Posted by jealibeanz on March 17, 2007, at 18:39:00
In reply to Re: I'm considering alcohol to replace medications, posted by bulldog2 on March 17, 2007, at 17:40:54
I should eventually consider calling my doctor, although I don't want to and feel like a pussy for doing so.
My message would be:
"I was taking regular Xanax daily since last May. My most recent dose for the last few months was 4 mg per day.
My doctor started me on generic Xanax XR 3mg about 3 weeks ago. I felt no effect, so last Thursday he decided to switch me to brand name Xanax XR 3mg, since I had always had a better response to regular brand name Xanax.
My anxiety has continuously increased daily since the regular Xanax was discontinued, to the point where I have difficulty breathing at times, for no apparent reason.
I've attempted to decrease or stop my Provigil and Ritalin LA, to see if those medications had any impact on my anxiety. They did not.
Could you ask my doctor if it be OK if I just stopped taking the Xanax XR, since it's not helping?"
I'd like to wait at least until this Thursday, so I've given his new plan a week's trial. It shows that I am trying to give the med a chance, and that the anxiety wasn't caused by a few bad days (although, as stated, it's been bad since he took me off regular Xanax).I'm not going to ask for a regular Xanax prescription. I'll leave the next step up to him. That's very unassuming and non-demanding. As a practitioner, he deserves to know if I'm having major difficulties. As a patient, I should feel comfortable telling him this. There's no point in seeing him if he doesn't know what's going on. He might wanna call me, set up an appointment, or just write out a Xanax script.
I'd prefer an appointment, where we talk about my meds, not my outside life, so I can actually get an understanding of what he's thinking and where he wants to go in the near and distant future, and also give him my thoughts/ideas/concerns.
I went through trials of SSRI's/SNRI's/Wellbutrin/Buspar/Klonopin... Xanax was our next step, and a pretty successful one. So I definitely had to struggle and prove my tx resistent anxiety to get the script in the first place. Benzo's aren't freely handed out by most GP's, but he's a little different, especially with me.
I do remember him saying enthusiastically with the first prescription, that hopefully I could use them for a while and then get off of them. I agreed and said I was hoping for that too.
Little did we know the difficult times that would lie ahead... most of my classmates ended up on SSRI's... very common for med/PA students at this time... I however ended up on Xanax.
poster:jealibeanz
thread:741828
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070314/msgs/741860.html