is there a DR in the house...

[[Ch...]]

My doctor told me

"Benzo's are the least of your worries" a-hole!

 

I want off all nonessential meds! NOW!

they should be referring us for therapy instead of writing scripts.

 

Agreed. However, you have to admit that a lot of people (not meaning the folks here, make that clear) want an instant fix for their problems and do not want to invest the time or effort it often takes to improve their health, whether it be physical or mental. I've been guilty of that myself.

[Guest [su...]]

you're right chinook, some people are like that.. i think i would have taken the other route if offered though, only because i didn't like drugs. i actually had them for a few days before i took them.

[[Al...]]

And does anyone think that a Doctor would be brave or mad enough to post on here given BB,s general unwritten (but sometimes overt) consensus? 

[Guest [su...]]

Doctors are no saints, or so I hear, after all they are only humans, we all make mistakes.

But they are supposed to be professionals, my husband is a pilot, but he's not going to take 150 people in the air if he doesn't think the plane is safe.

[[Al...]]

Doctors are no saints, or so I hear, after all they are only humans, we all make mistakes.

But they are supposed to be professionals, my husband is a pilot, but he's not going to take 150 people in the air if he doesn't think the plane is safe.

They are professionals that have to make difficult decisions about health issues which sometimes means balancing and weighing up the risks to an individual based on clinical trials provided by pharmaceutical companies and the information provided from these trials.

Benzos are awful but they were produced as a cure all to replace barbiturates which had very nasty sx with o/d. They help a lot of people and harm too many. So government policy is now reflecting this and here they are only recommended for 2-4 weeks use. Even this can be too much for some but not the majority... The scientists didn't know the pain they would cause for some people. The Doctors were the middle men / women...

 

Nb. Morphine has its uses but is highly addictive. All about risk vs costs.

[[ov...]]

None of my docs, or pdoc had a clue about how bad the w/d are.  For 2 yrs now I have been complaining of different ailments to my pdoc, especially the burning skin pain, and he never once said I was in K w/d.  Ticks me off.  He told me to taper slowly and everything would be fine. NOT!

overcomer  :smitten:

[[sp...]]

Hello Buddies.

 

Just to confirm...I AM a doctor and I AM human

 

Take care,

 

spartacus x

[[Ki...]]

Hello Buddies.

 

Just to confirm...I AM a doctor and I AM human

 

Take care,

 

spartacus x

 

And you're wonderful too, Spartacus! 

 

                     

 

Kimba 

[[Mo...]]

Hello Buddies.

 

Just to confirm...I AM a doctor and I AM human

 

Take care,

 

spartacus x

 

:-[ :smitten:

[[...]]

I am not going to go on about my personal situation on here.

 

Alex mentioned Morphine being addictive which I know it is. On my recent stay in a general hospital I had one dose of Morphine and I was so ill. that I did not take any more.

 

But it was offered like a cough syrup it is called Oramorph here in the U.K I tried telling the women that were on my ward that they may suffer when they are no longer taking it. But they would not listen.

 

And as for Doctors and Psychiatrists when one tells them that it is possible that I am suffering from w/d sxs even though I have been off benzos for some months now. Do they believe me what do you think.

 

And yes Spartacus is a asset to the forum. But we must remember that she also has to deal with her own situation and as she has said she is only human and a very nice one to have as a friend . So don't blush Spartacus but I want to thank you here as you have no blog.

 

Duck

[Guest [su...]]

i only hope that spartacus and other dr's on here are spreading the word through the medical system about this drug. and if the drug is only meant for short time use then our prescriptions should only have be written for that time period. '2 weeks " and w/d warning written on the bottles.. there are so many things that can be done to prevent this from happening but no one is doing them.. the dr's i have seen over the course of my w/d have basically ignored me when talking about w/d. they know what's happening but choose to turn their heads the other way.. it's all about money.. "IE KICK BACK ". the truth is the truth... a friend told me ,her dr friend said he had a big fat check waiting for him when he got home from vacation from the drug company.. just saying!!!! i'm sure there are lots of caring dr's out there, but not enough of them...  i'm sure the drug is useful in some ways in short term use.. but short term only....

 

 

 

[[bo...]]

Benzos are all generic. I pay less than 5 dollars for my script. No drug company is paying big kickbacks for that. The fancy new ads and psych meds maybe.

[Guest [su...]]

Hello Buddies.

 

Just to confirm...I AM a doctor and I AM human

 

Take care,

 

spartacus x

sorry spartacus, i wasn't doubting that you weren't human.. i would never think that..

[[Mo...]]

Hello Buddies.

 

Just to confirm...I AM a doctor and I AM human

 

Take care,

 

spartacus x

 

Blimey dear Spartacus,

i started feeling so guilty and embarrassed about my posts, since i know i am not

a heartless person and of course i know Doctors are human .

 

took me a long time to search through your posts and i was successful. 

i knew, you and i have a common point of view dear lady, 

so here we go if i may and i hope you take it with humour.

 

on march 28 th 2013. title of the thread: dangerous dump diagnoses (quote by spartacus)

'' i think what needs to happen is the odd psychiatrist, intern, whatever, should be

force fed Xanax for a couple of months and then cold turkeyed....in a cage ...in a public place.

 

i would not want to be inhumane; it would be a nice cage , all mod cons

and the odd banana thrown in.

it would be interesting to see how long it took them to crack and throw the bananas back

and demonstrate a touch of drug-seeking behaviour .''

 

i am so glad i found this post, because i can assure everyone, i do not need to be reminded

that Doctors are humans as well. 

 

 

[Guest [su...]]

actually morreweg.. i like that.. and you didn't it direct at any certain dr.. but i find it kind funny.. it would be very interesting to watch. now on the other hand , when i get my emotions back from this benzo hell w/d i might feel differently.. 

[[Mo...]]

sussie, you know i still have the benzo-brain after this bloody detox ,

which means as soon as i hear the word Doctor i think of those with their

prescription pad and get angry. not so funny really i know.

 

but of course Spartacus is a prime Doctor, thats different , she is a victim herself.

i got really upset thinking to be disrespectful towards her.

love you Spartacus .

[[op...]]

I really think that most doctors do mean well.  I also think that there are many people who are able to take benzos and stop without much difficulty.  This makes it hard for doctors to know whether the problems that a minority of their patients have stopping are really legitimate.  Hopefully with websites like this one doctors are starting to learn that not all people are able to tolerate withdrawing from benzos in the same way and they will use better discretion when prescribing them in the future.

 

Optimist

[[gu...]]

I agree that many doctors mean well, they just don't know any better.

[[sp...]]

Hello Everyone.

 

Health warning...Doctor in the House.

 

So why has a basically well-meaning profession apparently colluded in the creation of the problem all of us here know only too well?

 

Because it IS a problem, a huge one. The perception that we are a minority is true only in that we are the brave or bloody-minded few who are attempting to give up benzodiazepines at all. We are attempting the transition back from the "worried sick" to the "worried well".

 

It is in the politically-driven creation of the original worried well that the seeds of the problem lie.

 

Governing geeks have long favoured fear as a means of mass control. When they ran out of "Reds under the bed" or "Yellow perils" as credible instruments it took only the guiding hand of a benevolent Big Pharma and the childish belief that prevention must be cheaper than cure for them to embrace health anxiety as a way of strife.

 

Evidence-biased medicine, rooted in expensive research chosen and funded by pharmaceutical companies, made short work of reducing populations into seas of isolated individuals perpetually in search of the Healthy Grail, perpetually in fear.

 

Doctors didn't achieve this alone but neither did they oppose it. Threatened economically they soon ceded clinical autonomy, gave up on the self-regulation necessary to being a profession and became the nominated external locus of control for adrift individuals.

 

As recently as the Eighties "anxiety" stopped being what you felt when challenged and became a diagnosis; life became medicalised and, inevitably, medicated.

 

Given that some inevitably found the "fear" disabling, how fortunate that a new class of "minor" tranquilisers was around begging to be used. How unfortunate that these minor drugs were used in such quantities and how very unfortunate that, in common with many panaceas, they turned out to have such major side-effects...or secondary therapeutic opportunities depending upon your world view.

 

Welcome then to the "worried sick", symptomatic people draining hospitals, outpatient clinics and ER departments near you, the base material of the countless mysterious "syndromes" clogging up every clueless branch of medicine.

 

Doctors, inevitably part of the worried well themselves, will not be able to reverse this catastrophe alone...drying lemmings off and shovelling them back up cliff faces doesn't seem to be part of anyone's remit.

 

Paradigm shift will probably require a further catastrophe...it usually does. Having recently given up catastrophic thinking...for health reasons...I have no idea what form this next catastrophe will take.

 

Have a nice day

 

spartacus

 

 

[[...]]

Spartacus 

 

Thank you for your words

 

 

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

Duck

[[Mo...]]

Bleak prospects indeed for the next generations to come.

[[sp...]]

My pleasure Duck

 

It's not helpful to have simplistic solutions repeatedly advanced to deal with complicated problems.

 

If ALL doctors stopped prescribing benzodiazepines today, or even limited their use to those times and conditions considered legitimate by whichever Great and Good, it would be about as "successful" as Prohibition was in taming alcohol abuse.

 

A "healthy" and not particularly subterranean black market already exists. The street value of their adulterated products would quadruple overnight and, in time, given the nature of the benzodiazepine withdrawal that probably comes to everyone with time and successive challenges, they would rule the world.

 

The steps in the patterns of prescription of new drugs are well-known. An initial reluctance to prescribe, doctors are conservative beings, is always followed by enthusiastic overuse in expanding areas.

 

In time, there being no such thing as a free lunch, the problems of mass medication arise and there is then a retrenchment to curtailed usage where the ends are thought to justify the downsides of the means.

 

This hasn't happened with benzodiazepines despite many concerns being raised many times. The reason the retrenchment has failed is one we are all familiar with...stopping these drugs is only the start of a long-suffering story. Healing comes hard.

 

Before rational, limited use of benzodiazepines can occur, it will be necessary for the extended withdrawal syndromes of them and the other psychoactive drugs used with them, to be properly recognised...and dealt with.

 

Sadly, I can't find anyone overly exercising themselves in this direction.

 

With love, spartacus x

 

PS The only benzodiazepine addict I ever colluded in making was myself

 

 

 

Edit:  personally identifying info.

~Juliea

 

 

[Guest [su...]]

spartacus.. you are a very smart lady, with a lot of good points. 

[[sp...]]

Yes Claudia, bleak indeed.

 

My generation, the huge, unprecedented population group of Baby Boomers are retiring en masse.

 

The next generations of doctors, while dazed and confused by expanding demand, have been spoon fed certainties by vested interests...the lifetime sceptics are about to be replaced by True Believers.

 

That can only be changed by finally addressing ludicrous demand...and I don't mean by increasing supply.

 

In a 40-year working lifetime the biggest change I saw in medicine was a change from patients demanding the right to be well, to a much more vocal group demanding the right to be sick.

 

It was first noticeable with "ME", neither myalgia nor encephalitis and now subsumed in the larger group of CFS. Nobody ever "demands" that they have cancer...they often fear it, need reassurance they don't have it, but they don't flood into clinics demanding their right to have it in the absence of any objective evidence.

 

In retrospect the rise of ME probably coincided with the first wave of benzodiazepine dependents. It has been followed by the rise of many other "soft" diagnoses and syndromes...IBS, POTS, fibromyalgia...and multiple, isolated, unexplained "idiopathic" symptoms...vertigo, tinnitus, uncorrectable blurred vision, hyperacusis, akathisia, restless legs, non-congenital dystonias, shortness of breath, chest pain, cognitive defects, agoraphobia, eating disorders, insomnia.

 

I don't need to mention the recent relentless expansion of psychiatric diagnoses and morbidity. Suffice to say that the right hand of psychiatry needs to take a hard look at what the left hand is doing in the name of making their Black Art more "scientific".

 

Time to walk in the sun I think

 

Take care, with love spartacus x

[[sp...]]

Hey sussie,

 

You are very kind.

 

"I" am a lady who has learnt many hard lessons from deludedly trusting my colleagues.

 

I will never do it again.

 

Take care, spartacus