Tired of anxiety complaints

[mariajane]

I mean no ill-will or to express lack of sympathy towards people who experience anxiety, but i cannot help but notice that medicating to treat anxiety has become more of an expectation on the part of patients over the course of my career... and by medicate i mean benzo’s. I’ve become admittedly indifferent when patient after patient after patient complains about being anxious, nervous, stressed, panic attacks, etc

The default on the part of clinicians is to write for SOMETHING. It’s an annoying complaint and we just want to be done with it, but at some point don’t patients just need to try other things besides pill pop? Meditate? Prayer? Hobbies? Volunteering? Counseling? Music? Breathing? Why has xanax become so ubiquitous?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted480308]

“I don’t write that medicine because it’s not appropriate. We can talk about more appropriate medicines or you can get a referral “

 

[mariajane]

“I don’t write that medicine because it’s not appropriate. We can talk about more appropriate medicines or you can get a referral “

Correcto. With rare exception, i dont write for them. I just wonder if a symptom-free, stress-free, pain-free life is the expectation now for a majority? For example, patient has difficult personal situation ... rather than engaging coping mechanisms, it’s an automatic phone call to the doctor. Ankle sprAin... automatically want opioids. Where, when, why did we develop such delusional expectations?

 

[Ho0v-man]

Correcto. With rare exception, i dont write for them. I just wonder if a symptom-free, stress-free, pain-free life is the expectation now for a majority? For example, patient has difficult personal situation ... rather than engaging coping mechanisms, it’s an automatic phone call to the doctor. Ankle sprAin... automatically want opioids. Where, when, why did we develop such delusional expectations?

During the opioid epidemic, before we acknowledged it was a problem, it was routine for docs to essentially snow patients. You get higher satisfaction scores if your patients can’t even feel their feelings. Now that the docs who’ve refilled benzos (and opioids before it became difficult) endlessly without a follow up visit are retiring, people are looking for new dealers.