#1stresponders & Medication... A Complicated Topic

By Sean Riley - President & Founder Safe Call Now®

Here’s something I see too often with #1stresponders that call the Safe Call Now® crisis line.  Officers being over prescribed medication or prescribed medication that may not be necessary for what they’re currently dealing with.  Let me give you an example; I generally see when a #1stresponder experiences a traumatic event they may afterwards feel depressed, anxious and unable to sleep.  They’re searching for answers to these problems and visit their family doctor.  Too often they report that they are prescribed anti-depressants, sleep aids and benzodiazepines (something like Xanax) to deal with these issues.  I always say when you get this combination of all three going, at some point we at Safe Call Now® will be dealing with you.

Are we medicating normal feelings to an abnormal situation?  In most cases I believe so.  What gives me the ability or expertise to qualify this statement?  Through 23 years of addiction I was often prescribed these medications and just about everything else known to mankind and experienced their side effects and became dependent on some.  What do I see as the potential problem?  The health care industry is a complicated business and as I view it driven by the almighty dollar.  When I went to the doctor it seemed that I spent less time with them as their volume of seeing patients must increase to sometimes just break even when dealing with insurance companies.  Not their fault it’s just the way the system is set up.

Safe Call Now®’s Dr. Alex Cahana advised me of a study where the more time a doctor spent with a patient the better they got.  Those doctors that spent less time with a patient, their symptoms got worse.  Here’s the catch, the doctors that spent less time with their patients made more money for their entity.  Simple economics.  This is not to bash doctors as they are put into a tough situation.  In regards to #1stresponders, who is a doctor going to trust the most with medication and taking them responsibly?  You!!!  Therefor you’ll probably get prescribed whatever you want. 

When dealing with the brain, it’s a crapshoot and I don’t care what anybody says.  What works for one person may not work for another.  When you combine medications, constantly change the milligrams, titrate up and down for weeks on end how do you know when you’re feeling the way you’re supposed to or getting yourself back to normal?  I remember going to the doctor and he/she asking me how I felt.  My response was always, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel, that’s why I’m seeing you?” 

Remember when taking medications you are altering brain chemistry.  Throw in even a small amount of alcohol and you are compounding and altering the effect any other drugs being taken may have.   Just a horrible situation to be in.  I can only tell you about my experiences and other #1stresponders experiences as reported to me.  I am in no way a medical expert but if you’re currently in this situation you can contact us at Safe Call Now® and we can connect you with a professional in this field that can advise you with just one call and it’s confidential and protected by law.  Sometimes our problems are much smaller than they seem and sometimes they are much greater than we think.  We’re just a phone call away.  Stay safe out there.