How do we get family members to understand what we are going through?

Hey guys,

It's very irritating trying to get my family to understand what I am going through.

My mother for instance believes in the tablets and that they "help" my spasms. Sure, they may have at first. However, it's come to a point where I am dependant on the tablets and if I don't have them, I get bad withdrawals. Oh, why can't people just try to understand what we are going through, instead of shunning us off and saying it's just anxiety? God it's frustrating. It's as if I'm speaking Japanese to them. Oh, by the way, I don't think they would even want to watch Lisa Ling on CNN because they just believe their own agendas. Not trying to sound cynical or aggressive, but this is just the brutally honest situation I am in.

Dave.

Good luck with your final taper, you will be banging your head against a brick wall to get your family to understand what you are going through, after all these years my wife does finally understand.

On the Home Page under Repository is a subject called What is Happening in your Brain by Parker.  I have printed it out (10 pages) an gave it to my boyfriend to understand.  I also re read it for myself. 

 

Hope this helps

The Lisa Ling thing is by far your best bet. If they aren't willing to watch that and try to understand that things aren't always how they seem, there might not be much hope for them.

 

Some people are deep, deep in the matrix and until something like this happens to them they will never understand how dangerous the world can be underneath the thin veneer than most people never take the time to look underneath.

The Lisa Ling show worked for my Mom. She said she had no idea that’s what I was going through. Yep, 2 years worth. She was and is always very supportive, but I think the show really brought it home for her.

Yep.... the Lisa Ling special on Benzos is probably your best hope to get the point across.

Its still up on a couple of YouTube accounts but is rapidly being pulled down for copyright infringement.

 

The link below still works.... 150K views

 

 

This Is Life With Lisa Ling - The Benzos Crisis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh54uj6qH98

The Lisa Ling show worked for my Mom. She said she had no idea that’s what I was going through. Yep, 2 years worth. She was and is always very supportive, but I think the show really brought it home for her.

 

Both of my sisters seemed to believe me from the beginning but they were shocked and appalled by the Lisa Ling program. Despite the fact that TV is just as bad as anything when it comes to providing quality information it carries a lot of weight with people.

 

At the very least when someone sees a major network running an hour long show on the benzo issue people can see that we aren't making this up.

My husband also read the Ashton Manual right at the beginning, and had a decent idea from that .  Now he's read Parkers Post and saw the Lisa Ling show, he knows more than my Dr.   

Thanks for the responses guys, I do appreciate it.

My parents are so ignorant, they wouldn't even entertain the idea of watching the Lisa Ling special. This is why I'm frustrated. 

To put you people into perspective, my Dad has been using Valium for 30 years. He has fibromyalgia. He has mycoplasma. He gets constant air hunger. He twitches all the time. He's had 3 lipomas cut out of him. He is often aggressive, but he trusts his doctor 110%, so he couldn't care less. I know he'll never get off Valium. How sad for him.

 

I think my Mum is slightly more understanding, but she needs to know exactly how devastating these drugs are. Valium is not like her heart or pain meds at all. It's far worse than any other drug, maybe except Bromo-DragonFLY.

 

I could show my sister. She is a heck of a lot more empathetic than my parents, and is a smart cookie (I'm not saying my parents aren't smart - they just blindingly trust the doctor rather than a factual documentary).

Dave. 

Thanks for the responses guys, I do appreciate it.

My parents are so ignorant, they wouldn't even entertain the idea of watching the Lisa Ling special. This is why I'm frustrated. 

To put you people into perspective, my Dad has been using Valium for 30 years. He has fibromyalgia. He has mycoplasma. He gets constant air hunger. He twitches all the time. He's had 3 lipomas cut out of him. He is often aggressive, but he trusts his doctor 110%, so he couldn't care less. I know he'll never get off Valium. How sad for him.

 

I think my Mum is slightly more understanding, but she needs to know exactly how devastating these drugs are. Valium is not like her heart or pain meds at all. It's far worse than any other drug, maybe except Bromo-DragonFLY.

 

I could show my sister. She is a heck of a lot more empathetic than my parents, and is a smart cookie (I'm not saying my parents aren't smart - they just blindingly trust the doctor rather than a factual documentary).

Dave. 

 

Sorry about your Dad, Dave, he is probably too afraid at this point to believe.  Your sister and all of bb is here for you, we understand.  LY, Mary. 💜💜

Well, it took my brother-in-law 10 long years to get well, and within that time everyone thought he was mentally ill. Now they know better, of course. My sister stayed with him through all that time, helping him go from doctor to doctor and ER to ER, even down to Costa Rica to get some procedure done so he could live without the PPI (doctors here refused to do it). I don't know what his family thinks now; his brother is a dentist and has Valium handy for the patients. His mother and sister are both on Valium. Maybe they're of the mind that "it won't happen to me," although his sister has vertigo. I don't even know if she blames it on the Valium.

 

My sister, I think, believes that I'm still going through benzo symptoms, but my symptoms are much different from my brother-in-law's. She didn't believe me earlier and told me I belonged in an insane asylum. That hurt tremendously. My son won't look at anything pertaining to benzo withdrawal/recovery. I didn't even ask him to see Lisa Ling's show. He's been through so much trauma with me that I don't want to burden him further, and he had to go to therapy because of it. He's still very sensitive to any mention from me about doctors and symptoms. My sister did see it, which I was very grateful for.

 

I don't explain to anyone I know about benzos, except I did talk to a pharmacist who lived in my condo building, and he's the only one who told me "benzo symptoms can last for years."

 

It's a long road, and with few who believe, it's an intensely lonely road. I guess the only good from this is that it makes us stronger. But I'm not sure what it's all for. WHY do we have to go through this??? I keep asking myself. There are no answers back.

 

not sure any family members  I sent this too read it, , but I passed it on anyway ,  https://benzowithdrawalhelp.com/recovery/what-we-wish-family-and-friends-knew-about-benzo-withdrawal/