Word is getting out there at long last.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4354304/Thousands-turned-drug-addicts-doctors.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4354894/A-million-patients-anti-depressants-don-t-need.html

 

This article was also in today's Daily Mail in the UK.

 

I am so pleased that this newspaper is backing our campaign.  However, they are still using the words "addict" and "addiction".  It seems that they are using these words for journalistic effect.  I impressed upon one journalist, Jo Waters, not to use these terms.  She may have little control over what is finally printed.  If this campaign results in some Government action, I am prepared to put up with this misuse of terminology.

 

I might be featured next week or maybe not ... who knows .. no doubt I too will be portrayed as an addict.

 

Our FB campaign group is now called "Prescribed Harm (UK)" or "PHUK" for short.

 

Join us on Facebook if our are interested.  We are currently writing to our MPs asking them to support the call for a Health Select Committee Inquiry (UK Govt).  We need everyone in the UK to join in this campaign.

 

And thank you to all who have signed petition.  Now over 1,100 signatures.  :thumbsup:

 

https://www.change.org/p/health-select-committee-an-independent-inquiry-into-benzodiazepines

 

Fiona 

I just read the links and I thank you both for posting....This whole "thing" is mind boggling and it hasn't yet turned around...the numbers of  all nationalities being abused by Psych drugs is

unconscionable.  Big Pharma has no interest in anything but blocking efforts to change prescribing preactices.  And here we are...

I know Choco.  It is atrocious.  I guess the general public need to waken up to the facts.  I hope the publicity will help to make more people aware.

 

Fiona 

 

 

Good to see the article in a leading UK paper and hope the US starts getting the word out as well.  Thanks Fiona for all your hard work

 

And thank-you DD58 for bringing this important article to our attention-really made my day

Thank you dd58 and Fiona for posting.  Glad to see these this morning.  Have forwarded to psychiatrists.

 

"Our FB campaign group is now called "Prescribed Harm (UK)" or "PHUK" for short."    I like it.

I missed the PHUK thing the first time I read this post. Love it! Perfect.

Thank you, DD58 and Fiona, for giving us this information. It's wonderful that these articles are coming out. It's about time!! I do wish that there would be an article specifically about benzos, and I agree, there's the word "addiction" again. But overall I'm very pleased with the coverage. I wish the info would come to the U.S., which is so woefully blind to the benzo disaster. Love the name!!

I've just read the article on benzos, and overall, I'm quite pleased with the content. I just wish they'd use the proper terminology. "Addict" is wrong for this situation, and if only they could have clarifed the difference between that and "physiological dependence" or "iatrogenic illness", it would have been an excellent piece. Still, I'm grateful for the coverage for the fact that the paper is making a political move by backing the calls to action. I haven't seen such a thing here, but perhaps it's not uncommon in the UK.

 

Thanks very much for sharing this article. I will read the article on antidepressants as well.

WOW!

 

I read both of them and, honestly, IMO these are hands-down the two best mainstream articles I've ever read!    Although,  of course, it would've been that much better had they clarified addiction vs. dependence, funnily enough, I actually didn't mind it here.  The article's so hard-hitting and makes no bones about it being involuntary and who's at fault:

 

Exposed: National disgrace as a quarter of a million patients are turned into DRUG ADDICTS by their doctors

 

They had put their trust in the experts, only to descend into a nightmare of dependence on the very pills that were supposed to help them — and then find themselves abandoned to their fate.

 

What is so shocking is that with benzodiazepines in particular, for 30 years doctors have been specifically warned about the risks of long term use.

And yet 16 million prescriptions have been handed out for these drugs — for weeks, months and even years.

 

 

 

 

And the AD article too.  Excellent!  Wow, the bubble's really bursting now, isn't it?  This is really amazing!

 

Study leader Dr James Davies told the Mail’s Good Health section: ‘This is a scandal for which there can be no excuse.’ The UK has the fourth-most medicated population in Europe when it comes to anti-depressants. One in 11 people – five million across England alone – take anti-depressants every year.

 

Dr Davies estimates half of patients have been on the drugs for more than two years.

Of these, he calculates, a third have no clear clinical reason for doing so.

He said: ‘In other words, about 800,000 people shouldn’t be on this medication. The longer you are on them the worse and more protracted the withdrawal will be.’ The dangers of benzodiazepine sedatives – a class of drugs including Valium – is even starker. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety or sleeplessness, but people who take them for more than six weeks face a 50 per cent chance of becoming addicted.

 

 

Thanks so much for sharing, Duckie and Fiona.  Go UK go!

 

 

 

Thanks, everyone.  We did wonder if PHUK was appropriate but in the end we felt if as perfectly so.  I am glad you agree.

 

The Daily Mail articles are certainly the hardest hitting I have seen on this subject and it should make it harder for the Government to continue to ignore this whole issue.  It is interesting that the Scottish Government remains silent ...  I am keeping them updated via Twitter.  :thumbsup:

 

There will be more in the Daily Mail next week .. certainly benzos will be included but I don't know if it will be exclusively benzos.

 

Fiona  :thumbsup:

Fiona, are you able to give us non-UK people a sense of the weight that these articles might have? Different newspapers carry different levels of gravitas. I'm interested in knowing where The Daily Mail sits in the UK newspaper world and how decision-makers might look at what was written on these topics which are so important to all of us here.

Yes, I was also wondering if this has made your TV news.  I watched a bit of the BBC last night, but didn't hear anything.

 

I like the quotes you picked out Abes.  Those were the very same ones I picked out and highlighted for the doctors.

Hi folks

 

The Daily Mail is a better quality tabloid.  I am not sure what weight it carries with decision-makers.  I haven't heard anything on TV news about PDD.  No one else has mentioned it either.

 

There is a huge amount of adverse publicity in all the media just now about the state of the NHS.  It is in a very bad state in England right now due to underfunding, less so in Scotland.  Looking through the Daily Mail yesterday there was a lot about health matters.  A young girl paralysed after receiving the HPV vaccine, told is was all in her mind.  A surgeon accused of deliberately carrying out unnecessary breast operations for money.  Medical students caught cheating in their exams in Scotland!!  >  So I think the Daily Mail's interest in our campaign may just be part of a wider agenda by the newspaper to focus on the state of the NHS.  So the money that is being wasted on A/Ds will be of interest to the public, i am sure.

 

The campaign to leave the EU made great play of the fact that there would be so much more money to spend on health if we no longer had to pay money to the EU for being a member.  This was a lie of course.  The question is will the NHS get worse when we leave the EU officially in two years time because of adverse effects on our economy.

 

I think we just have to hope that the Department of Health will be swayed by the arguments presented by the APPG but no doubt the adverse publicity will help a little.  Services are being cut back in both health and social care so the public will want to know why we are wasting money on antidepressants for so many patients when they don't actually need them.

 

My worry is that there is so much wrong with the NHS, this is just one issue and it might get lost again ...  >

Let's hope not.

 

And the news is dominated by Brexit and Scottish Independence ... ad nauseam ...  to the detriment of other pressing matters such as health, education etc.

 

Fiona 

Thank you for painting us this picture Fiona.  It helps.  Much appreciated.

Yes, it's interesting to see the larger picture. I hope that money isn't the only consideration, though. People's lives have been destroyed by these drugs. Let's hope they care about that too.

 

 

I actually posted this earlier

 

The one advantage of the word 'addict' is that 'physically dependent' seems innocent. Merely physically dependent ... But it's a dangerous word.

I disagree. Many drugs cause a physiological dependence and can be extremely dangerous if stopped abruptly, such as prednisone. If the newspaper had explained the terminology, they could have educated people. "Addiction" doesn't reflect my situation, nor that of many others here, and it carries a negative connotation. Once again, it's a missed opportunity to educate.

 

This subject has come up many times around here. It's not about how the words sound. It's about what they mean. And that is a critical distinction.

Yes, it's interesting to see the larger picture. I hope that money isn't the only consideration, though. People's lives have been destroyed by these drugs. Let's hope they care about that too.

 

I hope they do as well, Lapis.  But sometimes you do wonder ...  >

 

Best not to get too cynical.

 

Fiona 

Fiona is so right about our NHS service here in the UK. I personally have really been let down.

 

Having to spend 4 months twice on a psych ward being poly drugged because they wouldn't believe me that I was having withdrawal symptoms

due to the benzos that I was prescribed.

 

Thankfully it was on my 3rd attempt that I became drug free and it is almost 4 years but have suffered with PTSD with what they put me through.

Was told that this should not have happened and yet I bet there are women right now on the same psych ward going through what I did.

 

You will be shocked at how many women I met that were there for the same reason as myself who were having issues regarding the menopause.

When I tried to explain that the symptoms they were having were more than likely due to their drugs. I was warned by the nurses to keep

my opinions to myself.

 

Duckie

 

I just hope the publicity will help some people to realise what is wrong with them ...  that is why I speak to the press, really ... as well as to get change by Govt too of course.  I just hope this campaign is successful and makes a difference.

 

I am sorry you went through so much, Duckie.

 

Hugs

 

Fiona 

Lapis2,

 

I don't think many drugs have such a horrible discontinuation syndrome such as benzos.

Although antidepressants can be bad ...

 

I actually posted this earlier

 

The one advantage of the word 'addict' is that 'physically dependent' seems innocent. Merely physically dependent ... But it's a dangerous word.

 

I agree that "physically dependent", to the unlearned, likely would sound soft and vague - it does always need to be expanded upon, emphasizing the possibility of a very cruel withdrawal.  The word "withdrawal" is probably key, I think most people understand what that means. 

 

 

I like the quotes you picked out Abes.  Those were the very same ones I picked out and highlighted for the doctors.

 

  Great minds, Bohno.

 

Lapis2,

 

I don't think many drugs have such a horrible discontinuation syndrome such as benzos.

Although antidepressants can be bad ...

 

I didn't say that. I said that other drugs can cause problems if stopped abruptly. The distinction that needs to be made is between "addiction" and "iatrogenic dependency" or "physiological dependency". The terms should be explained. "Addiction" includes behaviour that many of us didn't engage in, and we shouldn't be painted with that particular brush. Either way, withdrawal from both benzos and antidepressants can be brutal, and I happen to be experiencing both. I was not "addicted" to either one, in the sense that I didn't seek out more, or go doctor shopping to get more, or lie or steal to get more, nor did I have any idea how dangerous the medications were. I even asked various doctors about their dangers (like dizziness) but was given misinformation. That's NOT "addiction".

 

Anyway, hopefully we all understand the distinction here. I don't condone the use of the word "addiction" in such articles just to get some sort of effect. The newspaper is uniquely positioned to reach the public and educate its readers, and it's a missed opportunity not to do so. However, I appreciate that the writer pointed out the role of the doctors in what happened to the subjects in the article. That does help, but perpetuating the misnomer of "addiction" is inappropriate and wrong.

 

I'm still awaiting a top-notch article that gets it right -- ALL OF IT!

Was told that this should not have happened and yet I bet there are women right now on the same psych ward going through what I did.

 

You will be shocked at how many women I met that were there for the same reason as myself who were having issues regarding the menopause.

When I tried to explain that the symptoms they were having were more than likely due to their drugs. I was warned by the nurses to keep my opinions to myself.

 

Duckie

 

How sad. The fact that nurses tell you to keep your opinions to yourself - this is partly why we're in the mess we're in with benzos. Everyone wants us to shut up. Don't make waves. Well, how many more people are going to be coming to BB searching for answers? I'm damned sick of it!!!

 

I'm so sorry that you suffered so much.  :'(

 

It's a breath of fresh air that word is finally getting out. People have woken up from their long slumber and are beginning to stir...