Stupid pill limits!

It makes no sense other than financial sense foe the insurance company but Im on state insurance so i guess the state is trying to save a buck.

you are very lucky to get a months supply of 1mg 4x a day script! My pdoc is reluctant to give me 30 .5mg a month! I seen another pdoc tell me straight out she doesn't believe in benzos and will never prescribe them. WTF? I don't care what she believes. I don't see her any more.

Im having the same problem but with adhd meds, even non stimulants. Its like my pdoc doesnt beleive in thenm. He says he will only even evaluate me for adhd officially if i go off 3 meds and 300mg wellbutrin doesnt help my attention, (which it wont, because its not an adhd med). So i have to play the waiting game and just hope for the best. I want to get this sorted out before grad school.

Risu, I have limits on my medication. This just started this year. My pdoc said they are not allowed to be doctors anymore; just dispensers per the drug companies orders. No matter what she has tried, she cannot get my medication up to the point I need. I'm so sorry this is happening to you.

Risu, have you asked the pharmacy how much the extra (non-covered) klonopin would be out-of-pocket? Generic benzos can be quite cheap. I agree you shouldn't have to pay more for them (insurance companies suck!), but depending on your financial situation it might be worth it to save the hassle.

She doesn't believe in benzos? Lol. Well, I don't believe in panic attacks.
What an *****.

And my pdoc doesn't believe in ADHD.

I think she's okay with the 4mg of clonazepam a day (this is as needed by the way. I usually just take two) because my GAD is so severe, and she doesn't want me to have another anxiety induced psychosis situation again. Unfortunately she's leaving, so who knows what the next psychiatrist I see is going to say about it. Sigh.

But, luckily, she gave me four refills of it, so even if the next person I see has a problem with it, I'll have enough to last awhile.

Unless they can somehow DC the order before you get all your refills.

I take two clonopin during the day (at work or school) and three mg to sleep. I have SEVERE insomnia and sometimes even that combined with Geodon and ambien and hydroxyzine doesn't put me to sleep at all.

I too have severe insomnia and ambien and hydroxyzine do absolutely nothing for me. The only thing that consistently worked was trazodone, but I had to stop taking it because it can exacerbate a prolonged Qt interval, which I often have bc of electrolyte abnormalities due to an eating disorder. Your psych will probably be convinced that it will cause a manic episode, but maybe something to discuss trying, at least in small doses?
Regarding the benzos. Klonopin, even generic, can be kind of expensive to pay cash for. I know you're on a state sponsored plan so I doubt your co-pays are much and I'm guessing money is tight? There are a couple other long acting benzos that are effective for sleep that either your insurance might pay for because it's a different med or if not, they're much cheaper. Flurazepam can be used for insomnia and it's less than 10$/month for 30 30 mg tabs and chlordiazepoxide is technically indicated for anxiety, but could be used for sleep and is even less, around 7 or 8$ or 30 25 mg tablets. Maybe something to bring up at your next appt.
Looking at your meds, Geodon can be really stimulating. When do you take it? Do you take the second dose at night? Can you try taking it in the afternoon, say 2 or 3? May help you sleep some at night.
And of course there's all that stuff with good sleep hygiene and white noise, cool, dark environment, no tv/phone/computer an hour before bed etc.
Hope a little of this helps. Good luck.

I think you must be thinking of a different ap because Geodon is incredibly sedating. I used to have a problem because it has to be taken with food and at work dinner is served at 5 (we get to eat with the elderly residents we serve) and I would be so tired by the end of my shift at 11 om that I couldn't keep my eyes open and worried about the drive home. So I take it around 8 or 9 now. It doesn't out me to sleep though, it just makes me really tired.

I've tried trazodone before several times but I happened to go slightly manic while on it ( probably stress related not med relayed but pdoc don't think like that) so trapdoor is on my banned list too. It didn't work very well for me anyway even at 350 mg.

Thanks for the med recommendations! I'll write them down and bring them up if my ambien poops out after a few months like it has in the past. I think I just get a tolerance to it.

You're right money is tight but I switched pharmacies to the pharmacy at my clinic and they're going to absorb the extra cost I would have to pay to get the right amount per month filled. So problem solved finally!

I try to keep good sleep hygiene. The only thing I break the rules on is no screens but I have an app that filters out the blue light that keeps you from creating melatonin so it's kind of a work around.

Thank you for your detailed response!

That's interesting. Geodon is actually considered the most stimulating of all the atypical antipsychotics. Glad it makes you a little sleepy though. Glad the pharmacy is absorbing the cost so you can get the meds you need. Take care.

Can they really do that? I doubt I'm going to be able to get in to see whatever new doctor I'm being referred within four months. Shi*

Sucks about your insomnia. I hope it gets better.

My sleep has evened out a bit since my recent manic episode but I still have sleepless night 2 or 3 times a week. I've learned to function on no sleep so I don't consider it a big deal but I know it can be a risk factor for mania.

I'm pretty sure they can do that because when my pdoc changed my clonopin from 1 to 2 mg he DCed the refills on the 1 mg so I wouldn't possibly be double filling. Not that I would.

I think they can dc anything they don't want you to be taking anymore.

That's unfortunate.

I hope that doesn't happen to you.

I don't think it will. She purposely gave me four refills on it because I'm probably not going to be able to get in to see someone else once she leaves for over four months. She gave me four refills on everything else too (seroquel, lamictal, propranolol). I had one refill left on my old clonazepam prescription (the one that was just for 2mg a day). I'm sure that one has been DCed. It's silly. Not that I would try to call it in anyway.

When I was on alprazolam I had 4mg of that a day too, but my old doctor cut it in half rather rapidly (to 2mg), and I still had refills on the 4mg a day, but it was DCed, not that I would have tried to call it in anyway! Jeez. Sometimes with this stuff I feel like the pharmacists treat me like some benzo junkie or something. And I don't understand it. OF COURSE when you've been on a medicine for a long period of time you're going to become dependent on it! If I just stopped taking my lamictal I'd be in trouble too. I'm dependent on that also. I just don't see what the difference is.

I don't get it either. I guess because pill junkies exist we all have to be treated like pill junkies.

Are you going to be okay not seeing anyone for 4 months? Do you still have a therapist?

I don't have a therapist. I can never find one I like. The last one I had I just stopped seeing because all we did was argue, and I didn't trust her. I hope I'll be alright not seeing someone.

I dont see how 15 ambien per month is admissable. What am i supposed to do? Sleep half the month? Thats what ive been doing for the past 3 months and probably part of why i went manic.

Risu, I ran up against the Ambien pill limit, too. I just couldn't function without Ambien to help me sleep. It is so stupid and nearsighted of the FDA to decide against Ambien as if everybody is the same. They're so concerned about some folks driving the next morning. Well, what could be worse than someone trying to drive when they haven't slept for days? I was allowed 90 pills for all of 2015!

I quit getting it from the mental health clinic and went to my primary care doc. He gives me a prescription for the generic, Zolpidem 10 mg. and I can legally bypass my insurance, but just take it to Walmart. In 5 minutes, Walmart made out a discount ID for me and the Zolpidem was just $7.95 for 30 pills. I have long passed my 90 pill limit, and it's just between me and the doc, like it should always be!

A friend of mine told me about discount cards too. I should have asked my old pharmacy if they had one. 90 for a year is ridiculous. It's absurd. The insurance companies think ambien is just for people with mild occasional insomnia not realizing that people with severe mental illness need this drug every day to stay mentally well.

I feel your pain, so to speak. My headache medicine has a limit of 9 pills each month, seriously 9!! So if a headache come more frequently i am just out of luck. I tried all over the counter stuff and nothing puts a dent into the pain...best one yet is BC powder. It lessens it but it is still there.
I was told those limits and prior authorization is to protect us. So we don't abuse the medications, but really it is also for them to monitor us and make sure we don't sell it on the street.

9 pills a month is ridiculous even if it is a narcotic (and I'm not even sure it is). I'm running into pill limits again because I switched away from my usual pharmacy for a month and it didn't work and now it's like I'm starting from scratch. I have to convince the pharmacy to let me buy the pills that are prescribef that are over the limit out of pocket. So far it's a no go.