I recently lost my private insurance and I’m about four months shy of Medicare, so I visited the local VA Clinic for some pain meds. (I have five (count ‘em) herniated discs.)
I took all the preliminary blood and urine tests (perfect) and got an appointment to see the doctor.
Twice during the prescreening, once during the doctor’s exam and again after getting my scripts I was rigorously grilled as to my possible anxieties, depression, PTSD and anything else they could think of that might qualify for some psych drugs.
It was as if they were having a fire sale on the stuff.
They seemed positively disappointed when I assured them that VietNam was over 40 years in my past and definitely not a problem for me.
But the push to take psych meds was obvious.
Ouch!
I have a friend who had three (central herniations, the kind that poke at the spinal cord), and it took him years to convince the doctors that the problem wasn't in his head.
After the laminectomies he still had severe back pain, and when he finally convinced them to do another MRI, they found the piece of scalpel blade in his back...but the whole time the docs pushed psych meds at him and claimed the problem was in his head.