About those Benzos......
And, surprisingly, adding insult, indignity and isolation to injury, the medical community proved to be the least knowledgeable place to turn for help. Bitter personal experience confirmed a knowledge and empathy deficit with an injury escaping routine diagnostics. Instead, this kind of chemical brain injury (and subsequent pain and suffering) is conflated with addiction and/or mental health resulting in blame assigned to the sufferer. (What did I do, think or feel to bring this on?) The critical facts of the drugs ability to inflict widespread hormonal and neuroendocrine disruption is withheld; prescribers are not required to fully inform consumers of all the potential risks prior to treatment. This chemical injury, or iatrogenisis, is the next drug crisis following directly on the heels of the opioid crisis. Why is the medical community blatantly ill-equipped to handle injury from taken-as-prescribed benzodiazepines?
The canary has been in the coal mine warning and urging change for decades. The damning accumulation of evidence extends back to the 60’s. In 1979, the late senator Ted Kennedy held a congressional hearing on the dangers of diazepam sponsoring legislation that would require that more information on diazepam’s effects be given to consumers. No action was taken. In the 90’s, Dr. Heather Ashton, Professor Malcolm Lader and Robert Whitaker persistently advocated for change via research, publications and interviews. And, more recently, organizations and online patient feedback support forums like benzobuddies.org, The Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practices and The Benzodiazepine Information Coalition have all further elevated this iatrogenic health crisis as a direct result of chronic and taken-as-prescribed benzodiazepines. Why are the warnings and the evidence on the dangers of benzodiazepines not reaching consumers? Why is the medical establishment largely silent creating synthetic safety in those following doctor's orders?