Please seek out medical help if you are having symptoms that could be a serious disease.

[[Ma...]]

   I am a medical professional.  I have read several posts lately of people trying to decide whether they have a serious disease or benzo WD symptoms.  Please DO NOT chalk everything up to benzos!  “Do not self diagnose” still applies to us like it does to the rest of the population.  We are still affected by other medical illnesses as we go through this process.  
   Benzos cause a wide spectrum of physical symptoms as we all know and can mimic lots of diseases. So I’m not discounting that a lot of what people experience IS benzo WD related.  But if you have any concern at all about a serious disease, please go get checked to rule it out.  I’ve seen people trying to decide between benzo WD and everything from heart disease to cancer to serious neurologic diseases. Express your concerns to your provider about benzo WD and let them make sure that’s all it is.  This is the end of my public service announcement.  

Edited August 1 by [Ma...]
Typo

[[He...]]

100% agree. It’s amazing to watch , not only original posters talking themselves into everything being caused by the benzo, or withdrawal, but also members who have been on here for 10+ years giving horrific “advice”. 
 

 

[[...]]

Even it theres a disease (caused by withdrawl) some people like me are not able to take meds or do any treatement since this, so i'd rather let myself deteriorate. Whatever is happening i cant do a thing about it, its terrifing 

[[Le...]]

you do realize that almost everyone going through this has a hundred symptoms and every doctor they visit is dismissive. i have been told its all my imagination,  i dont belong here, i dont deal with addiction. there are few who will even discuss these issues and most likely have created these problems. there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence. 

Also if you go you will very possibly end up treating symptoms and getting sicker because your body is a mess and cant handle it. 

it really is a mess that no doctor can really deal with and few want anything to do with. 

[[ro...]]

3 minutes ago, [[L...] said:

you do realize that almost everyone going through this has a hundred symptoms and every doctor they visit is dismissive. i have been told its all my imagination,  i dont belong here, i dont deal with addiction. there are few who will even discuss these issues and most likely have created these problems. there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence. 

Also if you go you will very possibly end up treating symptoms and getting sicker because your body is a mess and cant handle it. 

it really is a mess that no doctor can really deal with and few want anything to do with. 

Well said

[[Le...]]

google chatgpt better than gp. its hilarious. chatgpt is already able to diagnose better than the average for a gp. 

[[Js...]]

I agree with Mattwahoo; I also understand Lee1978a.

If I may add, there are many who are afraid to go anywhere because they may have lost their health insurance or are financially distressed that they can't afford the care they need. Some policies have a high deductible and may only cover a check up, I find it is often many try to quit benzos when they are in a tight situation in life and a "wake up" call or moment has happened. The phrase, " I need to get off this quickly" is something I hear all the time.

Yes, you guessed right - I am American.

That being said, if you can afford care, please at least try.

[[Si...]]

Thanks for coming on here and reassuring people do need to get checked out for serious illness. I agree defiantly. In my case I started going back into the medical field since januari. got sleep apnea diagnosed in februari. sadly its hard to get heard about my most serious complaint. which is the diaphragm to the heart issue. It could be a sliding diaphragm hiatus followed by non-sustained ventricular tachycardia event.
With a benzo belly at the root of it? or a neurological muscle tension disorder.
this as far as I've gotten. its hard to get a doctor to study the diaphragm well as it falls under different specialist. also to undergo a study that would involve taking a benzo like pill. 
Which is where I look to be headed.

By accident they did find a uplifted diaphragm on the right side on a MRI I had years ago.
and recently in April they saw the opening of the oesophagus was wider on the CT scan.
Which they said could be because at that time you might have swallowed. 
Well seeing the context of my issue Id say its better to continue to rule a sliding diaphragm hiatus out. but how ? 

Edited August 4 by [Si...]

[[WU...]]

9 hours ago, [[L...] said:

there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence. 

Totally agree.  Chances are they will only prescribe AD's whatever the symptoms

[[Ma...]]

10 hours ago, [[L...] said:

there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence

You’re projecting the incompetence of your psychiatrist onto the entire medical profession.  I don’t really think that’s helpful.  

[[WU...]]

5 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

You’re projecting the incompetence of your psychiatrist onto the entire medical profession

No I am stating my personal experience from ALL the doctors I have seen over the years. Never seen a psychiatrist, just GP's and various hospital consultants who all prescribed either benzos or AD's for chronic neck spasms. I only ever took benzos and painkillers and not one of them explained what these drugs did to the brain if taken over a long period of time.   I cannot comment on the rest of the medical profession, only my experience

[[Ma...]]

3 minutes ago, [[W...] said:

No I am stating my personal experience from ALL the doctors I have seen over the years. Never seen a psychiatrist, just GP's and various hospital consultants who all prescribed either benzos or AD's for chronic neck spasms. I only ever took benzos and painkillers and not one of them explained what these drugs did to the brain if taken over a long period of time.   I cannot comment on the rest of the medical profession, only my 

 

My only point that I will reiterate is that if you’ve got a symptom that’s worrisome and/or it persists/worsens, get it checked out.  It may well be benzo WD that’s causing it, but it could be something more serious that needs medical attention. 

[[WU...]]

30 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

It may well be benzo WD that’s causing it, but it could be something more serious

Personally I don't think there is anything more serious than benzos. 

[[Bu...]]

11 hours ago, [[L...] said:

you do realize that almost everyone going through this has a hundred symptoms and every doctor they visit is dismissive. i have been told its all my imagination,  i dont belong here, i dont deal with addiction. there are few who will even discuss these issues and most likely have created these problems. there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence. 

Also if you go you will very possibly end up treating symptoms and getting sicker because your body is a mess and cant handle it. 

it really is a mess that no doctor can really deal with and few want anything to do with. 

This is exactly how I feel

I totally understand Mattwahoo’s  point of view and it is a very responsible one, and on the surface, cast iron. 

however my lived incredibly painful experience leads me to agree with lee197ba

I believe I would be living a full happy life rather than this tortured existence if I had received appropriate medical care. Not to say it doesn’t exist, and all doctors are like the ones I had - thankfully im sure they are not. However If you look through and analyse the success stories even, it would be easy to identify how better medical care could have saved so much heartache. 

doctors are like parents - they are in a position of power. good ones can set you up for life and bad ones can ruin them. 
 

I hope for a world where many more doctors prescribe benzos responsibly and sparingly, and are well educated about withdrawal issues, and respect and believe their patients. 

 

 

[Guest [Do...]]

12 hours ago, [[L...] said:

you do realize that almost everyone going through this has a hundred symptoms and every doctor they visit is dismissive. i have been told its all my imagination,  i dont belong here, i dont deal with addiction. there are few who will even discuss these issues and most likely have created these problems. there is no way to trust after you have been tortured like this by their incompetence. 

Also if you go you will very possibly end up treating symptoms and getting sicker because your body is a mess and cant handle it. 

it really is a mess that no doctor can really deal with and few want anything to do with. 

In my country medical doctors have a Godlike status, they are untouchable. They treat patients like if we are scum (a problem of the free universal health system), they can be as incompetent as they wish, they do crimes vs humanity everyday and they never pay for it, when negligence is proven (which is very rare and unlike) the State pays a compensation to the victim but the doctor gets aways with it, he keeps working and doing the same without any punishment whatsoever. There isn't any cases of doctors who lost their licenses due to negligence, the only cases are cause by sexual harassment, or more political stuff.

I don't live in a third world country, i live in Europe, in the EU (despite our democracy is BS and we are heading into tyranny, but that's another story not to be told in here), and medical doctors are so powerfull here that they rule the health system intead of the health system ruling the doctors.

We don't sue doctors here cause they will never be sentenced by judges, they all protect each other. They go in strike once in a while to ask for more money and better working conditions (lol, better?) and they blackmail the goverments to earn more and work less. Our waiting list time to have an appoiment with an specialist, ie a psychiatrist, dermatologist, cardiologist, etc is 10-12 months so people spend indecent ammounts of money to have private providers that are not better than in the public health system but you can get to see one in a couple of weeks.

If you go to ER room, you can be there anytime for 8 to 12 hours waiting to be attended by a doctor, more if is nighttime cause the doctors that should be in night shift are sleeping and they cast lots and leave one of them in the watch while the rest go to sleep. Is so disgusting how they don't give a s**t about patients and speak to us with disrespect and unpolite, and again if you complain it will be useless, no one will do nothing.

The crisis of medical care is not only in psychiatry, providers gave up caring about patients and the have turned into precribing machines.

 

[Guest [Do...]]

1 hour ago, [[B...] said:

doctors are like parents - they are in a position of power. good ones can set you up for life and bad ones can ruin them.

amen!

[[Le...]]

2 hours ago, [[M...] said:

You’re projecting the incompetence of your psychiatrist onto the entire medical profession.  I don’t really think that’s helpful.  

not at all. 

[[WU...]]

6 minutes ago, [[D...] said:

so people spend indecent ammounts of money to have private providers that are not better than in the public health system

The interesting thing about this is the same doctors/consultants work in both private and public sector so they get paid by the State through our taxes and by us directly if we go private. You won't get any better treatment, but nicer furniture and curtains in the waiting rooms! Sorry a bit off topic here

[Guest [Do...]]

1 minute ago, [[W...] said:

The interesting thing about this is the same doctors/consultants work in both private and public sector so they get paid by the State through our taxes and by us directly if we go private. You won't get any better treatment, but nicer furniture and curtains in the waiting rooms! Sorry a bit off topic here

Exactly, the only difference is the waiting time to get an appoiment.

[[vo...]]

2 hours ago, [[W...] said:

I only ever took benzos and painkillers and not one of them explained what these drugs did to the brain if taken over a long period of time. 

@[WU...] Isn't that why most of us wound up here? None of us said I'll take the torture of the withdrawal symptoms over xxx.  Also, after watching the educational videos that BIC put out, it's clear that for many years now, doctors weren't educated on the harm that benzos could do to us. They all thought it was a safer alternative to barbituates. It's just in the last couple of years that this is becoming more widely understood. Doctors need to catch up and it almost seems like "we" the victims in all this, are the ones educating them, unfortunately.

[[WU...]]

9 minutes ago, [[v...] said:

Doctors need to catch up

Then they have no business calling themselves doctors if they don't know about the harm they are causing by continuing to prescribe these drugs. In a court of law ignorance does not let you off a criminal offence.

 

Edited August 4 by [WU...]

[[Le...]]

5 minutes ago, [[D...] said:

Exactly, the only difference is the waiting time to get an appoiment.

the difference for me was when i pay for treatment here I get someone who will actually discuss what I am going through. I have yet to go to a person in the Canadian medical field here who will admit that withdrawal is a thing or that i went through anything. bad mouthing another doctor could affect their career. admitting something was done wrong could drag them into my situation. big bunch of cowards that all added to the harm  

I have gotten everything from “hm. maybe that cbd was a bad idea” to “i dont deal with addicts”.  any stupid thing to avoid my situation. usually its just looking at me in silence for 30secs then changing the subject. 

if i go in anywhere I feel i should tell them this part of my history. soon as I do everything changes. Even gets aggressive. 

My last physical was hilarious. got weighed and height measured. get in the office. asked a couple questions then “lets check that prostate”. “ no thanks I say. i have enough hang ups about doctors”. “well we are done then.”. “hm?”. “if you wont cooperate then there is no point is there”

bunch of twats. 

 

[[Ma...]]

Unfortunately this topic has veered way off course.  I think we can all agree that there are a lot of bad prescribers who put us on these drugs carelessly and nonchalantly without considering the harm they may be doing.  That was not something I was debating.  That said, if you are having chest pain, if you have sudden numbness in one of your limbs, if you start getting new bruising and bleeding, if you start having abdominal pain and weight loss, etc etc, get it checked out if your symptoms persist.  

[[vo...]]

2 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

Unfortunately this topic has veered way off course. 

Thank you! Well said.

[[Le...]]

5 minutes ago, [[M...] said:

Unfortunately this topic has veered way off course.  I think we can all agree that there are a lot of bad prescribers who put us on these drugs carelessly and nonchalantly without considering the harm they may be doing.  That was not something I was debating.  That said, if you are having chest pain, if you have sudden numbness in one of your limbs, if you start getting new bruising and bleeding, if you start having abdominal pain and weight loss, etc etc, get it checked out if your symptoms persist.  

I think we can all agree that you have a different perspective because you are part of the medical field. everything except the bleeding is common or constant for most here and its a waste of time. this mess is too confusing and almost always heading to a docs office will just cause more harm. 

 

Edited August 4 by [Le...]