Posted by octopusprime on October 27, 2005, at 4:51:43
I had the following situation happen to me last night.
I was at work all day. My husband had just moved to the country and does not have a work visa, so even though he desperately wants to work, he cannot. He was also on day 4 of withdrawal from marijuana, which was much more readily available/socially acceptable in the mother country than it is in the usa.
He was having trouble dealing with the situation so he got drunk and visited a friend of his and got stoned. However he did not replenish his home supply of pot.
By the time he returned home he was a mess - crying, curled up in child's pose on the floor, pacing, etc. He was drunk and high and freaking out.
So I cut one of my klonopins in half and gave it to him. He calmed down in 30 minutes to an hour (go klonopin!). I sliced up some extra pills for him and told him to use them (instead of getting drunk and high) if he is feeling anxious.
Anyway I am not talking the klonopin right now as I have not been rigorous with birth control and the drug is known to cause birth defects. So I have them lying around and I am not using them for myself as prescribed.
He talks a lot about nervousness and social anxiety. He has described incidents to me that sound like panic attacks. Knowing what I know about mental health, I figure he could benefit from a doctor and a prescription for something to help with his anxiety. However, he has been self-medicating with pot for so many years, and he figures it works well for him, so why stop. I don't want him to get kicked out of the country, and he can't take it on trips when we fly or cross the border, so I'd prefer a legal alternative to deal with anxiety (and I don't care too much one way or another otherwise).
However he is suspicious of doctors and pills. He took the pill I gave him because he was in a bad state, but I'd rather he didn't get to the bad state.
I know, get him to see a doctor, don't share your prescriptions, blah blah blah. In reality it is much easier to just give him the klonopin. We have excellent health insurance, so that's not the issue. The issue is his mental block.
I had some passing guilt about drugging my husband when he was being difficult. I only wanted to help him and make him feel better.
He trusts that I have his best interests at heart (and I do), so he took the pill and agreed that if he needed to, he would take others in the future (but he has not yet done so)
Should I have done something else? Would you do something else? It just seems bad to be drugging him, the poor guy, but he's having such a hard time ...
poster:octopusprime
thread:572304
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/relate/20051002/msgs/572304.html