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Drug abuse and medical records

Pagey

Pagey

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Hey so I need a bit of advice -

I'm thinking of going to my GP some time in the next few days to try and get a benzo prescription to help me through PAWS before I kill someone. Thing is for some reason I've absolutely never managed to get a benzo script (well, not one for anxiety - I've gotten them for muscle pain but those aren't anxiety ones) no matter how honest I've been. I suppose I don't have a stressed out face or something. Anyway I've been getting panic attacks about 10x a day and cannot seem to get a second of peace but I'm afraid if I don't give him the honest reason why, he won't be willing to prescribe anything. Even in France where benzo RXs are supposedly handed out like candy.
So my question is, if I tell him that the reason I desperately need one is because I'm coming off heroin,
1. Does that automatically go on my medical record?
2. Does that just make him even more unlikely to prescribe me a benzo?

I would really like to avoid going down the illegal route if I can seeing as it would do me good to stay out of that for a while.
This would be in France, mind, but I doubt it varies much compared to the UK.

Any help would be very (very very) much appreciated. Cheers :)
 
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I have no idea about France but in the UK telling your doc you have been using heroin (or any other drugs for that matter) will go on your medical notes (and would bet at least one of Spade's balls that would be the case in France too). As to whether or not this will make being prescribed a benzo or not more difficult is harder to say. Personally, I think it may actually make it easier to be prescribed benzos in such situations. I can't think of anybody I knew who had trouble getting benzos when they had history with opies actually. Obviously this will depend very much on the doc though. And also - in the UK at least - benzo scripts are now being very strictly monitored and limited - almost to the point where it looks like they're intending to be phased out completely. France seems to have a far more sensible attitude to benzo scripts though.

So in short...

1. Yes.
2. Not necessarily but very much depends on who your doc is (although being a French doc I'd say chances are probably much better than a UK doc for being prescribed - certainly for a relatively short-term for acute anxiety due to cessation of opiates anyway).

Also maybe worth thinking about is legal benzos like etizolam, pyrazolam and those new ones. Perfectly legal and also cheap. Obviously you do need to watch out for developing too much of a taste for 'em though as are so easy to acquire in large quantities for not a lot of cash. Swapping addictions is a classic problem and one you really would do well to avoid.

It may also be worth initially not mentioning the heroin w/d stuff and just stick with panic attacks/anxiety. Lying to docs is rarely a good move but if it's a no-go you can always 'fess up later and just say you didn't really want to be associated with illicit drug use cos you no longer indulge and want to keep that kinda stuff firmly in the past.
 
Thanks Shambles. Not happy to hear about the medical record thingy though :\
No they're definitely not nearly as strict in France about prescribing benzos as they are in the UK, but as I said my face seems to scream 'don't give them to me!'. Which is why I think I'd have a considerably bigger chance if I'm completely honest about the cause. He's also known me ever since I was a kid and is well aware that I'm not usually prone to anxiety so he'd be a bit suspicious if I can't explain it.
However I'm not sure a benzo script is worth risking it being a massive pain for me to get proper painkillers ever again.

I've considered etizolam but not wanting to risk swapping my addiction for another is precisely why I'd like to have a prescription. That way it can be monitored and controlled and there's considerably less of a risk of me popping them every 5 seconds.

Anyway thank you, it's very helpful to know that :)
 
Ya, the problems being prescribed proper painkillers with opi-abuse on yer records is sadly a very real concern. As I well know from personal experience :\

Wanting to avoid easy benzo access is a Good Thing - legit prescription is definitely the way forward, I'd say. Personally, I'd probably be inclined to initially try to avoid mentioning the illicit opi use cos it really isn't so great to have that on your records unfortunately. The truth is that you do have other things going on in your life that are genuinely causing you anxiety at the moment and I would have thought most docs may well be prepared to prescribe at least a short-term benzo script for those alone. But obviously you know your doc and how he is with you so would be a far better judge of the likelihood of this.

Disclosing illicit opi-abuse is not the end of the world but if it can possibly be avoided that would obviously be far preferable. However, the fact that you have also quit off your own back without resorting to replacements - and have stuck with it despite some seriously rough ongoing w/d effects - should surely go in your favour in terms of being able to say it was something that happened but you took control of the situation at a relatively early stage and is now in the past. Only you can really decide whether it's worth the risk though. If obfuscating the opi-abuse is a no-go then it really comes down to whether the risks are worthwhile for what will most likely be a fairly brief period of prescribed benzos, or at worst having the history of drug abuse permanently on your records and maybe not even getting the benzo script anyway.

Is a tough call but hopefully somebody with knowledge of the French system will pop in with more practical advice.
 
(and would bet at least one of Spade's balls that would be the case in France too
Click to expand...

hahahaha... bet one of spades balls... that made me laugh

To the OP: Never give the doc info about your heroin habit. It'll be on your record, for'shaw.

If you really want the benzo's, you'll be able to pull off the stressed face and come out with a better explanation
 
yes and yes

I totally regret my GP knowing anything about me and drugs, it totally changed the way they treat me. (i.e like a subhuman rather than a patient they care for)
 
I am lucky I was totally open and honest with doc , he had all my records etc anyway 17vyrs of drug abuse etc at the time but yet he saw thru it to why I was self medicating and changed me from substitute drugs for h (dhc) to oxycodone aty 200 mg and gabapentin at 3600mg and clonaz for muscle relaxing properties and anxiolytic, this was after a pain clinic visit and mri though! I vote be honest ask for mri etc ,pain doc and u should be fine hun sorry read back for paws , an ur French doc has no record of opiate or benzo abuse? don't tell em, just explain panic attacks are ruining your life you had to come home as distance was causing more your college/uni work is suffering too and he should help.xx
 
To be fair, you do seem to have the thickest and/or most liberal-minded and insanely generous doc in the known universe, Mr Pecker. For most mere mortals it really isn't like that. At all :|

As a general rule I do think complete honesty with docs is the best policy but having heroin addiction on your medical records at such a young age really is something you need to think long and hard about cos once you've 'fessed up it's hanging over you for life and most docs really are gonna make an issue out of it unfortunately :\
 
Benzos are easier to get scripted if you tell the doctor you travel a lot for work, telling them you get anxiety and panic attacks at the thought of flying and it's compromising your career has worked in the past.

I also agree with Shambles on the honesty factor, at 19 having Heroin on your medical records is really a bad thing, especially if it's avoidable.
 
My doctor and I had a long chat a few years ago when I was daily cocaine user.

he told me that he wouldn't put it on my records, but he'd need to check wth the senior partner at the surgery. he checked, and the senior partner agreed it would do me more harm than good to record this info.
 
I have one GP that is kind of my regular and main contact there, she used to listen to me, but now she knows im a drug user it seems she doesnt take me seriously at all and dismisses a lot of what i say. In fact she barely lets me speak atall. I don't think she realises shes doing it. (i may talk some crap, but i think shes got he proportion of that all wrong)

But i dont always get to see her. It seems to me that all the other docs dont bother/havent got time to look through my previous history whenever i go to see them. Their attititude is fine.
 
Shambles said:
To be fair, you do seem to have the thickest and/or most liberal-minded and insanely generous doc in the known universe, Mr Pecker. For most mere mortals it really isn't like that. At all :|
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if in Pecker's case it's a consequence of geography. As far away as you can get from London and the GMC. I wouldn't be surprised if that helps.
 
In an ideal world what sort of script would you like? I ask because from what I know I think that if you go in and present a non-addiction-related reason for needing benzos you're very likely to get the kind of script which most people who've ever taken drugs would scoff at, eg 7 days' worth of 2mg diaz, two to be taken each day, totalling a princely 28mg of diazepam... and actually, that's quite generous.

I SUSPECT it's more likely that if you go in and say there's a big event coming up you're scared about they'll give you a trifling dose of diazepam, if you say you can't sleep they'll give you a z-drug and if you say you're having panic attacks they'll try to get you on propranolol or something, or just refer you for counselling.

I SUSPECT that if you go in and explain your previous drug use honestly you won't get any benzos and your records will be marked for life.


Now, this is possibly a controversial view but I think it's worth putting across. I can see from a lot of your recent and not so recent posts that there are horrible ongoing events and situations in your life, things which you can't change at all, and also that you're moving countries, which is never fun. In short, a whole bunch of shit which would stress anybody out.

Could it be that your feeling fucked up is a perfectly natural and understandable response to your current situation and not as closely linked to your withdrawals as you think?

Could it be that you are placing your faith in another drug to 'mend' you when, actually, there are bad things happening in your life which a couple of blues (or more likely, yellows/whites) might help you to worry about slightly less for a very short period of time but which will be back when the script runs out?

I just think that you should look at these possibilities as honestly as you can because it could be dangerous relying on other drugs at this point... if you can even get them. You may well have the internal resources to do this without drugs.
 
You could also spin another story or something but be truthful about it, since in the UK you can get codeine and that, just pretend your addicted to that and the PAW's is killing you because for whatever reason in your story you took it for so long/blah blah. At least that way its downplayed to OTC abuse of drugs rather than heroin. Either way I irk the second I think of medical records being doused with drug use anything...... I'm pretty off ATM so if its shit advice so be it but.... at least its a thought better than having heroin marked forever on your record. I would just make some snowballing sob story of a sad girl who was only trying to use Codeine rightly at first but things got out of hand, you felt the W/D's for the first time, things were taken to far then/etc etc. Its the way i'd go if I was adamant on saying i'd used anything with any Dr present least lessen the pain!
 
jancrow said:
In an ideal world what sort of script would you like? I ask because from what I know I think that if you go in and present a non-addiction-related reason for needing benzos you're very likely to get the kind of script which most people who've ever taken drugs would scoff at, eg 7 days' worth of 2mg diaz, two to be taken each day, totalling a princely 28mg of diazepam... and actually, that's quite generous.

I SUSPECT it's more likely that if you go in and say there's a big event coming up you're scared about they'll give you a trifling dose of diazepam, if you say you can't sleep they'll give you a z-drug and if you say you're having panic attacks they'll try to get you on propranolol or something, or just refer you for counselling.

I SUSPECT that if you go in and explain your previous drug use honestly you won't get any benzos and your records will be marked for life.


Now, this is possibly a controversial view but I think it's worth putting across. I can see from a lot of your recent and not so recent posts that there are horrible ongoing events and situations in your life, things which you can't change at all, and also that you're moving countries, which is never fun. In short, a whole bunch of shit which would stress anybody out.

Could it be that your feeling fucked up is a perfectly natural and understandable response to your current situation and not as closely linked to your withdrawals as you think?

Could it be that you are placing your faith in another drug to 'mend' you when, actually, there are bad things happening in your life which a couple of blues (or more likely, yellows/whites) might help you to worry about slightly less for a very short period of time but which will be back when the script runs out?

I just think that you should look at these possibilities as honestly as you can because it could be dangerous relying on other drugs at this point... if you can even get them. You may well have the internal resources to do this without drugs.
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It's a good point jancrow, and I'm definitely well aware that most of the anxiety is coming from events in my life and is unrelated to the withdrawals. It's rather how violent it's become coincidentally ~5-7 days after quitting that bothers me. Obviously it's a little hard to figure out where to draw the line but I'm absolutely sure the withdrawals are having some kind of influence these days, simply because of how sudden and violent all the stress/panick attacks have been. I've been getting more and more stressed out about a lot of stuff over the past few months but it was never anywhere near this point (to be fair I was on opiates most of the time, but even on the days off it wasn't anything like this).
I mean I'm not a stressed-out person. At all. Despite everything that's happening it's definitely very much out of the norm for me to be reacting like this.

Tbh I hadn't even considered the fact that I would probably just be put on a rather pitiful script even if I am lucky enough to get one...they're rather nice about prescribing alprazolam in France which would be fantastic but it's true that if it's just for a couple weeks it'll probably do fuck all, even if this is WD related.

I'm sure I'm lying to myself a bit in saying this is all paws but I really do think they're not helping. I've had problems with benzos in the past and have taken them a grand total of maybe 15 times this past year to avoid going there again but it's just gotten to the point lately where I'm rather worried about what I might do to myself in one of those moments of panic and I'm not really sure how else to deal with it :\

Anyway I'm babbling but yeah, I think that answers most of your post. Thanks for bringing it up though, you're right, I need to think about that possibility some more. Thank you :)

And for all the other answers as well, very helpful, I'm glad I asked. I booked an appointment to see him on friday and if I decide to go through with it (jancrow I'll consider everything you said in the meantime) I'll omit the heroin part. I've already been needing opiate painkillers legitimately for the past 4 years (though sadly not enough for it to explain this, that would be too easy haha) so I'm not sure having that stopped at 19 is worth it :|
I think I've probably got enough other stuff going on atm that if he's willing to prescribe them in the first place, I'd surely qualify. Anyway I'll try without the drug abuse part. Thanks very much :)
 
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Pagey said:
...it's just gotten to the point lately where I'm rather worried about what I might do to myself in one of those moments of panic and I'm not really sure how else to deal with it :\
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I felt like that for the first time ever in my history of being depressed last week, and it was pretty frightening. Stress induced aswell, it was a really really bad week. Things have turned around though and are looking a lot less dreadful and inescapable as they were at the time,

So do remember those moments of panic are just that, moments, and don't last long. Goodluck with the dr.
 
based on experience around doctors, regarding your OP, id say that the answer would be a definite yes to question 1 and a highly likely yes to #2 but this might be ok depending on he actual doc.
however a big +1 to jancrows advice.
i wish you the best of luck pagey. let us know how it turns out
 
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