Happy for you im destroyed . Im nonfunctional cna leave my bed my head pain is so bad and the dpdr and also terror and akathisia. Have no clue how to function again. Benzo i was on for 6 months didnt really taper was taking 1mg a day sometimes 1.5mg been off that for 1 year 265 days and then the zoloft i was on for 16 years doctor took me off in a month from 100mg been off that for 13 months and im completely destroyed right now.😢

I am so so sorry for how your parents treated you. Devastating. It's so unbelievable for family to do this when you are at your lowest suffering.<3 I've sent you an inquiry, I'd love to speak with you.

Congratulations!!!

Thank you, this made me cry. I am glad you are doing better <3 <3 <3

Thank you sharing this Emma! Is this going to be part of your documentary?

I work in the industry and its truly depressing to see the myriad harms it causes in the name of 'treatment' The way the entire system takes what are essentially a range of cultural disorders and repackages them as personal disorders via the scientific fraud of the DSM. You might like the book on the Heels of Ignorance by Owen Whooley or Desperate Remedies by Andrew Scull or the works of psychologist David Smail. While its all such a mess for me the normalisation of labelling and drugging of children on mass is terrible. Sadly, psychotherapy has no real robust evidence supporting it - - nice short and surprisingly honest summary written by former president elect of the British Psychological Society, Professor Nigel MacLennan entitled 'Why Most Psychotherapies Are Equally Ineffective' is worth searching for - or read the three key books by William M Epstein - the illusion of psychotherapy, psychotherapy as religion and psychotherapy and the social clinic in the united states, soothing fictions - or try The Therapy Industry by Paul Maloney.

This is great and frighteningly accurate - the system is really a self interested mess.

Your story parallels mine. Some 7 years ago l was given Xanax for sleep by my psychiatrist, 8 months later the Xanax turned on me and it was causing the worst anxiety l'd ever experienced, l stopped the Xanax abruptly and that bought me a ticket to hell. I ended up in three mental hospitals and at my worst l walked into my garage grabbed an electrical cable, wrapped it around my bathroom door and put my head in, l put my weight in it and realized it was too easy to end it all. The thought if my wife or one of my kids finding me hanging was absolutely unacceptable. Right there and there l vowed to white knuckle the withdrawals but l was not going to do myself in. Finally at one of the hospitals l was put in a cocktail of drugs that included high doses of Mertazepine, Lithium, Seroquel and one more l can't remember, l have tapered off all medications except Seroquel, l've tried to tapered off Seroquel and just can't do it. I'm at 35 mill and my goal is to micro taper and rid myself of these poisons. However without the Seroquel l can't sleep at all, l mean zero. With God's help l hope to eventually taper off. My heart goes put to you and your struggle!

What Psychiatry is doing to millions of people is a crime, a crime against humanity.

As soon as she said she hadn’t slept in 8 months she lost me - I don’t believe one word. She has a cute dog though, hope it’s safe??

YOU DONT JUST STOP TAKING ANY MEDICINE......ESPECIALLY BENZOS BUT I'M SO GLAD YOU GOT 30 MINUTES OF FAME😂

It’s the most scary place. I knew better. I avoided the pills. 💊! Keep going sister.

You have the cutest hair do. I can relate to all of your journey. You are very fortunate, to have not gotten smashed. I mean completely smashed ola. I’m sorry that happened to you.

Benzo withdrawal is worse than heroin or alcohol withdrawal. I was on Xanax for 14 years then my doc cut me off completely. I completely lost my mind..

I am very impressed that you figured all this out. I get it! So many ways it could have gobbled you up. ( prob did at times). I’m sorry.

Imagine the people that can not communicate, the truth. The pharmaceutical companies are a pillar of the economy in the USA, so it will not stop. Thank you for the story share. I can totally relate to it. You are a fantastic gal. I’m proud of you, my fellow traveler.

first i've heard of chemical terror.

Thought it would be lorazepam.!

Ok it's her dog. thought it was a cat, or a cushion.

What's that on her lap?

I appreciate this podcast. I was prescribed a Benzo for my CPTSD -2008-2022. From Jan 2022 I began my taper. I was bed bound for 14 months. Now in July 2024 I’m at 70 percent better. Meaning I can function. I know I suffered from neurological damage. Klonopin was the prescribed med. My broken speech is what most notice. Also I cannot put pen to paper in a neat, Consistent way anymore. I use loved my cursive handwriting. 😔

Dr. Heather Ashton, 90, Dies; Helped People Quit Anxiety Drugs Her “Ashton Manual,” published in 1999, has become a cornerstone for people all over the world dealing with benzodiazepine dependence."When researchers began tinkering with a class of tranquilizer drugs called benzodiazepines in the 1950s, they felt they had uncovered a solution to modern anxiety and insomnia. Benzodiazepines worked quickly and effectively to quell racing heartbeats and dismiss spinning thoughts. The dozen or so different types - including Xanax, Valium, Ativan and Klonopin - became the most frequently prescribed drugs around the world, even as concerns arose about their potential side effects and addictive properties. “Patients themselves, and not the medical profession, were the first to realize that long-term use of benzodiazepines can cause problems,” wrote Dr. Heather Ashton, a British psychopharmacologist. She said that patients who had been on the medications for months or years would come to her with fears that the drugs were making them more ill. Some continued to have symptoms of depression or anxiety. Others had developed muscle weakness, memory lapses, or heart or digestive issues. Dr. Ashton would dedicate much of her career to listening to hundreds of patients’ experiences and rigorously collecting data." The Ashton Manual.

Protracted withdrawal. 31:01 min

I've seen benzo w/d...it's horrible. Girl didn't sleep for an entire month...thought she was on fire.

going back.to the drug is not a cure..shes just delaying e inevitable

38:45 antidepressant clinical trials were only 12 weeks. They are not meant for long term. 38:51 antidepressant withdrawal and benzo withdrawal are nearly identical (with the exception of seizures although some have reported seizure activity with antidepressant withdrawal). I’m surprised as you have become so involved in the med harmed community that you don’t know this, Ema. I’ve followed you for at least a year now and I’m disheartened by this statement. All psych drugs have the potential for a severe, nasty protracted withdrawal. Please educate yourself on this topic. Nicole Lamberson, Dr. Josef, Mark Horowitz, Adele Framer, Angie Peacock… you’ve had contact with all of these figures, yet you are saying antidepressant withdrawal is different than benzo withdrawal. The people I just named and so many more will tell you otherwise. 2 years protracted from a longtime SSRI, I had nearly ALL of your symptoms- but it’s different because it was an SSRI and not a benzo? Contrary to my experience with SSRI withdrawal, my taper off of klonopin (which I was placed on during acute SSRI withdrawal) was a cake walk. Granted, Nicole tapered me off of this, but my point remains the same: please don’t make benzo withdrawal out to be worse than all the others. They are all poison; the withdrawals look and feel the same; some will get off just fine, some won’t; and, lastly, they all obviously need to be tapered ever so slowly. We should all be supporting each other as a whole, not creating divisiveness in the larger community by claiming one withdrawal or drug is worse. I admire your work very much, Ema, but please course correct this false sentiment that is pervasive in the benzo community. And because you should always offer something positive after a critique: your hair is lovely.

Twinsies! I love the Emmas and have been following you both. Sincerely, a Morgan from the US injured by an antidepressant aspiring to make a doc someday :)

Hi Emma, do you know a benzowise private psychiatrist in the UK? Preferably in London or the South East. I need help tapering off and haven't been able to find a good psychiatrist yet. Thanks!

During all this crazyness, I find it so hard to manage my med and do all the work. I cry often. One time I accidently cut too much and I was horrific until I caught it three weeks in. I feel we should all get help doing this, like my brain can't.

I feel terrible laughing my head off at this but I feel Im allowed to since this represents what I too have been through. So well done, a terrifying reality but my gosh its good to laugh in a context so few get let alone can portray so brilliantly. Bravo 👏