ADDICTION SPECIALIST medical doctor on importance of using proper terminology

[[Lo...]]

If you told a doctor "I have been taking a tranquilizer every day for the last few months/years." I wonder how they would react.

 

I wonder if we sent two patients in, on the same day, and one said, "Doc, I've been taking this tranquilizer every night for a year and I feel depressed and horrible and I'd like to come off." And the second person said the same thing, but used the word "benzo," I wonder how differently the majority of doctors would react?

 

I think it wouldn't have stopped the problem, but I think the doctors who legitimately don't know what this shit is would have behaved very differently. The amount of stupidity that has gone on for the last 60 years around this mess is startling and maddening. 60 years in and we don't even have a name for what we are suffering from.

 

I wonder the same about the Dr. visits. To expand on your thoughts, imagine going to a doctor's office and saying "Doc, I've been artificially sedated by this tranquilizer daily for several years now, but whenever I try to stop taking it or reduce the dosage, I feel like someone had put me in a blender, and I can't seem to even have the physical strength or courage to get my own mail outside". I really wonder what the reaction would be.

 

One of the reasons I mention it is that, with some doctors I've had, they would flip back and forth between a medical illness model/pre-existing condition model and an addiction/withdrawal model. When they were in a medical model, they would use terms such as "anti-anxiety medication" or just call it out by its generic name (lorazepam, diazepam, ....). However, whenever I complained about the withdrawal effects/paradoxical effects/side effects and tell them how much I was hurting, they would change their language from "anti-anxiety medications" or "medication" to "benzos" and "ativan" and would tell me that "Benzos are addictive", whatever that meant.

 

Of course, that was the end of discussion. I could never get anything out of any of them other than "benzos are addictive" except for one time where my psychiatrist once mentioned that repeated tolerance/withdrawal cycles might lead to this. Of course, nobody ever said anything about benzos being addictive until I had problems stopping them. I relate to what Dr. Fred Von Stieff  ironically said in one of his Youtube videos that "it's only addictive when you become addicted!". He said something along the lines of that up to 50% of primary care physicians don't really believe that these drugs are truly addictive. It goes back to that addictive personality language again, unfortunately.  

[[Mo...]]

 

I'd like something catchy and accurate, but "Benzo Buddies" isn't it. I mentioned the forum to a doctor the other day and she looked at me like I was joking.

 

 

Yep....at the hospital they told me ...glad you found some buddies. 

[[Mo...]]

I did not like the website but I always thought that "survivingantidepressants" as a name was clearer than "benzo-buddies"

Because thats what it is - to survive a medication.

So maybe the name "surviving-benzodiazepines" is most understandable and close to reality. Surviving is a process, far away from recovery.

 

  Marigold....I'm so glad you mentioned this. In London we would say

 

Benzo mates ....or how about Heroin Buddies ? We've got the Ashton manual....

 

so why not Colin's Benzo support Forum...?

 

[[th...]]

 

I'd like something catchy and accurate, but "Benzo Buddies" isn't it. I mentioned the forum to a doctor the other day and she looked at me like I was joking.

 

 

Yep....at the hospital they told me ...glad you found some buddies. 

 

That's just shitty...