I've added a "protracted withdrawal" link to the drop-down menus above. I wanted to call attention to it and so I'm also sharing a bit of correspondence I recently had with an injured comrade with protracted withdrawal syndrome below. ...
I see in retrospect that some core, vital part of me was always there during the drugged years, learning and remembering much that would help me in these years of coming off meds and now being med free. I no longer believe that I “lost” my life to drugs. This is, as Mary Oliver, puts it, my "one wild and precious life."
Hello, terror, my old friend... I was born into a home filled with terror and grief. Terror and grief, thus, became the most familiar thing in my reality. (this terror and grief was largely unconscious and unspoken, so uncovering it took the willingness to honestly look at what was really there) And to be clear: we are all born into a world filled with terror and grief. ...
By Georgi Y. Johnson - Dread is a fusion of anger and fear, in a cloud of threatening horror, that moves between and through people. In the social field, it is channeled through hidden agendas of entities that have lost connection with a deeper truth and purpose. - Firmly rooted in the belief of either-or, or kill or be killed, the agenda of dread is mostly occupied with possession: the possession of another human; the possession of things; the possession of truth; or the possession of status.
This was first published on David Healy's site, RxIsk: Making Medicine's Safer for All of Us, about 4 years ago. I've never published it on this site and thought I'd do so now so that it will be part of the archives here as well. It's a memoir of sorts up to that point 4 years ago.
By Richard Lewis -- As the benzodiazepine crisis spreads throughout the United States and other parts of the world so does the debate within the benzo victim/survivor community about important definitions of key medical terms and about safe and successful paths to healing and recovery. Does “iatrogenic benzo dependence” and “addiction” represent completely separate medical and social phenomena? If they are to have distinctly different scientific definitions, can they also (at the same time) intersect in multiple ways in people’s actual real life experience? And what is the medical and social significance of exploring these concepts and seeking unity of understanding and purpose? Before delving into the content of this debate let’s briefly review the social context from which this “Benzo Divide” has emerged.
By MATTHEW PURINTON, LCSW -- When I was born, everyone was expecting me to have arms. My father was perched outside the delivery room in front of a circular window framed in 70s seafoam green, and his view was blocked as I was brought into the world. The doctor's mind raced: how am I going to tell this mother and father that their son has hands but not arms? ...
By Renée Schuls-Jacobson -- It’s been thirty months since I took my last bit of Klonopin, a dangerously addictive medication that a doctor prescribed for me when I was suffered from insomnia. Thirty months since my world flipped upside down. -- These days, I don’t take any prescribed medication. None. And I dumped my psychiatrist. ...
By Eric R. Maisel Ph.D. Rethinking Mental Health Posted first on Psychology Today -- the series should be followed there. The work from this site, Beyond Meds will be covered in one of the interviews. ... This blog post introduces a hundred-day series of interviews on Psychology Today with folks from around the world committed to non-traditional ways of helping individuals suffering from emotional and mental distress.
I continue to be pleased to know this blog is being used as the resource I’d hoped it would become.
Everything matters 
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