can't afford to live

i'm faced with a dilemma right now. i'd been squirreling away doses of my meds for months just in case this happened, but i reached the end of my emergency supply last week and i am no longer a haver of zoloft. my psych refuses to write me a new prescription unless i see her, not even an emergency one to tide me over to a future appointment. the thing is i don't have any money for an appointment. i've already seen a doctor once this year, and at the rate my psych charges i'll be into my deductible and paying out of pocket if i see her. i have $142 in the bank -- $110 already has to go to my junior college tuition payment plan. instead of any empathy for my situation, i got lectured for not taking my medication properly and tapering off for a few weeks without supervision -- even as she forces me to go cold turkey without supervision. yesterday i got a letter in the mail -- i guess that was what she meant when she said she'd get back to me after i cried on the phone clearly in a crisis -- saying that if i don't make an appointment within 30 days i'll be dropped from treatment. maybe i'm just too poor to deserve to be well lmao whatever. what i'm trying to ask is should i make the appointment with the money i don't have just to get my meds back and end this sickness? or should i just tell her to go forth and fornicate with herself like my addled brain is telling me to? i don't know if i'm being irrational to be this upset about this, it just seems heartless to leave me in the cold like this. i feel like i'm being held hostage.

what i'm also trying to say is never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever evereverevereverever live in america if you can help it.

Make an appointment. Zoloft withdrawal could be the pits. When the bill comes request a payment plan. If they are reluctant, just send them some $$ monthly. You might also inquire about sliding scale fees.

Also look at the Wal-Mart $4 drugs. There are about 4 or 5 antidepressant as well as other mental health meds. While you have no insurance this might be a big help even if you have to try another drug.

You are in a tough spot. I would try to do without most anything before I would interrupt .y meds. If I didn't take them I would quickly become non functional in every way. Hope you find a solution if this doesn't work.

Ive asked a psychiatrist to bulk bill me before. It worked but the therapeutic relationship was challenged and I changed doctors.

I am bulk billed by my family GP and so no out of pocket costs, he does my scripts, however the prescriptions I have for depression/anxiety are minimal at best so he is happy to prescribe them. There are many prescriptions GPs aren't willing to touch, they would prefer to involve a specialist such as a psychiatrist.

Do you have any community centres that provide no/low fee psychiatrist sessions? Perhaps your current psychiatrist could refer you so as to avoid huge payments?

there are many free services here in america where people can get professional help and meds. many homeless shelters have a list of treatment providers that do pro bono work, many crisis centers have psychiatrists on staff where how much you pay depends upon how much income you have sometimes the fee is as low as 0-25 ... churches can also help put you in touch with free and low income help...

my suggestion maybe you can locate free services around your location and near by towns that can help you. some are easy to locate like in phone directories, google and so on. good luck hope everything works out.

thanks guys, i went ahead and made the appointment and i'll negotiate as much as i can. i make too much for any low income programs in my area, believe me i tried before i resorted to a private practice, and the things i have to say to her about this situation they've put me in are gonna bury what minimal "therapeutic" relationship we had lmao.

zoloft, do you have anyone who can help you pay for the appointment?

my dad's offered to help me out next month if it eats into my deductible, but that always feels bad since he doesn't make much more than i do. my mom just gave me $100 for textbooks a couple weeks ago, so i don't want to burden her for money again so soon either. i know they're my parents and they probably want to help but it always makes me feel like a failure needing to depend on them in my mid twenties when they're barely making it too.

The Wal-Mart 400 $4 meds are for any financial bracket. You don't have to be low income.

So a doctor thinks it is unsafe for you to keep taking a med you're used to without an appointment, unsafe to taper but it is perfectly safe for you to just quit it with any support? I mean she is the one that could prevented this, but clearly money is her priority. Maybe other patients have gotten tired of her and dumped her.

sorry, i should have added that med prices are the least of my issues. my insurance actually has a solid pharmacy policy so i rarely pay more than $5 a month. it's just getting the prescription itself that's a problem.

i’m at the appointment and she’s 20 minutes late. i am truly at the bottom of her priorities list l m a o. i am way too hungry to not start screaming the second her office door shuts, **** this place.

45 minutes late 🙃

my god, it is so easy for people who are comfy and secure in their finances to judge people who aren't. i got another lecture that this was all my fault actually for not making an appointment sooner and assuming they didn't have payment options and not taking my meds as regularly as i should have. what's the point of reporting in once a month if all i have to say is that i feel fine? it's all money. it's all a scam. i have my prescription thankfully, but she was so late i was almost late back to work. i didn't even have the energy to be outwardly angry. any time i did express my irritation with this situation she just turned it back on me and made it my fault. i don't even trust my own feelings of being manipulated. we lowered my dosage to 50 since i was taking my 100s about every other day for a while, but the whole POINT of taking them every other day was to save money on checking in with her every other month. i'm so screwed.

(((((zoloft)))))

Go to this appointment but get a different doc.

you cant go to a community clinic or the emergency room? theyre usually happy to drug adults with few questions asked

I m sure this situation doesn't apply to you because your doctor would have already informed you about it. However some states have passed n are passing new laws concerning pain pills n other controlled pills including benzos. My state just passed it this summer. Here to get a new prescription n maybe refills you have to be urine tested before you can get the prescription. So once a month you not only pay Dr visit fees but Lab work too. For veterans in the VA system this law doesn't apply because the VA is a federal agency and state laws don't apply. Which is where I happen to fit. Even tho I don't pay for my care who wants the state to decide you have to have Lab work done in order to get a prescription. I think this is so wrong.

I would find another therapist using the resources in your community as others here have suggested.

And then I would register a complaint with her licensing board. She is an unethical quack and needs to be disciplined.

Sorry. I have been very physically ill n I was mixing up Zoloft n Xanax. So my post was out of order.

@ Zoloft haver:

1. Why don't you go to a walk-in counseling center in your city that is free? It's usually staffed by a couple of licensed social workers, and the rest are grad students doing field work at these places, to get their social worker's license. The point: the counseling is free.

2. You can go to your medical doctor and ask them to write you the Zoloft prescription. You don't need to see a psychiatrist anymore to get an antidepressant.

3. Sounds like you don't like your psych doctor. Get a new one. Or ask your primary care doctor to prescribe you the antidepressant instead.

4. See a social worker at your medical clinic instead.

For your meds go to the ER , they have to treat you

Wow...awful treatment, I can empathise to some extent. Perhaps it's time for a new doc

Hey Zoloft,
I feel for you. I don't take meds, BUT I've always had money issues get in the way of therapy - by which I mean that therapists can't seem to grasp how working AND being on a low income demands a kind of courage that sitting in a comfy consulting room making judgements on other people doesn't. It's a different world, a different mind-set - from psychotherapy.

I'm now writing and possibly publishing about how poverty affects people mentally, but becoming more assertive and articulate about it has only distanced me further from the whole therapy profession.

Where I'm located we don't have subsidised clinics any more. I'm talking Western Europe - I know the US has differences.

I wish you well!! You sure sound like you are coping well with a super difficult situation, so please keep fighting and taking care of yourself cos I think you are super worth it!