Our primary goal at BenzoBuddies is to support our members while they withdraw from benzodiazepines. Each volunteer member of the team has gone through, or is going through, withdrawal and can wholeheartedly relate to the feelings of despair, despondence, and hopelessness that accompany withdrawal.
Ideation is sometimes part of the symptom profile of withdrawal. While we can empathize with these thoughts, we cannot allow any discussion of suicide, self-harm, and/or feelings of wanting to harm others.
The reason behind this is two-fold:
• We simply cannot offer help in any way other than urging members to seek face-to-face support and providing links and/or phone numbers to crisis hotlines. We have a page available with a list of resources for those in need of such help:
Self-Harm Resources In addition to the international resources listed in the self harm document, the United States has activated 988 — a new 3-digit dialing code connecting people to the
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at:
https://988lifeline.org/Lifeline offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. This can include thoughts of suicide, mental health or substance use crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. People concerned about a loved one who may need crisis support can also access 988. When people call or text 988, the trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary. Lifeline is also available via chat at:
https://988lifeline.org/chat/• References to self-harm or harming others are triggering to many of our members. The forum needs to be a safe place for everyone. While it may help one member to write about their ideation, it may be extremely unsettling for another to read such posts. There are dedicated forums and resources for people struggling with these kinds of thoughts. BenzoBuddies is not one of them.
In order to keep the forum running smoothly, and to protect our membership, we do not allow discussion of the following:
- Suicide, including ideation, attempts (past, present or future), plans/planning, or threats
- Self-Harm, including ideation, attempts (past, present or future), plans/planning, or threats
- Harming Others, including ideation, attempts (past, present or future), plans/planning, or threats
Please be aware, this includes veiled references as well. Examples of veiled references include, but are not limited to:
"I can't go on any longer" /" I'm nearing the end" /" the thing I'm not allowed to talk about" /" I hope I die".
As some wording can be benign, the team will use the general tone of the post(s) to determine whether or not a sentence/phrase is a veiled reference.
Posts or portions of posts that do not follow these guidelines will be removed, and the member will be sent an explanation via PM.
We thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
The BenzoBuddies Team
