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THE WITHDRAWAL THAT CAN KILL YOU
The Guideline Says Two To Four Weeks
The Prescription Says Ninety Days
Refillable…
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OKAY BACK FROM THE PRESCRIPTION PAD 📋
👇🏻
THE NUMBERS 📊
Benzodiazepines Are Among The Most Prescribed Psychiatric Medications In The United States
More Than Ninety Million Prescriptions Are Written Each Year
Xanax, The Brand Name For Alprazolam
Has Been The Most Prescribed Psychiatric Medication In America For Multiple Consecutive Years
Roughly One In Eight American Adults Reports Taking A Benzodiazepine In The Past Year
A Significant Portion Of Those Are Long Term Users
Meaning Months
Meaning Years
Meaning The Exact Pattern The Guidelines Have Warned Against For Decades
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THE Z DRUG PIVOT 💊
When Public Scrutiny Of Benzodiazepines Increased In The 1990s
Pharmaceutical Companies Introduced A New Category
They Were Called Z Drugs
Zolpidem. Branded As Ambien
Zopiclone, Zaleplon
The Marketing Was Straightforward
Not A Benzodiazepine
Safer. Less Habit Forming. Specifically For Sleep.
The Mechanism Was The Same
Z Drugs Work On The Same GABA A Receptor
Through The Same Amplification Process
The Dependence Profile Is Comparable
The Withdrawal Symptoms Are Comparable
The Rebrand Was Not A Chemical Innovation
It Was A Commercial One
The Scrutiny On The Old Category Had Created An Opening For A New One
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THE WITHDRAWAL THAT CAN KILL YOU ☠️
This Is The Part That Separates Benzodiazepines From Nearly Every Other Substance In This Series
Opioid Withdrawal Is Brutal
It Is Rarely Directly Fatal In Otherwise Healthy Adults
Benzo Withdrawal Can Kill You
When The GABA System Has Been Suppressed For Long Enough
Removing The Drug Abruptly Causes The Nervous System To Overshoot In The Other Direction
Seizures
Grand Mal Seizures
Cardiac Events
Delirium
Benzodiazepine Withdrawal And Alcohol Withdrawal Are The Two Drug Withdrawals
That Are Medically Recognized As Potentially Lethal Without Supervision
A Patient Who Has Been On A Therapeutic Dose For Two Years And Stops Suddenly Is At Genuine Risk
This Fact Is Not Communicated At Prescription
It Is Rarely Communicated At Any Point During Long Term Treatment
Patients Find Out When They Try To Stop
THE MANUAL PHARMA NEVER WROTE 📖
Professor Heather Ashton Was A Clinical Pharmacologist At Newcastle University In England
She Spent More Than A Decade Running A Specialist Clinic For Patients Trying To Come Off Benzodiazepines
She Documented What She Observed
She Developed A Tapering Protocol Based On That Clinical Experience
She Published It For Free
The Ashton Manual Has Been Downloaded Millions Of Times
It Is The Most Widely Used Guide For Benzodiazepine Tapering In The World
No Pharmaceutical Company Has Funded A Comparable Resource
No Major Medical Institution Has Produced A More Comprehensive One
The Primary Guide For Coming Off One Of The Most Prescribed Drugs In The World
Was Written By A Retired Professor
Released For Free
On The Internet
THE COMMUNITY THAT FILLED THE GAP 🌐
BenzoBuddies Is An Online Forum Founded In 2004
It Exists Because Patients Coming Off Benzodiazepines Had Nowhere Else To Go
Doctors Who Had Prescribed The Drug For Years Often Had No Protocol For Stopping It
Patients Were Told To Cut Their Dose In Half
Or To Stop Gradually Without Specific Guidance
The Forum Became A Place Where People Who Had Already Been Through Withdrawal Helped People Who Were In The Middle Of It
The Medical Infrastructure That Created The Dependency
Had Not Created A Corresponding Infrastructure For Recovery
The Patients Built One Themselves
