World Benzodiazepine Day July 11th

[[Aj...]]

http://w-bad.org/

 

It’s a few weeks off but I wonder if anybody I’d going to get involved with this?

 

They are asking for people to make short videos.

 

 

[[be...]]

I'll be putting up the stickers I got from the W-BAD shop last year.  I'll also probably wear the t-shirt around that time, though not while putting up the stickers.....I don't want to draw attention to myself.

[[Re...]]

I've been a patient at a methadone clinic for 11 years, and the staff there knows almost nothing about benzo withdrawal and the implications of it. Despite their jaw-dropping lack of knowledge, they urge (but don't force) all patients on benzos to get off as soon as possible. At the same time, they don't provide any means of help or how to withdraw from benzos safely and effectively. So, I've decided to politely ask the staff if the nurse practitioner there—who is in charge of regularly counseling patients every 90 days about tapering off of their benzos—to make and keep some copies of The Ashton Manual for patients to take home, and to read it herself. Additionally, I'm going to ask to post a flyer in the lobby "advertising" the benzo.org.uk website, alongside other recovery and self-help flyers. I will not be mentioning Benzo Buddies however, because if anyone in recovery from opioid addiction really, truly wants off of benzos, they will find us.

 

Amazingly (though not surprisingly), out of at least half a dozen addiction specialists I've talked to about getting off of benzos over the past five years, none have never heard of Dr. Ashton, or even use similar methodology which she employed. They don't even know about equivalencies! So, I'm going to spread the word of The Ashton Manual, and kindly urge the doctors and specialists who I know to read it. Indeed, as Dr. Ashton herself said, "..the patients often know more than their doctors..", and I'd really like to see that change.

 

I am also going to make it a point to tell the handful of people I know who truly want to get off of benzos to have a look at The Ashton Manual. In an age where practically everyone has access to smartphones and tablets, there's no reason why benzo patients should be in the dark about the best information.

 

So for the week surrounding World Benzodiazepine Day, I will be making an effort to help my fellow men and women to rid themselves of the scourge that are drugs such as Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, and Ativan. It's my hope that I can help some people out there avoid the pitfalls that I'm in, and other Buddies are or have been in.

 

FOOTNOTE: I have been a member here for a long time, and while I know I don't contribute regularly, I really love this community, and so I would ask that you please not think of me differently or negatively because I'm a methadone maintenance therapy patient. I realize that there's a lot of stigma surrounding it, and frankly, it's well-deserved. I'm not here to change your mind, but please remember that if methadone wasn't made available to me years ago, I wouldn't be here at all. Despite throwing a wrench in my life after I got clean, it did save me from a life of crime and desperation. Furthermore, exactly like benzos, I became dependent on methadone unknowingly; I was 19, and told I could easily taper off of it with "little to no withdrawal symptoms", and that my treatment would last a maximum of 8 months. That was over 11 years ago. So again, please just take me for me, not for my medications.  

Thanks Buddies

[[Aj...]]

That’s excellent Red! I hope you manage to get off the methodone one day.

 

I will just be doing stuff online.

 

I asked my GP to read the Ashton Manual but not sure she took for than a glance.

[[Re...]]

I hate to admit it, but all of my efforts seem to have been in vain. The best answer I got from the house nurse practitioner at the clinic was "I may take a further look at it, but this is fairly old information, you know."

 

It was quite an ironic statement, considering the fact that everything this woman bases the treatment of her patients on is based on (pretty thin) research the early 1980s!

 

Couldn't put up even one flyer to let people know about The Ashton Manual either. I was told that patients aren't allowed to put up flyers, regardless of the reason. When I stated the purpose and possible benefits, I was told to come to an hour-long board meeting, where I can essentially plead for their permission to put it up.

 

Oh, and then the very next morning I went to see my therapist (not where I get my meds, thankfully), and she wasn't there—she quit. After I told my entire life story to this woman over 5 months' time, she pulled a Houdini on us. Greeeaaaaat. Although, I s'pose it's not the worst loss in the world. Compassionate as she was, she was also constantly telling me that I "lacked initiative" and that "benzo and methadone withdrawal can definitely be done together", that she'd seen it first-hand in inmates, and that "it's really not as bad as you think." So she can go on thinking that someplace else. In the meantime, my search for a real psychiatrist who might be willing to work The Ashton Manual with me continues. I'm not hopeful, but I have a dedicated and kind counselor (one I can rely on) who is doing the legwork for me in finding one.

 

Sorry if this all sounds peppered with cynicism, but I feel like I'm fighting the current of ignorance. After triple-whammy of getting shut-out, I'll admit I feel discouraged. I also feel these people simply don't care. From here on out, I'm coming here whenever I need support or info about my benzo taper. Everyone in the medical field seems like they're totally blind to this issue, and they don't care to change it either. I guess I just have to rely on me, and the great info and support available here. I also apologize for the length and the off-subject tangent.

 

Anyway, THIS is the place to be if you need help with a benzo taper. There is no "real world" help—I've looked for it almost constantly for the past year. But please don't get me wrong; this is a wonderful forum and the support here blew my mind when I first experienced it for myself during my earlier tapers.

[[Aj...]]

Hi Red Dead,

 

I’m sorry to hear that the people you are trying to educate are such closed minded fuckers that they are unable to hear you and will, consequently, end up hurting more people down the line.

 

Have you listened to the Mad In America Podcasts for W-BAD?

 

https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/07/world-benzodiazepine-awareness-day-2018/

 

There are some suggestions of things we can all do to try to effect change regardless of whether it is W-BAD or not.

 

1. Keep telling our stories online.

 

Doing this has contributed to a recent piece in the psychiatric times:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/addiction/online-communities-drug-withdrawal-what-can-we-learn

 

The author is interviewed on the first part of the podcast and says that more researchers are beginning to use forums and YouTube vids and Facebook etc to use for research.

 

2. Report our experiences as Adverse Events to the relevant scheme for the country we are in.

 

In the UK this is the Yellow Card scheme : https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcards/reportmediator/

 

In the USA this is:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/index.cfm?action=reporting.home

 

Perhaps people could add ones for other countries.

 

This will add to research and potentially better services in the future.

 

 

 

Thanks for bothering! I get despondant. I have been Twatting at Drs on Twitter but it feels that there are only a handful of people that seem to be bothering to do this stuff.

 

As many of us as possible, if we are remotely well enough, need to be kicking up a big stink about this stuff in whatever way we can or we will never get help.