Doctor won't give me diazepam ..aibu?

[lucyhar]

I've been getting diazepam off my doctor for around 4 years now for when I have to travel by plane.
I normally get 7 tablets a year.
My doctor has retired now and I'm travelling to Australia in may to see my aunt and uncle.
I've just got out of the doctors (new doc) and he refused any.
Now I understand people get addictive but I get 7 tablets a year!
I have a massive fear of flying,I've tried CBT,hypnotherapy,kalms,I did a fear of flying course and nothing.
Before I was prescribed diazepam I didn't go on holiday for 7 years.
They gave me my life back (without being dramatic)
Aibu to speak to the practice manager?

Try living in America and going into debt because you child broke an arm, let alone if some other awful illness was to happen to them
Interesting you would assume I haven't. As it is, I spent 8 years in the States, so know all too well how lucky we are in the UK to have the NHS.

That doesn't mean that I assume clinicians know everything at all time, especially whrn it comes to guidance. A good clinician will be open to questions just as OP did rather than jump on the gun with a dramatic response intimating than anyone taking a drug is susceptible to abuse and addiction.

Being lucky to have the nhs doesn't mean there are never problems with it. Nhs negligence nearly killed me and my kids due to not acting quickly enough when I had a placental abruption. But at least it's not America...

Bloody hell, there's some pathetic posters on this thread! It's almost like a competition of how many meds I have to take, how ill I've been, how the NHS did me wrong, I'm more anxious than everybody else!
Fear of flying is a phobia which can induce a panic attack. Diazepam is contra indicated for panic attacks. bnf.nice.org.uk/drug/diazepam.html
So the OP couldn't get her drugs from her GP and managed to get them from a different one. I'd love to know how she got them, and I'd bet a shit load of money that she didn't ask for them for flying knowing that she could get turned down again. What does surprise me is that the second gp mustn't have read the notes that the first gp would have written on why she was refused first time round.
I bet another shit load of money that if the op wasn't able to get her magic pills, she would still have got on that flight rather than lose the cost of the ticket.

Lol @soontobe60 your link says the opposite. It’s used to treat short term anxiety - not long term anxiety.

I’ll also just leave this NHS page here which states benzodiazepines are for use in treatment of phobias where there is short term anxiety. Such as say, oh flying, for instance 💁🏻‍♀️

and the page

www.nhs.uk/conditions/phobias/treatment/

Sorry not read all replies but I get them for flying as does my friend. Email prescription (after initial telephone appointment some years ago) and they prescribe 6 pills, (2 out, 2 back 2spare) I pay £8.80 ish prescription charge for them which I'd imagine is more than they cost.

Also now I've read some more posts, I would be much better in an emergency if I'd had my 2mg than without

Another expert who clearly struggle with causation effect!

Fear of flying is a phobia, phobia can induce panic attacks, valium is not used for panic attacks so should never be given for anyone with a fear of flying!

Mmm how about those who are frightened of flying but don't get panic attacks? I am utterly petrified in a plane, it's painful and exhausting, but even when I was most distressed inside, I never had a panic attack and others wouldn't gave known how distressed I felt.

Yes but if the OP had a Valium then she wouldn’t have a panic attack in the first place, I really don’t know why the doctor had said no to 7 2mg tablets and especially since the doctor has prescribed them before to the OP, it makes no sense and it’s silly, doctors aren’t always correct.

Swing if you had Valium on your flights then you wouldn’t feel panic nor feel distressed!

Doctors aren't always correct? Let's get rid of them then, they're clearly a complete waste of money.

if I was a druggie I'd probably get them on repeat

No you wouldn't.

@Minniesmum, I do now and am so grateful for it.

Lots of druggies get them on repeat @ilovesooty, all they do is ask the doctor to start getting them, they pretend that they’re anxious and if the doctor says no then the druggie will say ‘oh well I’ll just buy them on the street then’ therefore making the doctor worry that they may buy dodgy ones and die so then doctor prescribes them. I know a handful of people that got their prescriptions this way.

@Bluelady don’t be so melodramatic, I said some doctors, obviously not all.

I was being facetious not melodramatic. I assume by "druggie" you mean someone suffering from substance addiction who would have zero interest in Valium but would anyway have a legitimate reason for it to be prescribed - unlike OP.

Druggies that take heroin are always interested in Valium because enough of it gets a person stoned, just like heroin. Most people that are prescribed methadone are prescribed Valium too though. I think the OP has more of a legimate reason to be prescribed Valium than drug abusers, some of them even sell their Valium prescriptions to buy heroin, do you ever notice a lot of people hanging around certain chemists? If so then this is because whoever is in the chemist is on a script for Valium, pregabbapentins, or other such drugs that make you stoned.

@MinniesMum1606

Not true. I take long term benzos (not valium) prescribed by a psychiatrist and they are absolutely not allowed to give them on repeat. There are even signs up in the waiting room saying they are not allowed to give them on repeat, even though mine were prescribed by a specialist I still need to be seen or talk to GP on phone to renew. One GP in my surgery tries to get me to withdraw every time I see him, the other prescribes with no problem.

GPs are very reluctant to prescribe benzos, even short term so I find what you said highly improbable. They don't give out morphine to heroin addicts, so why would they do so for benzo addicts?

@MinniesMum1606 I work for a large drug and alcohol service.

Our service users don't get benzo prescriptions other than as part of a detox.

..and the crowds outside the chemist usually means the person in the chemist, is selling their script!

And most people prescribed methadone are not prescribed valium as well.

Yes @ilovesooty these were the excuses that were used for GP’s to give out Valium scripts although they soon got wise to that!

Drug services are usually far more streetsmart than doctors and can see through addicts better, especially because as a Drug and Alcohol worker then your only dealing with addiction whereas a GP is dealing with all sorts.

Well I know lots of methadone users that are prescribed Valium too, infact most of them are, they started getting them years ago too, I’ve even chummed my friend into the chemist for her methadone, it was her first day in a new chemist and the pharmacist asked her if she was waiting on Valium too, she was assuming that she would’ve been!

You don't get methadone scripts in my city without engagement with the main drug and alcohol service. You might be transferred to a GP in shared care at a later stage.
But in either case you certainly won't get benzo scripts other than as a detox.

In my city then only some GPS give out Methadone, Subutex and whatever else you get for coming off of heroin, we have the same sorts of places that you work in too though. From what I’ve heard then it seems to be a whole lot quicker getting methadone from the doctors than it is the specialised places, my friend had to wait 5 weeks for an appointment in the clinic thing and she then had to go in withdrawing, whereas someone that I once knew went to the doctor one day and because he had used that day, the doctor gave him his script to start the next day. I don’t know why there’s so much of a difference.

I don’t think Benzo’s are given out so easily anymore, hence people being taken off them in the past few years.

For someone who calls them "druggies" you seem to know an awful lot of substance abusers.