PLEASE WATCH "THIS IS LIFE" WITH LISA LING ON CNN THIS SUNDAY NIGHT FOR A SPECIAL SHOW ON BENZO DRUGS. SHE ADDED THIS TO HER SERIES AFTER HER FATHER HAD A DEMENTIA-LIKE REACTION TO KLONOPIN AT AGE 79. You can find details on Facebook or I am sure CNN's webpage.
I fully expect antibiotics to be prescribed when I need them, because I was NOT one of the ones to be over-prescribed them to cause the antiobiotic resistance episdemic. When my kids were still minors, experts were saying that kids shouldn't have their ear infections treated with antiobiotics unless there was severe pain.
I can see both sides of the benzo problem. People can become addicted, but it is not fair to make it difficult for the people to get them who really need them. I don't know what the answer is.
these drugs.
I think it's important to show the public what can happen if you take a Benzo. Not just benzo's either. It can happen with all sorts of medications. I don't think the parents who lost their son think it was fear mongering or the woman who was contemplating suicide.
If you never had a problem with taking these types of drugs you are lucky but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I think it's important to educate the public and sometimes in this sensationalistic society we live in the only way you'll get someone's attention is to scare them.
It is unfortunate that people who legitimately need these medications have a hard time getting them now but better that than throwing them out there to everyone who thinks they need them when they really don't.
And yes, I get annoyed that I have to practically beg for a lowest dose ativan but so be it.
Everyone has to be educated about the meds they take. And now I am going to say something that will elicit a forum wide gasp-- I have taken a benzo (lowest dose & can't EVER have more) for the last 23 years. I have tapered down and it's no fun, but it's doable and someday I will probably go off them. Or not. This is between me and my psych doc. I also take and AD for depression and chronic anxiety. Again, a very low dose and only with a twice yearly visit to my psych doc.
For 'simple and occasional anxiety', the root beer thing works, but when you are in a full blown panic attack, it's literally dangerous for me to NOT treat it.
Shaming people for needing something never works, in order to 'teach them'. I was severely abused as a child--for many years. Mother knew it and even 60 years later calls me a liar for talking about it and 'outing' the abuser, who, turns out, had hurt MANY more kids than just me.
I can look at a glass of root beer for a week and the anxiety will not abate.
I HAVE done a lot of therapy and I am MUCH better. But the damage my abuser and mother did to me was hard wired into me and I am still in the process of rewiring my brain.
I have NO JUDGMENT for those poor souls who suffer like I have...or for people with chronic pain that requires an opiate to help through daily life. The waste of time of having to see my doc every 3 months to simply get a scrip that they used to just 'call in' is annoying. I go in, say hi, he says hi and signs the already printed forms and I am off. We've had the 'be careful' talk, and honestly? at 63, I am not going to suddenly get all spry and bouncy was until my mid-50's. Life w/o pain meds is not worth living and I know I am not alone in this scenario.
Do you know who abuses opiates the most? DOCTORS. Not the great unwashed out here. DOCTORS and people in the medical field.
Off my high horse. If you have to take meds that aren't considered to be "OK" and feel judged and embarassed, come stand by me. I'll shore you up.
I personally hate that the Gov't even HAS a say in what medications I can and cannot have.
What infuriates me is hesitancy for prescribing antibiotics. I know and respect those who lean towards avoiding them. As I have shared in different posts I was not prescribed one after a root canal procedure. I am mad at myself for not insisting on one because an infection set into the bone. I ended up having major surgery for a jaw that became fractured. It is a long story I will spare those here now but I would suggest strongly asking for one if under going this. I am on a PICC line for 6 weeks.. They very likely will have to go back in to create bone and certainly will if I opt for implants. This will all be months down the line. Guess I haven't really spared you all that much. My doctor has provided me with pain medication. I would prefer so much to be living a different life. I enjoy exercising as an example. Right now I only go out with my husband as I am not comfortable driving yet. I also am very self conscious about my appearance. My point is that avoiding prescribing medications that the government is directing the course of can lead to tragic consequences and life altering circumstances
Still, I go home and dutifully read every - often repetitive - line. Most of the time when I’ve finally reached the end I’m more frightened by the cure than I am of the cause.
Both the elderly lady and the experienced worker supervising me looked at me like I had two heads. I am coming to suspect that most people think that PILs are just extra packaging, put into the boxes deliberately to make them harder to close tidily.
Plus everybody's body chemistry is different. Maybe some people are more sensitive to certain medications.
The young man who committed suicide seemed to act quite different once he reached a certain age. I wondered if he might have developed schizophrenia that was never diagnosed, though, they did not mention that.
My MIL’s doc felt that the Lisa Ling report was not that accurate. She didn’t think the descriptions of withdrawal symptoms were the norm for most people and that overall the show was an exercise in fearmongering. She said she would be following her medical training, her experience and keeping up with current research on the topic. And most importantly the needs of her individual patients and their behaviors.
Of course if you can't get your prescriptions renewed here there's always the option of recreational weed available. And booze.🙄
I was surprised when I left the dentist office last week she handed me a prescription for tylenol 3's. Just like that. I never even said I was in pain. And that's the other problem. No consistency among the medical profession. I'm begging for 5 ativan from one doctor and being handed a prescription for tylenol 3 by another.
All I know for sure is if you are experiencing severe panic attacks and also desperate for sleep you'll take just about anything.
I also wonder about what they are giving seniors. That segment of the show with Lis Ling's Dad was interesting and kind of disturbing.
especially concerning Klonopin.
The withdrawal side effects are scary! Can you imagine the doctor's being confused over whether to take the med as a PRN (whenever necessary), or daily?
If one takes a benzo as needed for a few panic attacks a year, omg. the withdrawal side effects would happen each time! If you took 1-3 tablets, then stopped.....
two things are going to happen. 1) withdrawal will be experienced.
2) the withdrawal will make you feel you are losing your mind and need more!
Glad I watched it. Going back to therapist and complete extensive training on cognitive behavioral training to allay any future panic attacks. Handing out some literature just isn't going to cut it. I have had good results with the technique using the five fingers on your hand, naming the five senses for each finger, and then picturing: ( See)...a can of rootbeer (Hear)...pop open the can of rootbeer (Smell)...the bubbles and smell of rootbeer (Touch)...the can feels cold as you pick it up (Taste)...and drink the rootbeer. Picturing this in your imagination, no rootbeer is needed.
What this does? Distracts you from continuing down that downward spiral of panic in your memories, because you cannot hold two differing thoughts at once. It creates new brain pathways and new memories for the information to travel a new place instead of the panic place.
These drugs are dangerous, even more so to some biologically sensitive persons.
I finally got my doc to give me a prescription for five ativan a mth that can only be filled monthly. Lowest dose. Better than nothing I guess.
Do you want to take away alcohol again too? I'm not much of a drinker, nor pill taker, but I don't like what happened to so many patients when the 'war on Opiods' (B.S.) happened. People had no way to get their valid pain needs met for many many weeks....(nobody cared about them going cold turkey off their pain meds), as long as Drs feared losing their licenses: cuz of political pressure... Drs were afraid so they turned their backs on many valid patients in need. That's what happened where I live, cuz a lot of people were on my local news crying, & begging for any Dr to help them... cuz they'd been abandoned. That's cruel & unusual punishment for folks who'd done no wrong.