Do you guys think that doctors know how to taper off these drugs safely?

[[bi...]]

Would you trust your taper to a doctor?

[[Le...]]

there are definitely a few and a lots more that will go along especially if you bring them a guide you want to try. you may even create a doctor that can help more people if you succeed. 

[[Ka...]]

Sadly no @[bi...] in my experience little is known by doctors about desprescribing benzos, how to do it safely & more importantly following appropriate guidelines. We have to advocate for ourselves, carry out research & draw attention to the Ashton Manual & Maudsley Desprescribing Guidelines. Ultimately, if we go too fast, without knowledge or proper guidance we will probably fail which may potentially lead to a need for reinstatement. 

[[Cr...]]

Doctors have to go through so much training in med school and learn so many different things that I am sure benzodiazepine use is probably a fraction of a fraction of their training.

What they learn from about benzos will usually be guidelines issued by Pharmaceutical companies.

Some doctors are willing to continue learning beyond their training/residency years and are open to new studies and literature. Others are more stubborn and by the book. "If the manual or my training doesn't say these symptoms are possible then it can't be from the benzos".

The good news is that medical industry as a whole seems to be acknowledging that benzos are a lot more difficult to recover from than originally thought.

While that is good news as it means less future sufferers, it also means a lot of doctors are now starting to force many long-term users off of these meds with little appreciation and understanding as to how slowly they should actually proceed in weaning patients off.

[[Le...]]

Its also a trade that attracts people that are determined and absorb a lots of information. Not analytical people. Lazy minds is what I think people call it. More suited to be clergymen then anything else. 

[[Sc...]]

Psychiatry is a pseudoscience so they don't know what they're doing. They don't know how to taper only prescribe. The drug company instructions to taper is only after a 3 month study not years. Long term use takes months to years to taper not the 2 week recommendation by drug companies and psychiatry.

[[Le...]]

sadly it is a trade that has never had any real success and ignores all the failures. its faith. 

[[Ca...]]

Even the so-called enlightened professionals disagree on the best way to taper and I met many people in rehabs who tapered off of benzos quickly and did just fine. Everyone is so different. 

[[Le...]]

any people who used for like a year or more and came off fast fine?

[[Le...]]

Just now, [[L...] said:

any people who used for like a year or more and came off fast fine?

i have been wondering how much of what happened to me was cause of duloxetine. once in WD nothing stayed down so it was gone too. was almost 80lb lighter before eating again. 

[[Ca...]]

The people I am remembering from rehabs came off of many years of use.

[[Re...]]

8 hours ago, [[b...] said:

Would you trust your taper to a doctor?

You might want to watch this video about what doctors do and do not learn in medical school about tapering. My answer to your question is no.

[[or...]]

No. I had to "educate" my doctor. Gave her the Ashton Manual and after that she let me taper at my own rate which was slower than the AM, but still trending downward. I hope she learned something from the Manual, and from my experience. Sad.

[[Ca...]]

Too general - some sort of do from my experience, I did a 30-day rapid-detox but I would guess not enough do with respect to anything Benzos. It's so sad ppl are suffering in silence but not dropping off so they don't get figured into it the way Opioids do. 

[[re...]]

No Nada NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Scooby99: 5 star response!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[[re...]]

Cigarette science on steroids.

[[Sc...]]

Psychiatrists just throw drugs at people without knowing how they work in the brain and body putting people at risk for neurological and psychological damage. I remember back in the 90's when i was convinced to take their neurotoxins they assured me they were very safe. They deliberately lied knowing they were not to hook me on drugs to profit.

[[Le...]]

there is no way to thoroughly test things these days without getting a lot of negative attention for human testing and no company can stay a float without making a profit. people end up destroyed so the industry can stay alive and create more stuff and they dont even collect the info on the test subjects. just let it go on forever until a new poison is found to sell. its the same story over and over and us rubes go to them because we have been duped into thinking there are easy solutions to our problems. 

[[re...]]

Stop it you guys!!!!!!!!!! You are gonna get me goin on one of my rants and then I will be put in the time out box from mod land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[[Le...]]

uhoh. we in dangerous territory?

[[re...]]

To me it's like a dark alchemy  for something to open up such a demonic portal (we cannot negate the comparison of some of the withdrawal writhing and twitching, twisting and jerking, thoughts that come in that are not of your own and the autonomic nervous system going so haywire similar to exorcism) for so many that have been in psych med withdrawal. I just don't think we are a minority like some would lead you to believe on here. It's just that larger population haven't yet put 2 and 2 together regarding their failing health and keep seeing doctors and don't find this small corner of the internet. They just keep listening to the 'professionals'

[[re...]]

There.............. I'm done.

[[Ca...]]

Some of these drugs do help people. If you are manic depressive, a mood stabilizer is likely to help you -- I saw it with my mother. Likewise for schizophrenia. It's the SSRIs and the benzos that I believe were pushed without adequate research. And Peter Kramer's book Listening to Prozac which convinced me to try it to help with low confidence. The doctors have no incentive to prescribe these drugs. But the problem is they get their info from the pharma reps who come dancing in with their free donuts and coffee and distort the statistics; I remember hearing how abilify could jumpstart your SSRI and make it more effective. Well that was based I believe on a thirteen patient sample. My NP for a long time was advocating to raise my SSRI which is a measly five mgs of lexapro or add other drugs because she wanted to stop my suffering and really believed these were viable tools. Even the psychiatrist who prescribed my first benzo for my panic attacks despite my telling her that I had had a problem with Darvon, was just negligent. I don't think she was making a fortune. I think she was lazy and ill informed. The doctors I do despise are the ones that won't listen to their patients about needing help to taper off slowly. The people who are really profiting from this mess are the drug rehab programs that charge 60k to cold turkey a benzo patient or a methadone or suboxone patient. They are all owned by private equity funds now, preying on people's desperation. They are good for alcohol but that's a horse of a different color.

[[Le...]]

They really are convinced that they are helping people and cant consider anything else. 

I tried to do emdr or whatever some therapy about eye movement with a psychiatric nurse a little while ago and after getting my story out he very unsubtly suggested I was some kind of scammer abusing my benefits. 

Challenge faith built by decades and I guess I should have seen what would happen.  

he refused to do the treatment because he didnt seem to believe I could be traumatized by going Ct off 2 years of clonaz with noone telling me I was in WD. 

I have actually given up on trying to get help and am just doing healthy living stuff from now on. Everyone I have seen has made it worse. 

I am not autistic without noticing the ear ringing the first 43 years of my life and I am not schizophrenic having auditory hallucinations. I am a dude who went through a bad patch and got horrible doctors.  

[[Ca...]]

Those sound like awful symptoms. I do have to add that my NP who kept suggesting more drugs to help me feel better and is my prescriber really believed in those drugs but she also really believes me about my benzo w/d...she just charges too much but has agreed to meet every other week instead of every week so it can't be all about greed.