My husband has taken my diazepam, again!!

[Givenup2026]

This is at least the second time that it has happened. My GP is very kind that they give me 6 pills very much every now and then that I use when to relax as a “one off “. They’re great, and genuinely maybe I’ve taken like 12 pills in my entire life.

anyway I’ve just discovered my husband took my whole stash at some point because of “hip pain”. The irony is don’t even work for him!!!! I’m furious!!

Just to stop the lecturing….

a) I’ve been on talking therapy (for years)
b) I’ve tried mindfulness
c) I do yoga at least twice a week
d) I exercise regularly. I just finished my sprinting session and I’m currently training for a marathon.

So having them one in a blue moon has saved when the rest of the “first line of defense” have failed me.

Plus given my life I could be in constant stress, but I don’t, I live an overall happy, stress free life, but no matter how many options I have when my brain goes in absolutely constant loops there’s not a lot else that can help.

Ok, but I've seen someone in my family become addicted which ruined their life. They were give 3 days' wortj to cope with a life event, but asked for more and were given more.

It's very easy for that to happen if a GP is negligent over prescribing.

And being honest if talking therapy hasn't worked, you may need a different practitioner. If it's NHS I expect you may have no choice but if you're paying for it you might consider if you're getting the right sort. (I'm coming at this from a professional viewpoint where I know about talking therapies.)

If your life is stressful that you need all the coping mechanisms you say, have you got support to tackle whatever is causing the stress? Sounds like you might need to get rid of the dickhead of a H!

But that’s not the case for me, and talking therapies overall don’t help because 95% of the times nothing happens and when the brains snaps it’s not like there to prevent them. And I’ve tried a few so to me (who is the one who lives with my brain) my current approach functions absolutely fine :)

I’d personally ignore the lecturing OP. It doesn’t sound like your use of them is excessive to me, and you certainly seem to be someone who is massively in control of your mental health and on the odd occasion you aren’t, you have a back stop.

I would be prepared for the GP to not prescribe you the diazepem on the back of this. At the very least be prepared to explain what you might do next time so that he is unable to get his hands on them.

If he was really in pain he could have asked you or told you that he had used them so that you would know in advance that you didn't have any. He didn't he was deceitful when he took them, he was deceitful after he took them and he was deceitful when you found out.

He has placed you in a position where you didn't have access to prescribed medication when you were in need of it because his "need" for it trumped yours. It sounds like your needs will always come second to his needs and whims. How many other times does he put what he wants above what you need? The action of stealing someone's medication is generally the tip of the iceberg in the behaviours of someone who willfully steals someones medications

When I saw my dentist after DH's death and was asked the usual 'any changes to your medication' question, he had a very negative reaction when I told him that I'd been prescribed the lowest dose of Diazepam for occasional use. By contrast, the specialist dentist that I saw for a check up on my dental implant was very sympathetic.

I had a very bad panic attack one time - related to other medical matters. When I spoke to a nurse on the phone (NHS 24) and she checked my records she actually told me that I could take up to three of the 2mg tablets per day.

I never have, however. In fact, when I first took the tablets, I only took half a tablet a day. A nurse friend actually told me to make sure that I took a whole tablet for DH's funeral - 'a half won't do anything'.

I did take the whole 2mg for the funeral, but one mg is often all I need. I don't think it's a placebo effect.

When I had various gynaecological investigations I phoned up the department to check whether I could take a Diazepam before each procedure and they gave me the go ahead, so all of the health professionals involved were fully informed.

I found daily ant-depressants to have much more of a negative effect. I was on Clopimramine for more than two years in my 30s. Yes, I also paid for private CBT.

I really did not like what the Clopimramine did to my brain. For a start, I couldn't use my foreign languages.

When my doctor tried me on another medication a couple of years ago, I could feel things going awry again, so I stopped taking them (and reported this to my GP).

As a HCP and someone who suffers with anxiety, I agree with other posters who are concerned about you being prescribed diazepam to cope with stressful/difficult days. I understand you currently take them infrequently. My worry would be if you go through a particularly stressful period in your life you could use them more often and develop a dependency on them, as they are very addictive.

I am surprised they haven’t given something like Propanolol instead, which works extremely well for the physical symptoms of anxiety you describe (shaking).

I think considering they are addictive and often abused and your husband is stealing them it should be time for your GP to explore other treatment options.

Not really…

I've been through three redundancies, going NC with my sister, having to go into hiding because of my father, and my father sent to prison and not even once I’ve thought of using them.

Maybe anxiety is the wrong word to use, I use them to “untangle my brain” which ironically have never come from a “high stress” situation (or not as high stress as other things I’ve had to go through)

Do you often lecture people you don’t know as to whether a GP prescribed drug is appropriate for them ? OP has described several times that this is a treatment plan devised for her which she very rarely uses, but which is there if she needs it.

Anxiety disorder, which is what OP has, is a world away from the normal anxiety everyone feels at some point in their lives, and the causes for which they can usually pin down. You clearly know absolutely nothing about mental health problems and your advice is actually harmful.

I say anxiety, because you described some symptoms earlier in the thread and it sounded like anxiety to me, have you tried propranolol? I take it because when I have a really bad day (which isn’t often) I get in such a panic about something I can’t focus, get chest pain, can’t breathe properly, feel shakey etc and it works really well, makes me feel mentally a lot calmer too. I think there is a low risk of your husband stealing them too.

I wonder if your GP has considered CBT? Or if you have? I assume you're talking about counselling to work on deeper long term issues, rather than coping strategies for times of high stress.

It is a talking therapy and often far more useful to help with occasions where you feel you can't cope. It's about rewiring your thought patterns, rather than simply talking over your issues with a counsellor.
It's there to help with when your 'brain snaps' , as you describe it. To help you change those thoughts, cope with them, when you feel overwhelmed.

I'm pleased that there have been other posts since mine questioning your GP's prescribing. I didn't mean to offend you or lecture, but having had a relative prescribed these to get through a funeral, I've seen addiction first hand.

The drugs may help you cope in the moment but they aren't rewiring your brain to become resilient with stress.

The mental health charity Mind notes that therapies are often the safest and most effective long-term route for managing stress:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Helps you identify and change negative thought patterns that trigger stress.

Guided Self-Help: Many local GP services and wellbeing hubs offer workbooks and online CBT courses designed to quickly equip you with daily stress-management.

You're in denial.

If he had self-control he wouldn't have taken you pills.

Agree. Once again we have a thread where an OP has posted about one issue and posters have gone apeshit about a detail she neither asked about nor needed. This thread has been a complete derail, filled with advice ranging from the ignorant to the bordering on insane. It’s a masterclass on how little is known about MH issues and how people who know nothing about it, and have never experienced it, still feel entitled to dispense advice as though they are experts. It’s batshit.

I’ve taken and it has helped, but rationalising everything takes you SO far…

and no I don’t have any other physical symptoms.

the best way I can describe it (without sounding deranged) is like if my thoughts were the matrix screen (the one with the green characters) and I can choose one of those threads and focus on it. Which is why I call it “lucidity”.

Maybe you too stop lecturing. You don't know anything more than what is written here.

You know nothing about what I know and if you care to read the advice by MIND it's what I suggested.

There are also several posts after mine questioning the rationale of this drug.
Will you contradict those posters or just me?

I’ve worked in disability support, including healthcare elements for over twenty years and have been treated on and off for MH issues myself for much longer than that. I’ll wager I know a lot more about it than you do, based on the advice you’ve given here. I advised OP about CBT upthread and gave links to access points and more information because I found it useful in my own case, but MH issues are many and varied and what works for one doesn’t work for everyone. OP has found something that works for her, her GP is willing to prescribe, she takes the drug very rarely and manages her mental health well for the majority of the time. And yet posters are treating her like an addict and we’re well into another derail because contributors are ignoring the fact that this is not what she posted about.

And yes I’ve contradicted several posters who commented in the same vein as you.

As others have said it’s a bit bizarre your GP prescribed benzodiazepines instead of SSRIs. My understanding was that benzodiazepines are extremely extremely controlled. To give you an example of how controlled they are, my GP refused to even prescribe me a SINGLE tablet to get me through an extremely difficult incident. I was very, very, VERY much struggling with anxiety and I was very much not functioning but my GP still refused to prescribe a single tablet and she was right. I am very bemused at a GP prescribing them in the first place, let alone replacing a misused prescription!!! Sounds like a really not great GP…

Why would I need to take a daily pill when 362 day a year I feel absolutely fine?

Absolutely nobody is getting prescribed benzodiazepines for a dentist visit or fear of flying. You can read online to understand more about prescribing guidelines on benzodiazepines.

The decision to prescribe is left to the discretion of GP - some will, some wont, but the treatment plan OP is on, is well within the guidelines for this drug. SSRI’s are not suitable for all MH problems, they don’t work for everyone, and when they do, they take time to have an effect. They also have side effects and the GP has clearly decided that rather than have OP on long term drugs, the occasional one off to calm sporadic and specific overwhelming symptoms is a better option.

NHS info

it references the national guidelines

They won’t prescribe for phobias any more, but the provision of Diazepam for dental work is left to the discretion of the practitioner - some will, some won’t. My dentist wouldn’t and when I visited my GP they also refused because it blurred the lines of professional responsibility.

This doesn’t answer my own use case. It only clarifies I was wrong about the “fear of flying”.

Are you a GP? Totally not a loaded question! Just very curious to understand the vast difference in approaches. According to the BNF, benzodiazepines should not be prescribed for short term anxiety episodes but only for severe or acute anxiety crises. Being prescribed them six times in your life doesn’t quite fit that description to me.

However I have no skin in this game and am not a GP, these were just my two cents from my understanding from my own severe MH issues in the past, so yeah bowing out now✌🏻