There are quite a few relatively mainstream doctors now talking about the harms of benzodiazepines and anti-depressants on social media. As usual other psychiatric drugs (neuroleptics, anti-convulsants, — called anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers, etc) are given short shrift.
This is about informed consent. If people don’t know about the very serious potential risks involved in chronic use of these drugs, they cannot make a reasonable choice. Short-term targeted use in crisis is a whole different ball-game than being on them for life which is what is generally recommended for many people.
Allen Francis MD who was chair of the DSM-IV Task Force and is currently professor emeritus at Duke is one of them. He’s talking mostly about benzos lately on twitter and touches a bit on anti-depressants and poly-drugging in a vague sort of way.
I said to him (also via twitter):
note: If you have a twitter account *like* and *retweet* this to Allen Francis and join the conversation.
Please speak to the dangerousness of chronic use of ALL psych drugs. All psych drugs harm but those taking heavier hitting drugs like neuroleptics (and cocktails with multiple drugs) are being left out of the conversation. Those drugs routinely kill and little is said about it.
Zyprexa, for example has killed more people than Vioxx ever did and it continues to kill daily – Vioxx was removed from market but Zyprexa has not been. Why? Because those labeled crazy are considered expendable. The risk is considered worth it. I say bullshit.
In 2008 … this was already true…now deaths have likely doubled or tripled…come on people this is insanity. Those being treated, not so insane.
FDA Finds Zyprexa Has Killed 3,400 People, Worse Than Vioxx —Zyprexa has killed more people than Vioxx ever did
Benzodiazepines as well as all psych drugs are potentially highly toxic and deadly. Please let us be inclusive and help everyone who is being prescribed dangerous drugs in the name of medicine. If medicine doesn’t heal, can it really be called medicine? I think not.
- Psychiatric drugs cause harm: World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day: – YouTube
- Consent and choice: psychiatric drugs (a collection)– Everything Matters: Beyond Meds
- Psychiatric Drugs Send 90,000 to the ER Yearly – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds
- What does the research say about the effects of long-term use of psychiatric drugs? – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds
Again: If you have a twitter account *like* and *retweet* this to Allen Francis and join the conversation.
Oh, Marianne Williamson is getting on it too and she has a large audience that reaches a lot of mainstream folks…I tweeted to her too but twitter search isn’t so good so I can’t find that tweet…here is one to support her on. We need to help her understand about all the other psych drugs too.
How many public personalities on antidepressants have to hang themselves before the FDA does something, Big Pharma cops to what it knows, and the average person stops falling for this? The tragedies keep compounding. The awakening should begin.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) June 5, 2018
***
*it is potentially dangerous to come off medications without careful planning. Please be sure to be well educated before undertaking any sort of discontinuation of medications. If your MD agrees to help you do so, do not assume they know how to do it well even if they claim to have experience. They are generally not trained in discontinuation and may not know how to recognize withdrawal issues. A lot of withdrawal issues are misdiagnosed to be psychiatric problems. This is why it’s good to educate oneself and find a doctor who is willing to learn with you as your partner in care. Really all doctors should always be willing to do this as we are all individuals and need to be treated as such. See: Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up
It’s become clear to me that whenever it’s possible that it’s helpful for folks who’ve not begun withdrawal and have the time to consider a carefully thought out plan to attempt to bring greater well-being to your body before starting the withdrawal. That means learning how to profoundly nourish your body/mind and spirit prior to beginning a withdrawal. For suggestions on how to go about doing that check the drop-down menus on this blog for ideas. Anything that helps you learn how to live well can be part of your plan. That plan will look different for everyone as we learn to follow our hearts and find our own unique paths in the world. Things to begin considering are diet, exercise and movement, meditation/contemplation etc. Paying attention to all these things as you do them helps too. The body will start letting us know what it needs as we learn to pay attention.
For a multitude of ideas about how to create a life filled with safe alternatives to psychiatric drugs visit the drop-down menus at the top of this page or scroll down the homepage for more recent postings.
Support Everything Matters: Beyond Meds. Make a donation with PayPal or Enter Amazon via a link from this blog and do the shopping you’d be doing anyway. No need to purchase the book the link takes you to. Thank you!