issues: ADHD, panic disorder, GAD, Current medications: Vyvanse 40mg daily (will explain new prescriptions)

I will try to make this as brief as possible. I have been on Vyvanse 40mg for almost two years now with great success to manage my ADHD and some anxiety, but have had to switch doctors due to an insurance problem. Today, I had a visit with a new psychiatrist, and was planning on mentioning the worsening of my anxiety recently. My anxiety is usually tolerable with just Vyvanse, however, about once a week I have a really bad day with it. I specifically told this guy that my anxiety is usually a 2 or 3 on a scale of 10 everyday, and when its bad, it gets up to a 6 or 7. I also explained that my Vyvanse only works for about 3/4 hours for me which is usually fine, but it does wear off rather quickly. Here are the symptoms I explained to him:
-trouble focusing in school, work, social settings
-horrible short term memory
-can't remain organized
-incapable of making fairly easy decisions
-zoning off when making a conscious effort to focus
-easily frustrated
-flinchy/cannot sit still
-constant fear of the worst (in regards to my health typically)
-spending hours online searching for what is wrong with me
-dizziness (when panicking)-guilt
-impending doom (when panicking)

After about 30 minutes of explaining my symptoms and small conversation, without asking for my input, I walked out of this guys office with 4 scripts. The new medications are as follows.
- 40mg Vyvanse daily
- 5mg Ritalin 1/2 tablets at 3pm
- 100mg Gabapentin 3 times daily for first week, then 2 pills 3 times daily afterward
- 1mg xanax 1-2 times daily

This seems like a ton of medication, up to 8 pills a day. Plus, clearly some of them have a high potential for abuse. Was I overprescribed? Should I actually take all of these as directed? Or should i just pick and choose what I take? I don't have the time or money to go find a new psychiatrist that is covered by my insurance, and it took 2 months to get into this guy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Taking 2.5mg Ritalin once a day is a complete waste. It such a tiny amount it would have no therapeutic value whatsoever.
I don't think you are overprescribed but you're right: ALL of your medications are drugs of abuse.

 

[hmmhello3]

Taking 2.5mg Ritalin once a day is a complete waste. It such a tiny amount it would have no therapeutic value whatsoever.
I don't think you are overprescribed but you're right: ALL of your medications are drugs of abuse.

Sorry, i meant like 1 to 2 tablets, so 5-10 mg. Still small but still, a ton of drugs!!!

 

[negrogesic]

Yes, I feel like he overprescribed. I would emphasize extreme caution with the xanax in particular. Benzodiazepines are useful for anxiety attacks, but less effective in the management of anxiety disorders (and should really only be used in such a fashion for extreme cases -- ie not cases like yours). Without question you will become dependent on them if you take them as he directed, and the resulting dependency is a veritable nightmare. I would suggest using them only when necessary.

The ritalin is a strange addition to your dextroamphetamine, in that in some ways it counteracts the amphetamine due to a combating mechanism of action. Curious as to his logic there. I am also curious as to why he introduced gabapentin (off-label treatment of anxiety I suppose). You are lucky he didn't throw an antidepressant script at you.

If I were you I would 1) take the xanax only as needed and as infrequently as possible 2) take the ritalin tablets if you notice a benefit in doing so and 3) not take the gabapentin (which also causes a physical dependency which should be avoided unless medically necessary).

The recklessness and foolishness of psychiatrists (particularly in the US) will one day be looked back upon with astonishment. It is one of the crudest forms of medicine currently practiced (mostly due to our lack of understanding).

 

[awesome31311]

In the United States, it is normal to go to the psychiatrist and walk out with a lengthy prescription. The philosophy is that they'd rather have you go out while on the meds than off, saves the shrinks liability that way, since they can't be held accountable if the drugs do bad things to you (in which case, big pharma would be on trial, and they always get away). So, overprescribing is a win-win for the psychiatrists.
This is based on the flawed premise that a mere chemical imbalance in your brain has to be corrected for you to improve behavior, neglecting environmental factors and socioeconomic approaches to psychology entirely.
Negrogesic is indeed correct. Be cautious with benzodiazepines. I was one of the millions of people in America who received mental health services, was prescribed benzodiazepines, and then I got addicted to them while taking them as prescribed. Coming off them was the most painful experience of my life. The weakness, the pain, oh god, the freaking pain! Your brain also feels like you're going psycho when you miss a dose or two. This is especially true for anti anxiety as well as ADD meds like Vyvanse.

 

[KB215]

Only take the Xanax when needed as I came off before and was in the psych unit at the hospital with no recall on how I got there

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

are you benzo tolerant? if not you can take .25mg instead of 1mg. you can also take it only as needed. everyday is dumb. you might need it hardly or not at all with the gabapentin, but if you start taking frequent 1mg doses you’ll be telling yourself you need it before long.

can gabapentin be taken as needed? i know tolerance to lyrica builds stupid fast.

 

[Ganjcat]

My useless mate isnt so useless after all hes only come through for me with a full 100 30/500 cocodomal!