Tag: benzodiazepine withdrawal

One Nation, Under Sedation

The title from the ProPublica article from the other day was too good to not highlight and share. What does it mean that we are, indeed, a nation under sedation? I think it means we are not awake to what is going on around us in far too many ways and that we'd better take heed. I'm just sharing a link to the article and then cutting and pasting my benzo page below it. The benzodiazepine information page takes a critical look at the prescribing of benzodiazepines and offers suggestions about how one might free themselves if one already takes and is perhaps addicted to the drugs. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

What should doctors know about psychiatric drug withdrawal?



The truth is that far too often MDs are not only untrained in helping folks come off psych drugs, they also don't know how to recognize serious withdrawal issues. Just as Baylissa speaks about in the video. It makes for a very dangerous situation. A lot of folks are told that their very serious withdrawal issues are psychiatric and not real. I'm now going to cut and paste an old post about this phenomena that includes some suggestions about how one might go about finding a doctor to work with if one decides they'd like to come off psychiatric drugs. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

SSRI vs benzodiazepine withdrawal

mouth with pill for SSRI vs benzodiazepine

As Baylissa clearly says above, withdrawal syndromes can be equally devastating for both SSRI/SNRI users and benzo users. Often times this is not understood. I've also seen people have severe issues that are also similar with the so-called mood stabilizers as well as the neuroleptics. All the psychiatric drugs, even though they have different mechanisms of action when it comes to their (so-called) therapeutic intent, challenge the nervous system in ways that can cause broad and systemic problems upon withdrawal and even simply after long-term use. The autonomic nervous system disregulation that results hence creates similar protracted issues in the user regardless of drug. We see the most documentation of these issues with the SSRIs and benzos. Benzodiazepine drugs have the longest history and so this phenomena is more frequently recognized with benzos. The neuroleptics and mood stabilizers have the least literature and documentation but it's clear that they too have very serious issues. Lamictal, a anti-seizure drug used as a "mood stabilizer" clearly causes very serious issues. …

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