Originally Posted by
tgull
Curious, if you are on a mild, non-abusive level of benzos why go through the agony of quitting? It sounds like this is not affecting your day to day life.
I’ve had the same scripts for 20 years, but ever since all the overdose deaths, it became a big deal. I used to go once every 6 months and get 6 refills and no one gave a fuck.
Now it’s an incredible pain in the ass because I need a monthly script. They can’t give you refills. They need you to come in every month and do a urine test. The urine test costs me $275 every month until I hit my deductible. I could buy a years worth on the street for $100 given how little I take, but I also have a pain script for a small amount of Percocet monthly from a different doctor. It’s so small that they don’t test me every month, but maybe every 3 months.
But if I just bought Xanax or Ativan on the street, its only a matter of time until I flunk a urine screen because the whole problem is I’m physically dependent and take it every night, so I’d eventually flunk a screen. It’s not like I could just not take it for 3 days before the test. So I’d lose the pain script and he discharged from the clinic because it wouldn’t be legally in my system. I’m not dependent on the pain pils at all. I go weeks without taking any. But I’ll take quite e few for awhile if it’s bad and would rather keep the script.
So then I’d have to buy both on the street, which would still be much cheaper given how little I take, but the moment I get pulled over for anything and they test me, which now in PA is a mandatory blood test(no more breathalyzer) they’d ding me for a DUI even for trace amounts in my system. If I had it on me for any reason it would be possession.
Plus I get injections into my neck and shit at the pain clinic, and they wouldn’t do that shit if I was discharged. I don’t have panic attacks, so even though I’ll be miserable for a few weeks, they’ve made it such a pain to get that it’s worth just quitting.
I always said I’d never quit it and go through that shit again, but saw the writing on the wall. They hate that combination. Opiates/benzos. Someone new could never even get that prescribed. I’ve got away with it only because I was already on it, don’t have neck tattoos or fit any junkie profile, but it’s more hassle every year and they were basically going to make me choose one or the other eventually. When you’ve been on benzos this long, they don’t do anything for me. I don’t feel them. I only feel it when I don’t have them.
So once I’m off, I won’t miss them. Losing the ability to occasionally get out of pain on bad days would alter my life.