Pharmacists at a city centre shop were left terrified when a knifeman handed over a note threatening to kill if he wasn't given drugs.
Shaun Burn approached a woman working in Boots, on Blackett Street, in Newcastle, and gave her a piece of paper with a handwritten message demanding diazepam and pregabalin.
He wrote that he was carrying a knife and would kill her if she didn't comply.
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Her fear soared when she looked at him and saw he had his hand inside his jacket as if holding something.
Liam O'Brien, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: "She believed he was holding a knife and that she was in danger.
"She took the threat at face value and was in fear for her life and the lives of colleagues."
Burn, 30, later confirmed to police he did have his hand on a knife at that moment .
The pharmacist gave the note to a colleague and Burn said: "I f****** need my medication now."
The second pharmacist said she was terrified and her colleague pressed a panic button and went to try to find a security guard.
Burn then shouted at the second victim: "Just give me the medication, I don't want to do anything stupid."
He eventually gave up and fled empty-handed before calling the police himself.
Mr O'Brien said: "He told the police he had a knife and needed to be locked up for his own safety and that of members of the public.
"He then made an alarming and concerning admission."
Burn told police: "I've had it in my head all day I'm going to kill someone. I've walked up to some people and something tells me not to but I f****** think that I want to."
When asked why, he said: "I think it's something I've got to do to kill myself and get help."
He said he was near McDonald's at the top of the Bigg Market and police attended to arrest him.
He had an eight inch knife which he had bought in Sunderland that morning. He was also in possession of drug Spice.
On his way to custody, he said: "I just want to go back to prison, it's no good for me out here."
In a victim impact statement, the first pharmacist said: "I was in genuine fear for my life.
"I'm scared he may return to hurt me because he made a threat to."
Her colleague, a pharmacist for 16 years, said she had never been threatened in such a way and was "terrified".
Burn, of no fixed address, who has 90 previous convictions and had only been released on licence from a previous sentence for burglary three days earlier, admitted attempted robbery and possessing a bladed article.
John Crawford, defending, said: "His mental health was in a poor place, partly self-inflicted.
"The medication he was trying to get was in order to try to overdose."
