My doctor has been giving me xanax the last few appointments in order to combat anxiety caused by the Abilify.
When he prescribed me, his assistant explained their strict benzo policies, like no refills without an appointment, only a weeks worth at a time, etc… lots of rules. I don’t care because I don’t like taking them and am at no risk of abusing them.
So this last appointment he gave me my regular prescription even though I had several left from the last, but anyway, I go to fill them and when I get the bottle, it has 6 refills. The zoloft he gave me on a trial basis, also only two weeks worth, was given 8 refills.
I know he didn’t mean to give me any refills on any of these medications.
It must have been a mistake, a mistake I hope he only made with me.
I tried to call his assistant, but she hasn’t called me back and never does.
I feel like I’ve done something wrong for some reason, I guess because he tries to control these so rigidly.
I would keep the refills…less need to be bothered everytime you see your pdoc…if they don’t call you on it what’s the harm? you’re so lucky to get benzo’s…my pdoc is strictly no on that subject.
Aren’t you worried that he will catch his mistake later and question you later about why you didn’t notify him? At the least it will make you look bad. At the worst it could make him not trust you. I would keep trying to get in touch with him.
The onus is kind of on you to keep trying to reach him. They may be busy and not have time to answer every message. Just to be on the safe side, I would leave a message stating the situation. Who knows, they may call you later today. It’s even in the realm of possibility that the pharmacist might catch the mistake and call the doctor and you don’t want to come off like you’re trying to do something dishonest or maybe even illegal. It just seems like a bad idea to give up on correcting the mistake. If you keep the pills without telling him he may never find out. But there’s still a possibility that he will discover the mistake. Like I said, you don’t want to be accused of doing something dishonest.
@Ninjastar may be right and there is nothing that can be done to change the refills. But I would still call him. It will only take a few minutes out of your day and whether you are not trying to pull a fast one, he may still get in his mind that you are doing something dishonest or trying to hide something.
I don’t think there is anything he can do about it at this point. The prescription has already been filled. But be very careful with the extra benzos. You might not think you’re at risk for developing an addiction, but addiction can kind of sneak up on you. Those are very potent meds.
I would recommend calling him and asking just to be sure. Sometimes people make mistakes, or maybe he intends on having you on it for longer than you thought. I know xanex can be very habit forming, which is why I would make sure with him before you keep taking it if you don’t need it.
It never hurts to make sure, and keep yourself safe.
The Dr should be able to contact the pharmacist to reduce the number of available refills left on the Rx. Also, typically the pharmacist should not refill the Rx early to prevent overuse of the med. In other words, if you have a 2week Rx, the pharmacist would not refill it until close to the 2week date.
Maybe I’ve been out of the life loop too much due to being clean and sober and I lost tabs on how things work for the average person living their life but I actually can’t believe that you would not tell your doctor.
And I can’t believe the advice of people encouraging you to not tell you’re doctor. Nothing personal. Sure, when I was an irresponsible twenty-five year old in my active addiction decades ago smoking crack and lying and cheating this problem would be a no-brainer. I would have not told my doctor about his mistake. But now as a responsible adult the no-brainer would be contacting the doctor about the mistake. You said “maybe” you’ll tell him. You should definitely tell him. I’ll repeat, no one plans on becoming an addict or alcoholic.
But that’s not even the main point here. These are powerful medications and keeping this a secret is dishonest, a slight possibility that its illegal, and just commonsense is to tell the doc his mistake. I wash my hands of answering this post anymore. Nothing personal.