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The Benzodiazepine Medical Disaster

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Hello again.....Here in Texas one must now be seen by a Pain Specialist (yes, this is a new and fast growing field) in order to access stronger types of meds. This amounts to being seen by a psychiatrist for at least one visit (for diagnosis purposes only) and ongoing counseling (which I have availed myself of many times over the years), so I didn't have to sign the contract in the usual manner.

@Rvanson, I also have difficulty with sleep (to say the least!). I can't say that xanax relieves that problem, however it certainly does the anxiety/panic attacks. To be honest, the panic attacks are hell to live with, and if you find something that works, you're a most fortunate person. I consider myself in that group.

Pain Specialists will give prescriptions, but you have to be seen and tested monthly. The main goal is for people to have implants to control pain.....with my other neurological conditions it has been found they work up to a year at most, and then one is left with scar tissue. I'm sure many people are using them successfully....I just don't fall into that group.

At the present time, my neurologist is still prescribing my xanax. I may need a new one because he's aging and he has a severely ill wife, so life is "iffy" with him at the present time. I have found a neurologist who has empathy, respects older people and listens to our concerns. She's also highly knowledgeable and has agreed to prescribe the xanax for me. I'm in a large city, so I'm fortunate in that respect. Still, you get run down with simply having so many problems and seeing different specialists.

I think the day is coming when implants for pain will control it. I know it will come, and it may not take that many years. I know it may not seem it, but research and medicine are rapidly changing and a lot of doctors are more knowledgeable about alternative medicine and even freely recommend everything from vitamins, minerals, herbs, acupuncture and other methods. It truly does depend upon the Dr.

I have learned (and have many books to prove it) over the years....long before I had my first diagnosis, even, and feel that people should utilize natural means when possible. Still, with some of my problems, meds are the only answer....but again, bear in mind that I'm much older than most of you.

I'm rambling...time to go. Wishing each of you relief. Yours, Lenora.
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
The doctors all follow one another like a herd of sheep these days. Worthless.
It's not so much that they follow each other like sheep, they follow their wallets and licences.

Doctors were handing out benzos like party favors for years, but as the opioid crisis deepened and scrutiny from a variety of sources increased, along with really, really bad press, restrictions and regulations on prescribing them were tightened and fines for perceived 'misprescribing' were increased, along with tighter oversight on the Drs prescribing them,

Drs immediately saw the light and left the patients who were now dependent on those benzos they'd been prescribing so freely pretty much spinning, in agony, in the wind.

It's shameful, it's inhumane, and it's inexcusable. And it's not going to stop.
 

2Cor.12:19

Senior Member
Messages
280
Well @YippeeKi YOW !! …..the day I posted this my dear hubby had a heart attack! First day off Xanax and I had to race him to the hospital and I haven’t driven in ages. We had no idea he was a dead man walking- or running I should say, because he’s a runner and in good shape. One artery was 99% blocked, the other 80%. He had angioplasty and 2 stints.

Didn’t sleep a wink Wednesday night and had some anxiety zaps but overall remained pretty calm considering. Plus I’m weaning off my estradiol patch so not sure if hot flashes were from that or Xanax WD . But nothing unbearable. Hubby’s home and doing fantastic now and I slept great last night!! In all that I didn’t take any Xanax. I’m just so thankful I still have my guy!! God was merciful- I know I’m not supposed to say things like that here at PR, but I must give credit where credit it due.
Thanks for asking. 💜
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
.the day I posted this my dear hubby had a heart attack! First day off Xanax and I had to race him to the hospital and I haven’t driven in ages.
Oh crepe !!! Unbelievable!!! Sometimes it seems like The Fates just hang around, waiting for an opportunity to pull out the big guns, and I cant think of a bigger one that ... It's incr4dblw (this is why I'm constantly cleaning up typos) incredible that you were able to handle it with such relative calm and effectiveness. Truly champion moves, 2Cor.
Hubby’s home and doing fantastic now and I slept great last night!! In all that I didn’t take any Xanax. I’m just so thankful I still have my guy!!
Oh, I'm soooooo glad. And relieved. As you must be, in spades. It didn't seem to start out as a happy story ....


I cant imagine life without DB, I don't even let myself go there, much as we very occasionally drive each other nuts ....
I know I’m not supposed to say things like that here at PR, but I must give credit where credit it due.
No, as far as I know, that's absolutely fine. A brief thank you and to the deity of your choice is totally OK, I think. It's the long, proselytizing or argumentative religious rants that are inappropriate, as far as general peace goes.


And you definitely have A LOT to be grateful for. It's been a very long, very hard slog, with a spectacular pyrotechnical finish, and you totally aced all of it !!!

Sending you what a friend of mine calls warm, gentle, moosey thoughts and hugs :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :hug::hug:, along with a couple of these :trophy::trophy::trophy::trophy: :star::star: :balloons: .....
 

2Cor.12:19

Senior Member
Messages
280
@lenora I’m sorry you’re having so much trouble with pain. You’ve probably already considered low dose Naltrexone, but in case you haven’t it might be worth looking into. It’s been very effective for me and so far has kept me off heavy duty pain meds - I’ve been using it for 7 years. I totally understand the unique challenges of aging with chronic illness. I’m 70 and have become more sensitive to medication side effects. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32845365/
 
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lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Thanks for the suggestion about LDN.

I've never been on it mainly because of the side-effects I would most likely suffer. Losing more weight could make the fall situation I'm in even more severe. Insomnia has been an ongoing problem for approx. 35 years.

Funny, I really collected symptoms between 70 and 75. One thing after the other. A friend commented about aging really taking hold between those years. I do hope you'll manage to avoid this and I do appreciate your suggestion. Meanwhile, my husband is 98% healthy at age 78. Genetics! Yours, Lenora
 

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Hello @2Cr. 12:29......Well, it does seem to be that age thing again. I also have heart problems, have 7 stents now (and more are coming my Dr. tells me)....b/c of a heart attack. I'm fine and have every hope that your husband will be the same.

My husband had 2 cardiac arrests on the same day (dead both times...big difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrests. He didn't need even one stent, but no one would even touch him for a few mos. afterwards. Chemical stress tests (the newest one) are the best way of determining the state of one's arteries. Sorry that it happened. Please tell him to stay away from pesticides....the reason for my husband's problems before he was 50. I had to do a lot of digging around to come up with that one....but it has proven to be true (no personal computers or even proper access to sites anyway).

We went to natural gardening, filled in our pool and since he's a hyper-type, I can't be watching everything all of the time. Still, I no longer smell those pesticides around, thank-goodness. He now wears a medic-alert bracelet. Anesthesiologists have always heard of similar cases, so they're especially interested. Please give him heartfelt get-well messages. Yours, Lenora.
 

Rvanson

Senior Member
Messages
312
Location
USA
my friend good friend has found she cannot get a single Xanax out of any doctor she ever visits. She got agoraphobia at 20, after her brother died in an accident. Nobody knew what agoraphobia, even was then.

My doctor sort of suggested I should not take them, while he gives my husband, without anxiety, constant refills.

I don't use Xanax when I am awake, only before bedtime. Trust me, I've used the other's like Ambien, Zolpiderm and the like They just don't work as well as Alprazolam (Xanax). Even other Benzodiazepines, like Klonopin, don't work for me as well as Xanax does. For me, it is a miracle medication. 7-8 hours of blissful dreams and I wake up with NO side effects at all. None. I get up and do what I need to do during the day, with no Xanax.
 

Rvanson

Senior Member
Messages
312
Location
USA
It's not so much that they follow each other like sheep, they follow their wallets and licences.

Doctors were handing out benzos like party favors for years, but as the opioid crisis deepened and scrutiny from a variety of sources increased, along with really, really bad press, restrictions and regulations on prescribing them were tightened and fines for perceived 'misprescribing' were increased, along with tighter oversight on the Drs prescribing them,

Drs immediately saw the light and left the patients who were now dependent on those benzos they'd been prescribing so freely pretty much spinning, in agony, in the wind.

It's shameful, it's inhumane, and it's inexcusable. And it's not going to stop.

That should be a crime. I've never said Xanax or other Benzodiazepine medications are not addictive, but so is alcohol and tobacco, and yet you can buy these over the counter. I am not saying that medications should not be controlled, but these days doctors are going way overboard here in the US, where finding a doctor that will prescribe such medications to those in pain and people like me who need to get some sleep, not insomnia are fast becoming fewer and fewer. I wish I could make it, so they did not sleep for days, and see how they feel.
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
I've never said Xanax or other Benzodiazepine medications are not addictive, but so is alcohol and tobacco, and yet you can buy these over the counter.
So is social media, so is high-risk downhill racing, so is sugar, so is caffeine, so is porn, so is our daily routine (get up, stagger to kitchen, make coffee, start breakfast, brush teeth, wash face, turn on computer, etc etc etc), so is obsessive cleaning, so is .... so is ..... so is .....

The list is long and unrelenting. Whether we want to admit it or not, almost everyone is addicted to something .... some people are workaholics, so their addiction is lauded as a fine adherance to the Judeo-Christian work ethic. The loosest definition of addiction is something that you do whether you really want to or not, because if you dont you feel unhappy and somehow unmoored from your reality.

The more clinical definition of addiction is, of course, far more judge-y, defined as a psychosocial neuropsychological mental derangement (because of the rich, rich rewards involved in the multiple prescriptions, treatments, and disciplines devoted to it's 'healing') characterized by the persistent use of a drug or drugs despite the potential for inevitable harm.

Like you, I'm not suggesting that the answer is to eliminate all controls on admittedly dangerous, brain-altering substances, but there has to be a better answer than the model currently in use.

Amsterdam seems to have an excellent, humanistic very moderate approach to drugs and drug use, and it seems to work better than ours.

At the very least, there ought to be a way to set up review boards that could consider and analyze someone's need, and method of use, for drugs. But our medical system is so reductionist in their thinking that there are no shades of grey. There's black and there's white, and nothing in between, and God help the human race if 'professionals' are required to think, deliberate, and arrive at an opinion that isn't in the DSMM-5.

But they've already made value judgments as to what constitutes a 'disorder', an abnormal dependence on a substance to the point of causing suffering to the 'addict', their families, and 'other people'. So why not revise and humanize it?
I wish I could make it, so they did not sleep for days, and see how they feel.
I've oftn had similar fantasies, all centered around placing the doctor in the patient's shoes in a very, very real way, and then telling them it's all in their heads. There's other versions as well involving overprescribing for them til they go nuts, but that's only when I'm really really angry or feeling deeply mean.
 

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Well, @Rvanson, it seems that another clampdown is going on and doctors are plenty worried about losing their licenses.. Terrified may be an even better description. If possible, many are getting out of medicine and this is simply a travesty as far as I'm concerned. They're mad and I don't blame them one bit.

I blamed addicts for part of the problem, then read a book about Purdue Pharmacy....how the company - one man, really, but the entire family (a lot of people, all M.D.'s by the way, used it as a cash cow. I've since watched documentaries about how many of the doctors were fed incorrect information, people who hadn't been addicts needed it, and understood a whole lot more about the problem. So many victims. Interestingly enough, the uncle of this man was the founder and for lack of a better word, "pusher" of valium. Another problem drug of an earlier time. None of them will probably ever face prison time...it's almost a given.

If possible, check out DOPESICK on Hulu, it's very good and explains a lot about what occurred. Michael Keaton is the star.

However, Purdue no longer exists and they've lost their reputation everywhere and philanthropy meant the world to them. The name of the family has been removed from museums, concert halls, etc., worldwide. Good!!! Yes, the FDA is also to blame....plenty of blame to go around.

I agree that the known sleeping meds don't work for many after 1-2 nights. I'm glad that xanax works as a sleeping med for you....it does for many.

Thanks @2 Cor:12:19. How is your husband today? The stents are a blessing, to be sure. I hope he's already home...and that there was no lasting damage. Yours, Lenora.
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
Interestingly enough, the uncle of this man was the founder and for lack of a better word, "pusher" of valium. Another problem drug of an earlier time. None of them will probably ever face prison time...it's almost a given.

You've made this assertion before, and I corrected it before, because I believe that misinformation can be dangerous, and even damaging.

Valium was developed by Leo Sternbach, during his lengthy tenure at Hoffnan-La Roche, during which time he held something like 240 patents, and is responsible for the creation of chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium), flurazepam (Dalmane), nitrazepam (Mogadon), flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), clonazepam (Klonopin), and trimethaphan (Arfonad). Sternbach, undoubtedly a genius in his field, also developed "the first commercially applicable" method for synthesizing biotin. (From Wikipedia)

I dont believe that Leo Sternbach was ever related to any of the Purdues, nor did he ever 'push' Valium as you've stated, a statement that could be taken as libelous. He discovered it, and Hoffman-La Roche marketed it as a safer alternative to the more dangerous barbiturates in common use at the time, which had amassed an impressive list of fatalities.
None of them will probably ever face prison time...it's almost a given.
Since Leo Sternbach died at the age of 96 or 97 I think, back around 2005, I’d have to agree …


EDIT for additional info and several typos ....
 
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SlamDancin

Senior Member
Messages
521
You've made this assertion before, and I corrected it before, because I believe that misinformation can be dangerous, and even damaging.

Valium was developed by Leo Sternbach, during his lengthy tenure at Hoffnan-La Roche, during which time he held something like 240 patents, and is responsible for the creation of chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium), flurazepam (Dalmane), nitrazepam (Mogadon), flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), clonazepam (Klonopin), and trimethaphan (Arfonad). Sternbach, undoubtedly a genius in his field, also developed "the first commercially applicable" method for synthesizing biotin. (From Wikipedia)

I dont believe that Leo Sternbach was ever related to any of the Purdues, nor did he ever 'push' Valium as you've stated, a statement that could be taken as libelous. He discovered it, and Hoffman-La Roche marketed it as a safer alternative to the more dangerous barbiturates in common use at the time, which had amassed an impressive list of fatalities.

Since Leo Sternbach died at the age of 96 or 97 I think, back around 2005, I’d have to agree …

EDIT for additional info and several typos ....
Impressed with your knowledge on benzos. What’s really interesting to me is that every single benzo will cause a positive test for such (I’m regularly tested). I haven’t found an exception yet. And no GABAergics but an actual pharmaceutical benzo feel like a benzo. Sucks
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,251
I've never been on it mainly because of the side-effects I would most likely suffer.

You really ought to give it a try.....the LDN generated zero evidence of any side effects in my case. It has been helpful. If I run out, odd symptoms mostly inflammatory, seem to increase. I try not to run out. I take 3.5 mgs. So there is less physical pain...somehow.

I don't consider it a cure, but its very helpful. Its the only pill I take at this moment.