Posted by JohnL on August 20, 2001, at 4:07:19
In reply to New symptom anxiety - please help!!, posted by vince on August 19, 2001, at 16:22:38
> I've had depression for a long time but the last few months I've started having really serious anxiety. I don't know how to treat it. I want to ask my pdoc for xanix but he says that my depression wouldn't all of a sudden change to anxiety. I'm afraid he won't help me. I'm losing my mind - what's left of it. What AD's or other meds are good for severe anxiety if he won't prescribe benzo's.
>
> Thanks, VinceWhen your doctor says depression won't all of a suddent turn into anxiety, I think he is way wrong. Nobody understands the brain well enough to be able to predict such a thing. A noted world class psychiatrist, Hagop Akiskal, states that mental illnesses are constantly evolving and constantly in motion. Anything is possible, and anything can happen. To be able to neatly categorize symptoms and diagnosis is merely an effort at trying to organize the unorganizeable.
The fact is you are experiencing anxiety. No ifs, ands, or buts. The doctor would be an egotistical fool to try to ignore the facts, and would obviously not have you best interest in mind.
One important thing to remember is, who is paying who? I mean, the doctor works for you. You do not work for the doctor. You are ultimately the boss and the paying customer. You are not the doctor's toy. It is your life and your wellbeing at stake. Just remember who is the boss.
When a doctor is reluctant or refusing to prescribe a benzo, one method that can help is to compromise. Simply ask for a one week supply to sample. That takes away a lot of the risk they might be worried about. And one week or less is all you will need to see if it works anyway. Then, if it does work, the doctor will see how well you are doing and it will be much harder for him to deny you the medicine that improves your life. This method is similar to just getting a foot in the door, or planting a seed. Later on it is easier then to get a full commitment. Sometimes you have to wheel and deal and bargain and compromise to get past a doctor's reluctance. But through it all, always work from the angle of who is the paying customer and the ultimate boss. It's your life at stake, not his. And you are paying big bucks for a service. Insist on getting your money's worth, just like you would in any other transaction.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:75596
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010814/msgs/75650.html