barefoot
MyPTSD Pro
So, in my experience, it can be difficult getting GPs to prescribe valium beyond a few tablets very occasionally as they are (understandably) worried about patients getting addicted.
For the last few years, my now GP has been great. She understands how I use it, trusts how I use it and can see that I’m not addicted as a prescription of 28 x 5mg tablets lasts me 6 months or more. We don’t really discuss my mental health much but she knows I see a therapist.
I got a new prescription a few weeks ago, ahead of an invasive medical procedure.
Due to a number of stressors over the past couple of months:
- the medical procedure
- some family situations
- stress about work (not having enough work/income, which feels worrying…and having high anxiety about the work I do have…it’s like I’m experiencing a crisis of confidence in my ability to do my job at the moment, for some reason)
- on-going health issues 21 months on post-Covid
- a rupture with my therapist (still not fully resolved and I’ve decided to take a break for a month but haven’t communicated this to her yet)
- the three year anniversary of my mum passing away, which for some reason I found particularly difficult this year
- a friend’s son dying very suddenly and tragically
- hearing today that a very close friend died yesterday, which is devastating. My heart is aching so much
^^^ due to these things, I don’t feel in a great place and I have already taken almost half the tablets in my valium prescription, which I’ve only had in my possession for about a month.
I have taken a few in daytimes if I am triggered/if anxiety is so high I cannot down regulate using other tools (only one tablet in a day max) But I am mainly taking them to help me get to sleep (not every night) - I realise they’re not really supposed to be used for this but, in the absence of anything else, they help. (By that I mean that I don’t take any other meds for my mental health. I do take melatonin but that’s for controlling night terrors, not for getting to or staying asleep)
I am getting concerned that I have got through so many in this amount of time. I’m not concerned that I have taken too many/that I’m addicted etc. Just that, I have more stressful things coming up (a family visit, the above two funerals, my Dad wanting conversations around my mum’s belongings and what to do with her ashes etc) and I feel I am unravelling a bit. And I feel I will need to take a valium to take the edge off at least some these things. But if I get through them all too quickly, I am worried that my GP won’t give me more.
I’m worried she’s going to think I have become dependent. But I really haven’t - I’m just struggling because there’s a lot at the moment and I’m finding it hard to cope. Because there’s such a cluster of stuff that’s all come closer together, I’m spiking more and therefore taking a valium the way I always do…but it’s more often (not daily) because there are so many different stressors.
I don’t know what to do about this.
I’m worried that my GP won’t give me more as it hasn’t been long enough between prescriptions (I don’t need more right now…but at this rate, they’re not going to last me anywhere near 6 months)
I don’t want to run out.
I don’t want my GP thinking I’m in a muddle - either with my mental health generally at the moment or in terms of her thinking I’ve got myself hooked on benzos.
Feeling super stressed about this on top of everything else.
I really like my GP and she is supportive and easy to talk to and I suppose I trust her more than any other doctor I’ve ever had and feel the most comfortable with her by far. I just don’t want to tell her about getting through my prescription quickly and end up shooting myself in the foot so she won’t prescribe me any more.
If anyone has any other thoughts on other medication, I’d also be keen to hear. I’m not especially keen to start taking anti depressants. Also have to be careful because some meds including some antidepressants counteract my melatonin so my night terrors go wild.
I take the valium to help my head feel calm rather than something like propranolol which is to calm physical symptoms like racing heart, which isn’t what I need.
I don’t even really know why I’m posting and what anyone is going to be able to help with. I just feel in a real panic about running out of valium/somehow saying the wrong thing to GP, on top of already feeling emotionally dysregulated about the other stuff going on.
ETA: I’m in the UK
Would I be better off asking GP for some sleeping tablets to help in the short term and not mention the valium? (I know they don’t dish out sleeping pills very easily either, again, because of addiction risks)
For the last few years, my now GP has been great. She understands how I use it, trusts how I use it and can see that I’m not addicted as a prescription of 28 x 5mg tablets lasts me 6 months or more. We don’t really discuss my mental health much but she knows I see a therapist.
I got a new prescription a few weeks ago, ahead of an invasive medical procedure.
Due to a number of stressors over the past couple of months:
- the medical procedure
- some family situations
- stress about work (not having enough work/income, which feels worrying…and having high anxiety about the work I do have…it’s like I’m experiencing a crisis of confidence in my ability to do my job at the moment, for some reason)
- on-going health issues 21 months on post-Covid
- a rupture with my therapist (still not fully resolved and I’ve decided to take a break for a month but haven’t communicated this to her yet)
- the three year anniversary of my mum passing away, which for some reason I found particularly difficult this year
- a friend’s son dying very suddenly and tragically
- hearing today that a very close friend died yesterday, which is devastating. My heart is aching so much
^^^ due to these things, I don’t feel in a great place and I have already taken almost half the tablets in my valium prescription, which I’ve only had in my possession for about a month.
I have taken a few in daytimes if I am triggered/if anxiety is so high I cannot down regulate using other tools (only one tablet in a day max) But I am mainly taking them to help me get to sleep (not every night) - I realise they’re not really supposed to be used for this but, in the absence of anything else, they help. (By that I mean that I don’t take any other meds for my mental health. I do take melatonin but that’s for controlling night terrors, not for getting to or staying asleep)
I am getting concerned that I have got through so many in this amount of time. I’m not concerned that I have taken too many/that I’m addicted etc. Just that, I have more stressful things coming up (a family visit, the above two funerals, my Dad wanting conversations around my mum’s belongings and what to do with her ashes etc) and I feel I am unravelling a bit. And I feel I will need to take a valium to take the edge off at least some these things. But if I get through them all too quickly, I am worried that my GP won’t give me more.
I’m worried she’s going to think I have become dependent. But I really haven’t - I’m just struggling because there’s a lot at the moment and I’m finding it hard to cope. Because there’s such a cluster of stuff that’s all come closer together, I’m spiking more and therefore taking a valium the way I always do…but it’s more often (not daily) because there are so many different stressors.
I don’t know what to do about this.
I’m worried that my GP won’t give me more as it hasn’t been long enough between prescriptions (I don’t need more right now…but at this rate, they’re not going to last me anywhere near 6 months)
I don’t want to run out.
I don’t want my GP thinking I’m in a muddle - either with my mental health generally at the moment or in terms of her thinking I’ve got myself hooked on benzos.
Feeling super stressed about this on top of everything else.
I really like my GP and she is supportive and easy to talk to and I suppose I trust her more than any other doctor I’ve ever had and feel the most comfortable with her by far. I just don’t want to tell her about getting through my prescription quickly and end up shooting myself in the foot so she won’t prescribe me any more.
If anyone has any other thoughts on other medication, I’d also be keen to hear. I’m not especially keen to start taking anti depressants. Also have to be careful because some meds including some antidepressants counteract my melatonin so my night terrors go wild.
I take the valium to help my head feel calm rather than something like propranolol which is to calm physical symptoms like racing heart, which isn’t what I need.
I don’t even really know why I’m posting and what anyone is going to be able to help with. I just feel in a real panic about running out of valium/somehow saying the wrong thing to GP, on top of already feeling emotionally dysregulated about the other stuff going on.
ETA: I’m in the UK
Would I be better off asking GP for some sleeping tablets to help in the short term and not mention the valium? (I know they don’t dish out sleeping pills very easily either, again, because of addiction risks)