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Re: Oh, James K-Phillipa » valene

Posted by yxibow on January 7, 2006, at 0:08:49

In reply to Re: Oh, James K-Phillipa, posted by valene on January 6, 2006, at 21:03:14

> I am pointing out that benzos can be worse than "heroin" to withdraw from: this has been said over and over if you do an internet search or talk to someone who has been through horrific withdrawal.
>
> Are you calling me a liar? I went through one year of hellish withdrawal symptoms. Just go to benzo.org.uk and read Professor C. Heather Ashton's description of benzo w/d symptoms and tell me this is not a physical dependence. I don't appreciate your inferring that I am lying about benzo withdrawal. I have read thousands of articles and posts about benzo withdrawal and it is REAL.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal is real, I wont deny that However. The website is a controversial one and I will again get lambasted I am quite sure about this site because there are people here who believe in it, and there are people who are squarely against it. One is free to choose, so I hope I clearly am placing that disclaimer when I say the following things, and note, I am also speaking of a person who has withdrawn from benzodiazepines I would say at least two to three times, mostly safely. Once cold turkey and while I still suffer from some strange but fairly benign spasms from it now and then, what can I do?

Professor Ashton has an agenda to remove people from benzodiazepines, not to mention that there is a blatant Christian symbol placed squarely in the center of the website. By this I am not attacking any religion, but I do not believe it has any place in a website that is to neutrally disseminate important medical information. I speak not for any drug company, and I believe in things like HON and general good practices of medical web ethics.

Additionally medical "experts" sited on the web site include Peter Breggin, MD, who you can believe or not, but is definately a "quack" as identified by Quackwatch, which is generally on the level about medical ethics [http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/breggin.html].


> Some very lucky people apparently get away with no w/d symptoms or very slight w/d but the percentage is quite low.

Every medication out there has a potential for medical complications from withdrawal, especially abrupt, from long term use. No dispute here. Antidepressants, antipsychotics, beta blockers, the list goes on.


> How can you say it is not addictive also when if you C/T it you run a big risk of grand mal seizures????

There are a lot of medications out there that can risk up to and including grand mal seizures when you "Cold Turkey" them, that don't just include benzodiazepines. All anticonvulsants carry this risk. This includes Tegretol, Depakote, Neurontin, Keppra, Lamictal, Trileptal, Topamax, and practically every medication invented for epilepsy that are used off label for psychiatric purposes.


No medication will be without side effects as no tool in one's garage or garden will be without danger to its user. Its good to read up on information. But that has to be solid, scientifically based information, with double blind trials, and the lack of scare tactics.

One can choose to go down the path and never take any medication because it might cause something in the future. One can sit suffering in silence. Or maybe one doesn't need it at all. I personally feel I do need medication so I again make a disclaimer that I speak also personally as someone who takes antipsychotics and has risk of TD, has taken antidepressants and gained weight, and has had withdrawal symptoms from medications, including benzodiazepines.

Heroin withdrawal for the grand majority population may not include seizures, but one can get a pretty good idea from Trainspotting as to what it entails.

A planned, gradual withdrawal and taper from benzodiazepines for one reason or another of discontinue, over periods of weeks to months depending on the dose and medication will for the vast majority of individuals successfully remove the patient from the substance. And I do mean gradual.

There is also, and I will repeat again, a distinction between withdrawal, dependence, addiction, and habituation.

Withdrawal is a medical sign of the lack of a drug in a system that has been habituated in an individual for the majority of individuals.

Dependence and addiction are another category -- physical dependence on a substance for no value or purpose other than some form of gratification from that substance that may possibly even be a genetic disposition such as alcohol abuse.

In conclusion, the responsible use of benzodiazepines when they are called for are still the most safest psychiatric medications, and believe it or not, there are people happily kept in balance since they were invented in 1958 (brought to market in 1960) to replace the ancient barbiturates that had been in use, some of whose effective doses can be near their lethal range.
I cannot think of a psychiatric medication that has been tested for 46 years that has fewer side effects than the proper use of benzodiazepines by their very virtue of 46 years of experience.

People brought out of crippling social phobias and panic disorder that had previously been housebound. I dunno, I could go on. There is good, and bad, and inbetween. But comparing a C-IV medication to C-I Heroin is a little on the absurd spectrum, I am sorry.

Tidings.

 

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poster:yxibow thread:594786
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051231/msgs/596094.html