Adult homes, death, prison, homelessness, accidents, psychosis, etc.

So I've been sitting here thinking of all kinds of random things that come along with withdrawal. It's really just about the worst drug there is when you start tallying up everything.

 

People might not just overdose and die on the spot like with heroin or something, but there's plenty of Overdose deaths from combining benzos with other things. And tons of people go to prison and kill themselves and probably get killed by other people for acting the way they do, and people like myself ended up homeless a few years back, I met lots of homeless people coming off of benzos as well and drinking to get rid of their symptoms.

 

And there's lots of weird things like Falls and accidents and going into psychosis and ending up in the hospital because of going crazy or symptom related things that take you to the doctor or Hospital.

 

And then there's the financial problems like losing your housing or car or not being able to get groceries or go to get your haircut or go to the dentist or have a biopsy or if you're sick, the fear of going to the doctor. Agoraphobia is real.

 

Lots of people end up on the street and lots of people go to recovery homes, and lots of people end up in adult homes, some people have to go to Mental Hospitals for a long time. I'm sure there's lots of people that just died of what they call natural causes during this process. I'm sure doctors don't want to be accountable for that either.

 

And I was talking about that in a couple of my last post, there's probably plenty of people dying of benzo withdrawal and the doctors probably just say it was anxiety and mental health problems and our bodies just gave out naturally because there's nothing in our system that proves it was benzo if we do die. The coroner wouldn't know.

 

There's lots of physical health problems like not being able to exercise and losing hair and aging and getting permanent mental health problems like PTSD and other things from withdrawal.

 

Just from the people I've talked to, there's been lots of divorce and losing kids and having to move. Lots of ruined families and relationships. And the majority of this started after stopping the medicine, not while taking it.

 

With most drugs, like street drugs, a majority of the time people hurt others while taking the drugs and doing dumb things or lying or stealing or whatever. With benzos, a good majority of the damage comes after you stop taking them.

 

Benzos are a very complex drug and they make life very confusing. There's too many variables. Physical and mental and financial and all kinds of problems that come from different angles that you wouldn't expect or think of until it happens and you go through withdrawal.

 

And I've just been sitting around driving myself nuts thinking of all the bad things that happen to people during withdrawal. I can't help myself, it's almost like I'm trying to find the people out there affected by it and trying to think of all the weirdest predicaments. That they could be in. I feel for them. We are all in this together.

A very thought provoking  message.

 

How quickly someone's life can change after taking and getting free of Benzo's.

 

Not everyone has an easy journey off the drug,  Not everyone has the finance or support, 

 

It is hard enough when we do for these things.

 

So often people are misjudged when we do not know their history and have arrived where they are

 

I have to count my blessings in that I have a roof over my head and food to eat, 

 

Thank you

 

Justin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes we absolutely have to count our blessings. I remember when I was in Colorado, sleeping outside with just a t-shirt and it was snowing outside and all I had was a 8 ft long by 4 ft tarp for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer that I took off of a sign and wrapped up in to keep my body heat and keep the snow and moisture off of me. I laying there trying to stay warm and having hallucinations and paranoia from Valium.

 

Or when you lay on your bed, think about how soft it is compared to concrete. Concrete starts to take a toll on you and it hurts. Or not having food, it really sucks.

 

I don't know why I'm comparing to that, because most people don't have to go through that but it's just an example of how things could be much worse. I'm sure there's probably people out there with food delivery of really good expensive food living in mansions and whatnot but those are far and few between.

 

I remember laying in the hospital beds and those things suck also. They're only like 4 in thick and it's just a mat basically, a blue tarp Matt filled with some stuffing and the pillows are like a bunch of leaves under your face. But it doesn't really matter where you are, it's going to suck. It's really going to suck to say the least.

So I've been sitting here thinking of all kinds of random things that come along with withdrawal. It's really just about the worst drug there is when you start tallying up everything.

 

People might not just overdose and die on the spot like with heroin or something, but there's plenty of Overdose deaths from combining benzos with other things. And tons of people go to prison and kill themselves and probably get killed by other people for acting the way they do, and people like myself ended up homeless a few years back, I met lots of homeless people coming off of benzos as well and drinking to get rid of their symptoms.

 

And there's lots of weird things like Falls and accidents and going into psychosis and ending up in the hospital because of going crazy or symptom related things that take you to the doctor or Hospital.

 

And then there's the financial problems like losing your housing or car or not being able to get groceries or go to get your haircut or go to the dentist or have a biopsy or if you're sick, the fear of going to the doctor. Agoraphobia is real.

 

Lots of people end up on the street and lots of people go to recovery homes, and lots of people end up in adult homes, some people have to go to Mental Hospitals for a long time. I'm sure there's lots of people that just died of what they call natural causes during this process. I'm sure doctors don't want to be accountable for that either.

 

And I was talking about that in a couple of my last post, there's probably plenty of people dying of benzo withdrawal and the doctors probably just say it was anxiety and mental health problems and our bodies just gave out naturally because there's nothing in our system that proves it was benzo if we do die. The coroner wouldn't know.

 

There's lots of physical health problems like not being able to exercise and losing hair and aging and getting permanent mental health problems like PTSD and other things from withdrawal.

 

Just from the people I've talked to, there's been lots of divorce and losing kids and having to move. Lots of ruined families and relationships. And the majority of this started after stopping the medicine, not while taking it.

 

With most drugs, like street drugs, a majority of the time people hurt others while taking the drugs and doing dumb things or lying or stealing or whatever. With benzos, a good majority of the damage comes after you stop taking them.

 

Benzos are a very complex drug and they make life very confusing. There's too many variables. Physical and mental and financial and all kinds of problems that come from different angles that you wouldn't expect or think of until it happens and you go through withdrawal.

 

And I've just been sitting around driving myself nuts thinking of all the bad things that happen to people during withdrawal. I can't help myself, it's almost like I'm trying to find the people out there affected by it and trying to think of all the weirdest predicaments. That they could be in. I feel for them. We are all in this together.

 

I would like there to be a test to find out exactly what people will be impacted the most with these drugs. But who would fund such a study? Part of the big problem is that there are people who say they have no problem starting and stopping benzos. There are people here who have gone on and off benzos two, three times - I know of one person whose fifth time was difficult, but prior to that, she didn't have any difficulty. This muddies the water for the rest of us. Doctors don't understand and don't have time to consider. They simple dole out the pills, many times for long periods, resulting in the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm" being shot to hell. Doctors don't understand these drugs, so they keep being prescribed for long periods.

 

Doctors will give the lame excuse that "your preexisting anxiety is returning." It's a knee-jerk reaction, and it keeps being circulated among doctors and gives them a reason to keep prescribing.

 

Untold misery, death, suicides, loss of spouses, financial ruin, families torn apart, disbelief in the family member's symptoms, extreme stress, poly-pharmacy, repeated hospital visits, and what you've said have all happened because of benzos. How long will this misery have to go on???

Yes there's definitely a lot of that, when doctors say I think it's just your anxiety and that's all you're worried about. Or when you tell them you're having bad withdrawal symptoms, they will say I don't see anything. They will say hold out your hand, and you hold out your hand and they say I don't see any shaking. Or like one time I was at the hospital and I was covered in sweat, and the doctor said I don't see you sweating. I wiped it on the table, he said I don't see anything.

 

Or yeah, the family is not believing the family members symptoms. They will say you same okay to me and you're making sense to me. And then you say yeah but I can't do this or I can't do that, and they say it looks like you're doing everything just fine.

 

Or like when I was 21 years old, I had only been taking them for 4 years, and I went to a detox to get off of them because I hated them, and the doctor brainwashed me and said I had panic disorder after 8 days off of them. So being young, I believed him and started taking them again. Only to realize a couple years later it was probably just the withdrawal and not panic.

 

Or how about those doctors that say the half life is a couple days on your medication so you don't need more than one tablet per day. Or maybe two at the most. That's not how half life's work. Half-Life is the time it takes to get half of the drug out of your system, it has nothing to do with how long the drug is effective.

 

Or how about when you get injured and you have an anxiety condition and you're taking benzos for the anxiety, and the doctor says yeah well I can't treat the pain because you will die if you take something for pain as well. So basically then you have to get surgery because you can't take any medicine for pain.

 

Or if you want to have an alcoholic beverage, but you have an anxiety condition and you take benzos, that means if you have one drink it's substance abuse. So you're not ever allowed to have a drink even though you're an adult.

 

Or maybe you need to get your medicine at the pharmacy before you run out or maybe there's a hurricane or some other unexpected event and you have to get them early, but you can't because they're controlled. Or you have a busy life and you can't miss time at work, but the doctor wants you to come back in a month because the medicine is controlled.

 

Those are all just inconveniences I guess. And then you always have doctors telling you how many pills per day is best for you, even though they don't know. Only the person taking them knows. I remember so many things that I hated about the pills. One of which is picking them up at the pharmacy every single month instead of being able to get a 90 day supply. Or the fact that a lot of pharmacies don't do deals on benzos like all the other drugs just because they're controlled substances.

 

But the most important things that need to be addressed are people going into psychosis and being hospitalized and ending up homeless and dying and committing suicide and ruining relationships and jobs. And then there's all the mental and physical suffering. There's lots of stigma. People assume just because they're controlled substances, that you take them to get high. People always ask what you take them for as if it matters or it's their business in the first place.

 

And then there's the problem of the doctors not knowing how to prescribe them and being all over the place with their decisions. Like they want to say we can't prescribe those more than four weeks, and then they prescribe them for a couple years, and then they want to take you off of them because it's been too long and it's been over four weeks. Maybe they shouldn't have prescribed them more than four weeks on the first place because now they're making it really hard on you.

 

And then you have the doctor's like the one I had 10 months ago, over-prescribing. And telling me that my symptoms were normal when I was having lots of problems, even though it was just a drug that was being prescribed.

 

I think I could go on and on about benzos but all I know is I'm 10 months off of them and I'm almost better. I don't think I have too much longer. I'm more than halfway better.

I lost my good government job and health insurance because of these rotten drugs.  They've completely ruined my life!

Absolutely right, JustInTime!!

 

And Becks, I feel the same way - the rotten drugs have ruined my life, too.

I also lost tons of jobs in the past because of not being able to function from benzos. Way too many good chances blown.

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So I've been sitting here thinking of all kinds of random things that come along with withdrawal. It's really just about the worst drug there is when you start tallying up everything.

 

I disagree.

 

Heroin is

 

Look at all the ppl in the 70 and 60's who died of it.

 

We had a young family friend die from it.

Yeah heroin kills a lot of people. But alcohol kills even more. And benzos are worse than heroin, because if you mix any kind of CNS depressant with it, you can die. I actually know lots of people that have died from heroin as well.

 

When I lived in Florida, I had a surgery on my ankle, and I was prescribed Valium, and they gave me too many opiates at the hospital and overdosed me. If it hadn't been for the benzos, I would not have overdosed. Heroin and prescription opiates both depress your nervous system and slow your breathing. So does benzos. It's all the same I guess in a way. Same thing with alcohol, it's all depressants.

 

But if you add up all the financial ruin and damaged relationships and everything else, there's far more people on benzos so more likely more money and damage.