Posted by Elizabeth on May 6, 2002, at 14:48:09
In reply to Re: help! (rant; advice?), posted by mixedstates on May 4, 2002, at 12:41:07
Hi mixedstates. Thank you for your kind words. I'm not bipolar -- did I say something that made you think that I was? -- but I often have episodes of various types of anxiety and/or psychomotor "jitters." Often I wake up in the morning feeling jittery, and if I don't do something about it, it can stay with me for the entire day. I don't think it should be necessary for me to take a benzo around the clock, since this doesn't happen every day or even every other day. Xanax starts working very soon after taking it (I notice some improvement within perhaps 15 minutes), so I can use it as-needed and not be impaired much by the anxiety episodes.
I'm just not used to doctors being very suspicious, closed-minded, etc., even though I realize that most doctors (most people in general, really) are like that. For several years I was seeing a guy in Boston who was very cool. He knows me very well because I saw him weekly for talk therapy, not just "medication management." I called him up the other day and explained my current difficulties, and he agreed to talk to the pdoc who I'm seeing now. Maybe he'll be able to reason with her. :-}
My former pdoc said that although the labelling says the recommended dose of Ambien is 10 mg/night, there are really a lot of people who need more. He knows that I needed 20 because he prescribed it for years.
I'm still weirded out that this new pdoc seems to be basically accusing me of abusing my medication (the way I see it, she just is too stingy), but hopefully with some help from my ex-pdoc I can straighten out the situation. Again thank you for your encouraging post.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:103496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105296.html