PETITION TO WELSH ASSEMBLY OVER BENZO AND ANTI DEPRESSANT VICTIMS PLEASE SIGN

[[no...]]

PLEASE DON'T JUST READ THE POST SIGN THE PETITION!! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE FROM WALES TO SIGN PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE SIGNING THIS  WE HAVE TO BE PART OF THE CHANGE TO BRING ABOUT THE CHANGES WE WANT NOT JUST FOR OUR SELVES BUT FOR EVERYONE THAT'S SUFFERING RIGHT ACROSS THIS PLANET FROM THE EFFECTS AND WITHDRAWAL FROM BENZOS AND ANTI DEPRESSANTS OR ANY OTHER PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS AND THE CHANGE STARTS WITH YOUR SIGNATURE.  SMALL THINGS LEAD TO GREAT POSSIBILITIES PLEASE SIGN NOW!! THANK YOU.

Love Nova xxx  :smitten:

 

 

 

 

''We call on the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to take action to appropriately recognise and effectively support individuals affected and harmed by prescribed drug dependence and withdrawal.

 

This petition has been set up to raise awareness of the plight of individuals in Wales who are affected by dependence on and withdrawal from prescribed antidepressants and benzodiazepines – and specifically to ask the Welsh Government to support the BMA's UK-wide call for action to provide timely and appropriate support for individuals affected.

The term "prescription drug dependence" refers specifically to the situation where, having taken their antidepressant or benzodiazepine medication exactly as prescribed by their doctor, patients find they are unable to stop because of the debilitating withdrawal effects. It is important to note here that addiction and dependence are related but different issues. Use of the term addiction implies pleasure seeking behaviour. Reporting of prescription drug dependence in the media continues to allude to "misuse" and "addiction" as if the patient is responsible in some way for their own harm. This is far from the truth. There is no pleasure whatsoever in finding that if you try to reduce or stop your antidepressant, you suffer a wide range of physical and emotional disturbances, that for some people can be life limiting and, tragically, even life ending. Patients need formal acknowledgement, support and guidance to help them through their withdrawal journey and this currently does not exist.''

 

 

The British Medical Association has recently highlighted the issue of prescribed drug dependence. In May 2017, they wrote: "Prescribing of psychoactive drugs is a major clinical activity and a key therapeutic tool for influencing the health of patients. But often their use can lead to a patient becoming dependent or suffering withdrawal symptoms. In the absence of robust data, we do not know the true scale and extent of the problem across the UK. However, the evidence and insight presented to us by many charity and support groups shows that it is substantial. It shows us that the 'lived experience' of patients using these medications is too often associated with devastating health and social harms. This represents a significant public health issue, one that is central to doctors' clinical role, and one that the medical profession has a clear responsibility to help address." Because the side effects, tolerance effects and withdrawal effects of these medicines are not medically recognised for what they are, when patients develop these related effects/symptoms they are often prescribed other medicines and then polypharmacy complicates the problems further.

Affected patients are finding themselves with vague diagnoses eg: 'medically unexplained symptoms' or 'functional/somatic system disorders'. These are essentially psychiatric diagnoses attributing various debilitating and disabling physical symptoms to patients' own anxiety, beliefs, etc. This has the effect of discounting, disempowering and demoralising these patients still further. If it cannot be acknowledged that patients can have sustained functional nervous system dysfunction and damage as a consequence of taking medicines 'as prescribed' (sometimes over many years), systemic medical learning and improvement is stifled and patients continue to be further harmed. Meanwhile the initial prescribing risks remain severely underestimated and misleading prescribing guidelines and 'best practice' advice is unchanged.

 

 

SIGN THIS PETITION https://www.assembly.wales/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/petitiondetail.aspx?PetitionID=1235

[[be...]]

I just signed it. Seems I am the only one from the US.

[[no...]]

I just signed it. Seems I am the only one from the US.

Cheers Bets  I've signed every petition put on BB since I joined, and if all the people that read each post about the petitions actually signed them, that would be a LOT more signatures and then the World governments would be forced to do something rather than keep attacking the victims by putting the label ''addict'' next to everyone's name who were prescribed the drugs instead of 'dependant'' and giving people proper humane help .  Even those who weren't prescribed them need and deserve the same help to get off and out of this hell, but its a kick in the teeth when the person that wrote you a legal prescription puts that on peoples files? Or its a ''mental'' illness you got and ''hypochondria'' not the drugs they prescribed you? 

 

Love Nova xxx  :smitten:

 

 

 

[[be...]]

I agree. When I signed it they said they only had 191 signatures. We need a lot more.