Dr won’t prescribe me diazepam aibu ?

[Bluewaterbottlebig]

So been mad stressed since the summer
building work going wrong
costing loads and non stop stress
mess hassle etc

as a result of this I’ve had bad bad insomnia and generally stressed
never been like this before

anyway asked for diazepam for given 14x 2mg
so have to take 3 to get any effect to help me sleep

so that’s only 4 and a half doses

so in 6 months I’ve only had 8 doses
but it’s massively massively helped
and I don’t get any side effects from it

dr did give me 14 zopiclone but I get bad side effects
Brain zaps
and feeling wired and feeling horrible in general and v v dry mouth
i still have about six of these to take as gave up on them
due to how horrible they make you feel

I've done all the good sleep hygiene practices
bath milk no screen time before bed
already don’t read the news at night
avoiding stress as much as I can

but I know this is a temporary situation
but I need help getting through the next few weeks
as the lack of sleep is making me unable to function properly

bit the dr os refusing to prescribe me anymore diazepam but I’ve only had it prescribed twice to me in six months
2 lots of 14 x 2mg tabs
Which having to 6mg to get any effect to sleep works out to 9 doses !!!

the dr won’t prescribe me anymore
so aibu

i desperately need sleep and these doenst cause me side effects
even if I could only take it once or twice a week it would be such a relief

I’m also been trying loads of other complimentary treatments too
massage etc and I’m booked in to try acupuncture
reflex only

please help
cant function properly without sleep and I’ve tried all the otc sleep stuff too

Nytol? I always use it.

You do sound like an addict OP.

You need to speak to your GP with all of your issues around why other medication isn't suitable and try to together come up with a solution.

Night nurse?

I'm not addicted. I don't need increasingly higher doses to get the same effect. I have no withdrawals when I don't take them. I take them PRN so as and when.

Not sure if it’s been suggested already as only read the first page.

I take 15mg mirtazapine every night for anxiety, one of the symptoms I had was crippling insomnia. I’m now out like a light within 30 mins of taking it and I stay asleep 🤩

Benzo addiction is horrific and diazepam is more of a ‘quick fix’ than long-term management.

In the nicest way possible YABU diazepam is a drug that should only ever be used short term and can have serious long term side effects. I noted in one of your earlier comments you “couldn’t” use antidepressants because of your eyes? But this drug (which can be addictive) is more likely to be used for anxiety/depression than for insomnia.

YANBU to ask for help with your sleep though, your doctor should not be saying you can’t have x and that’s that. They should be giving you access to alternative support (medication or otherwise).

To round it up you can’t demand a certain drug but you can absolutely ask for support.

Hope you feel better soon x

Yeah, because turning her into an addict will really help her 🙄

Valerian is a natural sleep aid - herbal I think.
you have had lots of recommendations- you don’t seem to want to hear them.

I had diazepam prescribed for a very short term due to pain when trying to sleep. It was only prescribed until the pain healed and the doctor slowly weaned me off. It seems very much that you are too dependent on it. You say you can’t take anything else due to dry eyes but not every anxiety medication causes dry eyes, even so, could you not take drops to help this?
I think you need to go to the doctor and ask for support and advice on how to combat this addiction and to seek help for the main reasons of not sleeping. You need time to see that you are getting angry about your doctor not giving you a short term fix. You have listed every reason why you need it but are failing to address the real reason. Yes you have building work going on which is stressful but it’s been a long time now so you need help.

You really don’t want to get hooked on Diazepam

Don't even go there. They're horrendously addictive.

What's withdrawal actually like? My MIL takes them occasionally, once or twice a week. She doesn't need them every day.

Severe anxiety and insomnia are horrendous, and CBT just isn’t effective enough. It’s one of those things that sounds good but doesn’t work in practice. When you have severe anxiety, CBT, therapy, deep breathing, mindfulness, etc, are like balsa wood fences trying to stop a hurricane. The anxiety just overwhelms everything. I hated taking pills, and withdrawal was awful, but they are the only things that worked.

One of the problems with modern Britain is that we have so little space and silence and time to recover from things. Every year this country seems to get noisier and more crowded. And things seem to move faster and faster. My local woods have been hacked into to make room for god knows how many houses (and flats). And at the other end of the village they are building a giant new estate that is going to virtually double the population. The traffic is horrific now, so god knows what it will be like when those houses and flats are occupied. It will mean even more cars with screeching, modified exhausts, even more people and noise, and even less space. Our nervous systems are at breaking point. Thinking about green meadows or telling yourself the mind is like an empty sky and thoughts are just clouds floating through, etc, doesn’t help.

Benzos are the absolute pits. They are not your friends. Oh yes, they make you feel fantastic at first but they soon get their nasty little claws into you and they do not let go. I've seen plenty of horrible benzo behaviour in the past, they turn people into absolute arseholes - either not giving a shit about anything they do or say or crawling on the floor in absolute desperation.

I was a cocaine addict (nearly 14 years clean!) and I was offered clonazepam by the clinic to get me through. I said no thanks, knowing that would be straight from the frying pan and into the fire.

It's also very easy to accidentally kill yourself with the nasty little things. It's hard to OD on a benzo alone but a small amount of Valium or whatever combined with certain painkillers or cold/flu meds or a few strong drinks can be fatal.

Please, I urge you to find another solution.

You can't just go to a doctor and pick and choose what medications you fancy 😅

I’ve taken diazepam once for a tooth extraction (petrified of the dentist!), it knocked me for six after and that was just one dose of 10mg.

I felt like I was on a different planet so I can see how people get hooked on it easily. Please don’t go there OP, there are many suggestions in the comments that could really help you but getting yourself hooked on benzos isn’t the answer

My mother ended up addicted to Lorazepam after my dad died. Getting off it was brutal, for both her and me. Our relationship never really recovered, sadly.

I was prescribed 5 x days worth of diazepam after a bad accident. By day 3 the 2mg didn't have any effect so I took 2 at once. I felt quite shit for a couple of days after. Its really addictive OP. I didn't think it was prescribed for insomnia?

It used to be first line medication for it. I've had it for insomnia and also muscle spasms in the past.

The issue is they’re so addictive- which is potentially why you are so attached to the idea of them, and only them, solving this

Take heed. You already needed three to get the effect you wanted. You already on the road. The GP has stopped it. Respect that. Insomnia is savage. But the cause you’ve identified is only a temporary thing. That’s good. Seek alternatives. Do not go down the benzo route. You’ll seriously regret it.

WRT the dry eyes I'd be inclined to invest in eye drops and suck up the medication side effects of less addictive medications to get on top of this and we'll enough to enter effective therapy

I don’t think that melatonin is licensed in the UK for insomnia - only for jet lag…

I agree that diazepam is a miracle drug, but my GP won’t prescribe it either. Nor will he prescribe zopiclone, because in his words, “I’d rather deal with a paranoid schizophrenic than someone addicted to sleeping pills”

It sucks OP. I get it (insomniac for ten years now). I have to try mindfulness before sleep, but it doesn’t always work. If I have a prolonged period of no sleep, I take a nytol-one-a-night, but I wouldn’t take them two days in a row, or more than once a flood - it’s only in sheer desperation to get ONE night to catch up!

Mirtazapine works well for a lot of people, but it had the opposite effect for me - it gave me restless legs syndrome which kept me awake more than the insomnia!

They should be offering you some alternative though - mirtazapine works for a lot of people. And are you practising good sleep hygiene?

I am genuinely amazed that your gp has prescribed lorazepam for 5 years.

It is addictive, and the more you take it, the less it works. So I think the dr is doing the right thing. This isn't the solution to your sleep difficulty.

It is always a warning flag when you ask a health professional for a specific medication known to be addictive.

You are not the doctor. You describe your symptoms, and the doctor reviews those, and your medical history, and what they know about the various treatment options available, and they suggest a suitable treatment for you.

They willl be extremely cautious with something addictive like diazepam with good reason - it should be a last resort.