by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
Here is some shocking information about Benzodiazepine dependence (addiction). You would do well to heed it before you ever begin taking one of these drugs from hell.
The biggest drug-addiction problem in the world doesn’t involve heroin, cocaine or marijuana. In fact, it doesn’t involve an illegal drug at all. The world’s biggest drug-addiction problem is posed by a group of drugs, the Benzodiazepines, which are widely prescribed by doctors and taken by countless millions of perfectly ordinary people around the world.
Drug-addiction experts claim that getting people off the Benzodiazepines is more difficult than getting addicts off heroin. The only genuine long-term solution is to be aware of these drugs and to avoid them like the plague.
It is more difficult to withdraw people from Benzodiazepines than it is from heroin. It just seems that the dependency is so ingrained and the withdrawal symptoms you get are so intolerable that people have a great deal of problem coming off. The other aspect is that with heroin, usually the withdrawal is over within a week or so. With Benzodiazepines, a proportion of patients go on to long term withdrawal and they have very unpleasant symptoms for month after month, and can go on for two years or more. Some of the tranquilizer groups document people who still have symptoms ten years after stopping.
The above quotes were taken from the home page of the benzo.org.uk, a web site dedicated to Benzodiazepine addiction, withdrawal and recovery.
If you are contemplating taking one of the Benzodiazepines or wish to get off them if you are already taking them, read the excellent manual by Dr. Heather Ashton, one of the foremost authorities in the world on how to break free from these drugs.
You can read her excellent manual “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How To Withdraw” that is freely available from this web site. It’s easy to read and packed with the information you need to help you.