Dr refused anti anxiety meds

[anxiousflight]

Long history of depression and anxiety, it is mostly under control but something can set my anxiety off and I'll be bad for a couple of weeks.

I've recently moved drs surgery as moved house and my old GP would always give me about 10 diazepam or lorazepam a year, to help me through anxious periods.

I hate hate hate taking off on a flight and this has triggered my anxiety the past couple of weeks as I fly tomorrow first thing.

I booked an appt with new GP and first appt available was yesterday, the duty Dr said she was not happy to prescribe any diazepam as if there was an emergency I wouldn't be able to get off the plane??? I said, they help me rationalise and keep calm, they don't knock me out. She wasn't happy so said she'd get my actual GP to call me today. The receptionist called me at 4pm and said that my GP isn't happy to prescribe them either. Not happy that I was promised a call from my GP but she avoided the conversation and asked the receptionist to call me so I couldn't speak to anyone medically trained to help me. My medical records are there for drs to see so I cant understand at all why they couldn't issue me a small prescription.

I can't take propanalol due to an adverse reaction with my asthma a few years ago. So now I'm stuck without anything at all and I'm so panicky, I leave my house at 1:30am tomorrow morning.

Does anyone know if I call 111 will they be able to prescribe anything?

Don’t ask a friend for some left over prescription drugs. You would be putting your friend at legal risk for supply of drugs if you do so and that’s not fair.

Try some Phenergan which is available OTC and should take the edge off. For the future, you may need to see a private psychiatrist if you need benzodiazepines prescribed. My own GP won’t prescribe these.

She can't take propranolol, some asthma issue.

@Weathergirl007 I’m actually not bothered about the addiction risk in this situation, it’s the risk of respiratory depression at altitude with no control over 1) which over the counter meds or 2) amount of alcohol the patient is taking at 37,000 feet with no access to rapid medical intervention. I actually have no issue with using benzodiazepines sparingly for acute mental health crises and will do so probably more than most doctors, but the plane situation is unique. Obviously not expecting everyone to agree with me but did just want to give the other perspective here as I can see why it can appear obstructive when it’s declined!

Well I’ve been a GP for 25 years and personally I would never prescribe benzodiazepines to someone who called them benzos

Really

And is that a clinical decision?

Another one with no concept of professional ethics or shame. You should be struck off.

the British aviation authority advise against GPs prescribing diazepam for flights, and were not indemnified if anything goes wrong as a result of us prescribing it.

It’s not complicated.

It’s somewhat tongue in cheek, but casual colloquial use of language to describe addictive drugs is a bit of a red flag

YABU.

And in future for something like this it might be worth sorting it out at least 3 to 4 weeks before you need it.

Same with any travel vaccines, needed no point in ringing the GP the day before thinking they can fit you in for your travel vaccs the day before you go.

Ha ha OK

Dr is ridic.

Same as codeine, you can’t get addicted from a single use.

Oh so you also base clinical decisions on what the British Aviation Authority tell you to do. Of course.

For someone who advocates discriminating against patients who use slang, you're remarkably slack about grammar and punctuation yourself you know. I hope your own doctor isn't quite so particular about who they will or won't treat, or you might be in trouble.

You may not mean to @Pollyputhekettleon but you are totally coming across as someone who is themselves addicted to benzodiazepines on this thread!

What do you mean at altitude? She's not climbing the Himalayas. Planes are pressurized. Why would respiratory depression be more dangerous on a plane than in any other environment (i.e. the overwhelming majority of environments) where rapid medical intervention is also not available?

That's great. I was just clarifying your assertion that they "definitely don't make you groggy at small doses" they can do

Planes can become depressurised.

Diazepam before an exam !! This thread is beyond

I feel your pain. For years I used to take diazepam (10mg) for flying. Never at any other time but I was terrified of flying, I'd start dreaming about it weeks before and I'd be in tears on the day.

Anyway about 5 years ago I had hypnosis for it and although I wasn't convinced it would, it did actually work. So I don't take any pills and feel ok flying these days. I think I had 3 sessions. I'd recommend it.

Hope you're ok tomorrow.

Funnily enough on another thread people were absolutely convinced I was Welsh because I advocated for their existence as a nation and ethnic group so strongly. Same thing happened on another thread that I can't remember the topic of. It's always strange to me when people assume that a person must have a personal motivation if they have strong opinions about something.

Maybe you're all are just really agreeable people or something. I do find that agreeable people generally have enormous difficulty in understanding disagreeable ones, especially disagreeable women like me because it's not as socially acceptable in women of course. Or maybe it's not common to be very interested in subjects that one doesn't have any personal stake in. I really don't know but it's fascinating psychologically.

I don't suppose you understand why you would make that assumption? Do you ever feel very strongly about something in which you have no personal investment? Do you ever feel strongly empathetic for someone else even?

😂

Sadly, learning skills such as putting mind over matter and putting in the effort to get over your fears isn't really in fashion these days when it's much easier to call the GP and just pop a pill to "take the edge off".

I don't really like the over medicalisation of every issue and the idea that individuals should be able to demand medication the day before a flight like its a normal thing to do.

Totally recognise that it isn’t what the OP wanted but not prescribing benzodiazepines for fear of flying is the safest option and in line with guidance - for details see summary here https://cambslmc.org/2022/08/19/lmc-guidance-on-requests-for-benzodiazepines-for-travel/.

Benzodiazepines according to NICE should be used for short term relief of acute severe anxiety. Generally this would mean anxiety so severe you aren’t fit to fly anyway and the prescription from your GP might well come with a referral to the mental health crisis team. It’s very hard to justify prescribing them in other situations. It’s a shame your GP couldn’t discuss this with you themselves but they are absolutely swamped and won’t have had any spare time in their day - actually I think you were quite fortunate to get a same day response from your own non duty dr GP when your request had already been addressed by a GP.

I’d suggest trying rescue remedy or Kalms tomorrow and longer term doing a fear of flying course.

Diazepam before an exam !! This thread is beyond

2mg, prescribed by my gp, yes. Why does that shock you?
I got a first thanks to that.

I am severely needle phobic, and my GP wont prescribe anything if I need to have an injection/blood test.

About time.

If the GP doesn't want to prescribe it, that's down to them. They don't need to justify it. There's plenty of evidence about the harms that benzodiazepines can do.

You can complain, but the GP is would be able to justify their decision easily.