Carla and her son, Thomas: Benzodiazepine & Effexor Withdrawal
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 พ.ค. 2023
- Subscribe to Medicating Normal's TH-cam channel: buff.ly/39Tupxr
To view “Medicating Normal," go to: medicatingnormal.com/watch
Donate to "Medicating Normal Outreach: medicatingnmormal.com/donate
Buy us a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/MNFilm
Purchase a DVD (U.S. and Puerto Rico): medicatingnormal.gumroad.com/...
Medicating Normal Stickers: medicatingnormal.com/stickers/
On March 16, 2023, at the Oberndorf Central Library in Virginia Beach, The Richard Scott Fee Foundation hosted an educational event:
"What the Public Should Know About Deprescribing Psychiatric Drugs"
This video is an excerpt from that event.
In this video, Carla and her son, Thomas, detail her experience withdrawing from benzodiazepines and Effexor. Michael Bohan, M.D., a (retired) addiction medicine specialist, who was Carla's deprescribing physician, moderates the conversation.
RELEVANT LINKS:
The Ashton Manual: www.benzoinfo.com/ashtonmanual/
Benzobuddies (Support Forum): benzobuddies.org
I was offered benzos while undergoing cancer treatment. I refused. I was offered them again when I lost two of my sons. I refused again. A friend told me once, "I need my tears to water my soul", and I always remembered that. I have seen people destroyed by these drugs. I thank God that I have not added this nightmare to my already challenging life. My heart goes out to all those who are suffering through this! 😢
God bless you 🙏❤ and may the light find its way to your heart and soul and restore you sweetheart, thanks for your compassion as I am weaning off diazapam at this moment.
God bless you.
sorry for your loss . devastating tragedy :(
Sending you love and blessings. Good for you for refusing Benzos!! They are evil.
Very wise words ❤
I survived ambien and Xanax at the same time over 7 months of torture 🙃. No help from anyone......Now it's 2023 and I'm weaning off of valium after 11 yrs. I was on 10mg, down to 4.5 mg in May 4th 2023. No help.....God bless you all ❤. I'm 50 yrs old and will never take another antidepressants
I am weaning off lexapro down to 5 mg also stopped saphris n weand down to 1/4 of .05 klonopin from 3 mg weaned off 2oo mg lamictal cut way back on gabapentin Still on 60 mg buspar on ampitriptaline too really physical symptoms from lexapro long story my med provider says it’s not withdrawals I’m done with her I have to do it alone n just yes her to get meds that I’m still on looking for new phyc trying natural path next week been suicidal in ers they sent me home with ativan. So greatful I found Nicole n Witt on waiting list for Witt expensive tho I don’t work n my husbands retired had nervous breakdown in my 40s.
How did your taper go?
For how long were you taking Ambien? Thank u! ❤
Thank God. It's so hard. I don't know how I will wean my self of Ativan. It is also a horrific drug. A doctor wants to wean me off with Valium but I need to pay $275 monthly that I don't have.
@@madelynhernandez7453 How much Ativan do you take daily?
I was prescribed benzodiazepines when I was 11 years old. I stopped taking them in the spring of 2019. I was taking these medications for 42 years. I was prescribed antidepressants in 2003., I stopped taking these drugs in November 2018. I was taking antidepressants for 15 years. I went through this path almost without any support.
What adverse effect do you have / did you have?
While on the drugs, and persistent after stopping them.
Best wishes.
I’m sorry you had no support whilst coming off the benzo’s 😞. You must be an extremely strong, resilient person to have done this alone. I am slowly tapering alone without support so you have given me faith I can do this x Thank you for sharing and I hope things are getting better for you 🙏
Me too. Started meds at 13. Had akastisia for the first time at 13. I'll be 50 in two months and I'm about 8 months off all 7 of my psyche meds. I have NO WORDS FOR AKASTISIA . I had no help. No family. No Dr. Horrifying!!!!! I had to figure it out and heal myself. Bess yall
@@ajax700 body convulsing, insomnia, horror, fear, terror, hip pain that I couldn't tolerate, suicidal, anxiety, excess saliva, throat closing, jaw off track, sweating, pacing, crying, UTI, brain zaps.....paranoia, full blown psychosis, hallucinations, fever.... .....
@@Lisa-xf5uf same..how do u cope everyday? I can't take another minute of it
The gaslighting from the medical industry is like being in a horror movie.
Hey all! I’ve figured out that covering my eyes helps tremendously with the effexor withdrawals if this comment helps one person get through how messed up the side effects are I’ll be happy!
Hi, how long have you been off Effexor? I'm off fo a month now, wake up with anxiety, get agitated during the day. Everything seems pointless, work boring and hard to focus on. I'm scared.
@@thisgirl5933work is always boring.
What a wonderful son ❤❤ You raised that man well. What a great support he was to you. I just approached my local public health drug and alcohol place and I got shamed. Just as you said - they shame you.
Wonderful son, wonderful woman and wonderful doctor.
We need to find safe medicines
The safest medicine is the placebo effect! :)
The industry drug tests fair only slightly better over a 6 week period according to their own literature. And those are only the published ones. Good luck to me if I ever need a doctor lol.
*_We need to find safe medicines_*
Not at all.
We need to get a humane health and mental health system.
That uses the many non drug therapies that are really effective.
If you are overweight, you have to eat healthy. Not take drugs to lower your weight, which don't really exist but is an example.
Mental health issues come from lack of human connection, neglect or abuse.
None of these can be solved with drugs.
It's much better to get a good non drug therapist, and do something like CBT cognitive behavioral therapy.
Medics likes this one are less than 0,1 percent.
They are a total rarity, a very strange anomaly of the health destroying health drug system we have now around the world.
Most persons will end with a "medic" that will destroy his health.
Very ignorant, and very entitled because of his diploma.
Best wishes.
They exist. They're the medicines we've had all throughout history and longer. They're foods. They're herbs, spices, mushrooms, etc.
You survived benzos and effexor as well? You my dear are heroic in the tenacity it takes. 4 years I've been counting beads of effexor from 225 mg to 34 beads twice daily. Doctor cold turkeyed me off clonazapam after 24 years taking effexor and clonazapam together. 30 seconds at a time and with the empathy and kindness of strangers.
@@RayB.I I presented with a baseline( meaning I wasn't on any medications) of high anxiety from moving to a new city and job. exhibiting nausea with hypomania within 2 weeks. Dosage was increased and so were side effects. This drug never worked and made me very ill after reaching tolerance and interdose withdrawl and iatrogenic brain injury.
@@dianemorrell9638
@@user-vr9cb1hm2h Ah sister sledge sang - "we are family" it reverberates....now get up every body dance! Cause we survived it!
How long was she on effexor? Its sad they didn’t talk about the latter more.
@@marcellustone 10 years
12:19 Very little benefit short term, in exchange for a surprise (as informed consent was not done) medium and long term damage.
Many people is alone, doesn't have family support, those have it 1000 times harder with these issues.
Carla is very lucky to have a caring, close supporting family.
This lady could have died by the withdrawal if it weren't for his family and even some luck.
I can't understand how most (medics, psychiatrists, nurses, society) defend the current use of these damaging drugs.
Grieve, a normal human emotion, now is a symptom to be solved with drugs, oh dear.
Best wishes.
Plus they mostly are in denial that these drugs can cause parodoxical effects and iatrogenic injury!
@@dianemorrell9638 Yes, they pass through medic school and don't know about paradoxical reactions.
It's no harder than reading the medical leaflet, drug documentation or vademecum.
Let alone know about protracted withdrawal, tapering, different metabolisms speeds, poly pharmacy dangers.
Akathisia, dystonia, dyskinesia. Etc.
Wikipedia "knows" more than doctors in most cases.
Damaged by drugs communities today know much more than 99% medics, which is SAD.
Denial attitude plus arrogance ends with the damaged by drugs epidemic happening since so many decades.
Ah but they always tell us to don't research on the web for what the drugs really do, and don't believe all the very true horror stories.
Because never we would take all these poisonous substances.
The solution is always taking more drugs, this is a moral crisis. Money is not more important than persons.
Best wishes.
@@ajax700 wow right on!!
@@ajax700 Absolutely agree, the psychiatric ‘industry’ is literally killing people, giving more drugs is not the solution, this has to stop
@@ajax700 And they won't believe us, don't think we can be right about what's best for us, etc. One arrogant psychiatrist on a question and answer website told me his patients pay him to make decisions for them.
They gaslight you, and they have the general public convinced they're "experts" and their treatments work and are safe.
Thank you
Thank you for sharing your story❤
I healed myself
How did you do it?
How?
I'm on benzos, Effexor, Oxycodone, Fentanyl and for breakthrough pain hydromorphone as I have pathological fracture to my spine and sternum due to cancer having a party at the expense of my vertebrae. My entire spine is full of cancer.
My story is very detailed, but I'm not allowed to go back to my pnp until I can pay the full bill, so I've been cut off Xanax. I had a psychiatrist who retired last year who'd had me on Xanax ER, 1 mg twice a day, for years, and then after no luck finding a psychiatrist who took Medicare and would prescribe Xanax (I couldn't get ER without waiting), I got a nurse practitioner who immediately cut it to 0.5 mg twice a day. I found a psychiatric nurse practitioner who kept that dosage, and now I've been off it cold turkey for a couple of days because psychiatrists and doctors "don't feel comfortable prescribing a controlled substance." I don't feel comfortable going cold turkey off a controlled substance.
I've been on many different psych meds since I was 10 years old. I'm 55 now. I'm a mess. I've never done drugs or taken more prescription drugs than I was supposed to. I'm sure I'm considered a "drug seeker" now because I didn't want to get off Xanax so quickly. I was always happy to slowly taper off it over a year or so (as per my research, including the Ashton Manual).
I wish my parents had never put me in the mental health system. I'm morbidly obese, out of shape, sleep a lot, have major dental problems, in an emotionally and mentally abusive relationship (can't leave), I have no family or friends, I'm so incredibly lonely, scared, and so much has been taken from me. I'm not suicidal (I'm terrified of death), but I just want to change my life (I'm not specifying how for privacy).
How are you doing today? .5 Xanax twice a day is not much. The 1 mg ER is very unusual to get. I have been on Xanax for decades and went off for my pregnancy. Weaned myself off for sure. I have seen in my work the effects of cold turkey off a benso and a deadly seizure can occur. Your situation sounds like you were basically being weaned without realizing. Going from 1 mg ER to .5 twice a day is less. Getting down to just one a day of .5 then halfing them to .25 would have been good. Is ADHD in your diagnosis? If you made it off then Ican only suggest that if real panic attacks occur should you start again. Your situation is not changing because of your Xanax. Is it possible it’s helping you deal with the life you don’t want and feel you can’t get out of? I am late diagnosed ADHD after 3 decades of being treated for low grade depression and anxiety. It explains a lot looking back. Low self esteem will get you in all sorts of trouble like an abusive relationship. I have that but my overlapping anxiety has kept me functional in the guardrails so to speak. Take that anxiety away and it causes you to fall into all sorts of traps. Anxiety can cause you to freeze or flee.
@Electric I am so touched by your suffering. May God heal you
I went thru the same thing. I was on klonopin for 27 years and had a psychiatrist taper me to fast and I crashed. The ER docs said withdrawl lasts only 2 weeks. Ha. I was admitted into the hospital with neurology and internal med taking care of me as I was weak and couldn't walk. I coded and had 3 seizures. I got transferred to another hospital with more of the same. I had psychosis with seeing and hearing things. The internal pain is unbelievable. I am only 6 weeks in from this.
Y'all PLEASE read my comment to Germaine in this feed about how I saved my life and healed akastisia. PLEASE don't give up!!!!!!!
psychosis is a horrifying thing to watch a loved one experience.
Don’t use “ they treated me like I was psychotic “
That is so shaming to say especially when you were being shamed.
I am so sorry for your loss and experience. I truly am!!
You had support- two sisters and sons and I am going to guess you didn’t loose your home and life savings when your husband died young. And clearly you have a very loving protective son!
Mine just learned to abuse me like their father.
And BTW, I was highly educated, came from a good family and amazing schools and neighborhood
Well that is my rant out into the pathetic world on the internet.
I listen to medicating normal. Most folks have lots of support besides an on line community.
We are humans and need the love of other real humans to co regulate with .
Unbearable life
You also had Dr, Bohen , the most amazing doctor ever right there in VA Beach.
Widows are never shamed .
When the tragedy in one’s life is long term domestic violence, repeated concussions and CPTSD and doctors medicate you and wonder “ Why didn’t you leave ?”. No one understands the twisted world of the “ golden husband “ except behind closed doors. My children just saw me becoming more and more impatient and sometimes rage and curse and scream to say nothing of the “ brainwashing “ from the father they loved . It rips children apart .
Between the persistent concussion symptoms ( that neurologists deny) the unbearable CPTSD and now decades of psychiatric of every class I pray for death every day. The only thing worse than 2-4 hours of drugged sleep with gabapentin and valium is waking up knowing I have to live another day, jobless, friend less and now have lost my faith in the Lord. Oh and yeah- chronic worsening pain from stage III degenerative disc disease , scoliosis and stenosis from a bad fall injured from trauma
Can’t prove invisible injuries like “ non fatal strangulation “
Police, attorneys, doctors
just further shame you add more psychological diagnoses and say
“ Perhaps you should reduce your stress”. !!!!
I have nothing - no home , no money and family my children
Sharon my heart is with you, thank for sharing your journey. "off gassing" of the neurological impairment our brains are healing from. Every time, even the smallest window of feeling good happens rejoice in you coming back to yourself! it's actually part of the healing crises that means you are getting better after each wave gets shorter and shorter. It's so hard without support. You have my support. These forums are the only family I have.
I so hope and wish there would be some ease in your circumstances. You have been through so much, in the face of such misunderstanding and abuse; and we all need support, but especially in the circumstances you describe. I so hope that support will come from some quarter and lighten your load. I wish the best for you.
Thats insane to be able to withdrawal
From both of these drugs
Together Would be like a nightmare as well as dangerous
Definitely helping. Giving some of us hope it can actually be done 🙏
How long was she on effexor? Its sad they didn’t talk about the latter more. And how much mg?
How long was she of when she got reinstated?
Is it possible to contact you dr ??? I live in Eygpt now, but I’m able and willing to pay for consulting no matter what… please please let me know
He is retired. You can find more doctors at: benzoinfo.com/doctors
I am 64. Just found out my medicare expenses will be a quarter of my SS check.
No money to live on after that . I know I won’t be alone . Most of us will loose most of our money
I have taken Ativan, Xanax and Valium. I have had free access to it if I requested it for 23 years, but I never became addicted. I would take it when I had stressful events, and as the stress went away I just tapered off because it would no longer be beneficial. The longest I ever took it continuously was probably 6 months. I never needed increasing doses, I never had problems tapering off, except after 6 months it just took longer, I had to take little crumbs for a while to avoid "brain quivers". Not a big deal. Thank god I had these to help me through very traumatic events. Not everyone gets addicted or has horrible withdrawals. I surely didn't.
Well youre Like in the sub 5% Echelon of ppl ...
These drugs are the Devil and should never be condoned
Its like you have to push through life problems even when its grief drs are so quick to prescribe medication i think therapy is a form of medication for the soul along with spirituality and prayer to God , think thats more powerful than pills. Pills should be your very last last option. I mean spill like ssri definitely not Benzo at all
Some people may need to be on these drugs for life. Each person is an individual and cumulative PTSD over a lifetime is not the same as the loss of a spouse. People all have different personalities and nature. Some people are FAR MORE sensitive than others. How can a person with a lack of feelings know what life can be like for people that feel everything?
After a minor argument with my father in December 2010, he forced me into a psychiatric hospital. And thus began my psychiatric medication, most of them being antipsychotics. I came back home after 55 days, but was forced to continue medication.I suffered from blepharospasm once for nearly 9 months, and from oromandibular dystonia thrice for nearly 9 months, 11 months, and 2 years. I came to know from the internet in 2019 that these were side effects of the antipsychotics. After showing the printouts of the research that I did on the Internet to my parents, and after a long period of convincing, my parents reluctantly allowed me to stop the medicines in 2021. I initially tried to stop them without tapering. That was disastrous. Insomnia, abnormal skin sensations, frequent defecation, akathisia, extreme negative thinking, hopelessness, fear, etc. After two days, felt compelled to begin taking medicines again. My abusive parents were happy that I had to take medicines again. After knowing the concept of tapering from the internet, I applied it and took the last dose on September 4, 2022. This could not be digested by my abusive family members, and they began provoking and hurting me mentally through different ways. When I needed the support of my family, they were trying their best to destabilise me. The 15 to 20 days after the last dose were very very hard. Gradually it became a habit to tolerate the torture by my family. Today, 8 months after taking the last dose, my family are still provoking and hurting me so as to compel me to take medicines again...
Family and friends support is very important to improve mental health.
Try to get human support, friends, extended family, partner.
There is no such thing as antipsychotics, they are major tranquilizers.
They heavily sedate the person, they don't "magically end psychosis".
There is no biological marker for psychosis.
You can check the Wikipedia article "antipsychotics" to verify this is true.
Antipsychotics is just pharma marketing.
As the "antidepressants" marketing name which cause deeper depression many times. Or mania, or PSSD, or etc.
Best wishes.
@@ajax700 I am extremely alone. I have nobody's support. I am fighting for my existence all on my own. Only God is with me.
@@nsexperiments1652 my comments keep getting erased
@@Lisa-xf5uf Why are your comments getting erased?
@@nsexperiments1652 because I'm recommending something natural that works