This is an article written by the late Stephen Buhner, master herbalist. It’s 6 pages long. The last paragraph on page 4 until the end is related to benzos.
https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SOME-PHARMACEUTICALS-ARE-PFASStephen-Harrod-BuhnerI-have-been.pdf
I agree. Good distinction. Thanks. Sedition it is. Although, in my heart of hearts, by working against Trump Clinton/Obama et al were aiding our foreign competitors and weakening the US.
That’s what Evie is doing. A local compounding pharmacy makes a formulation with only 0.1 mg/ml making proper tapering possible.
The key is not to think of it in mgs, but in percentages. She is working it down on 5% increments off of the most recent increment (not the starting mg count).
If, for example, you were at 0.5 mg and then cut that pill in half, you’ve"only" removed 0.25 mg, but have actually cut your dose by 50% which is a rough ride.
The key here is to let her body tell her what it can handle and to avoid accidentally harming any of her neurons. The symptoms tell the tale.
I honestly wouldn’t wish this on anybody.
Evie is brave and strong, and still this is a miserable thing…and “modern” medicine served it up without a concern in the world. It’s just how that industry rolls.
They sell the pills that create the harms that they treat with other pills, each with their own harms, requiring more pills…it’s a business model, it’s neither medicine nor humane.
Thank you Chris, Evie, the Peak Prosperity team, and the entire community for creating this space and sharing the energy that you all bring forth. I’m not the greatest with words like this as I have much more of an engineer mind, but I just wanted to put some words to how I feel for all that they’re worth.
Chris, your insights and perspective are unique and truly remarkable. You have a very special gift in being able to present information that is both complex and chaotic in the rational and acutely clear manner that is your trademark! You are, without question, on my short list of people whom I find to be most important to listen to!
Evie, your transparency is very brave, and you have an auroa of kindness that I find to be genuine and inspiring! There’s things that we all bottle up inside, and I have begun to uncork some of those bottles in my personal, metaphorical wine cellar after hearing your stories (difficult for men such as myself to do, let alone consider)! Despite our past struggles, things get better IF we put in the efforts and allow them to. All that said, I am very happy to see that you have an evironment for writing better chapters of your life!
I very much appreciate you both, the production and support teams, and the vast knowledge and wonderful spectrum of discussions that I am finding in the PP community! I would have gravitated here LONG ago, but the universe often reveals things to us with extreme latency lol
Kind regards,
Gino
As the quote attributed to G.K. Chesterton goes — ‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.’
When some of these people are held to account. I have to say family court is the corruption of court system with lopsided rulings (fairness and justice were tossed out). Men have stepped away from committed relationships. Now you will see men step away from the country. We won’t do anything violent but no protection or interest in society will be given.
I had to taper off SSRI’s years ago. I did it very slowly, and an important part of that was adding vitamins and either fish oil or krill oil. I still stay on those. If I forget, I can feel a little fuzzy or down. The vitamins make a HUGE difference. Also, as women reach about age 40, they can get much lower on estrogen. For women who don’t want to take estrogen pills, etc, there are more natural ways to get it, for instance, soybeans. So many things affect mood and anxiety, that it is best to explore those outlying problems first. Doctors are supposed to rule out organic causes first, but they don’t have time and just jump to prescribing drugs. Good luck, Evie, I am pulling for you!
I hear you Evie. Got off an SSRI relatively easily, but neither my husband nor doctor understood / believed the “brain zaps.” Both thought I was a hypochondriac while I’m about ready to bang my head against the wall.
The doctor had some notion that I couldn’t possibly have withdrawal because I was “already at the minimum dose.” (Confusing it with the starting dose which is not the same thing)
I still get angry thinking about it.
Chris is so right. Most people struggling with dependency need a major improvement in their lives before they can consider tapering. Just trying to survive, while well-meaning clueless people say you need to cut your dose in half now and again next month. No wonder some of them pick up a gun and choose death instead.
I could spend all day critiquing the “addiction treatment” industry and still not be done.
About Evie’s comment on Americans doing whatever it takes to win: I have lived in five countries and have made friends with people there and in many more places. In my experience, this determination, where certain ends justify any means, is not unique to US culture. In some places, you get a higher density of people with that mindset/wiring, but you can find them anywhere.
We lost the price war with China in 2004, because the CCP added $ to the SOE’s. We have been aware for decades that China provides the raw ingredients, and we fill and encapsulate pills. Our FDA gets to inspect their manufacturing when they say it’s OK. China can and will stop providing the USA with medical raw ingredients when it’s advantageous to them, say if we keep Taiwan from them. Why can we understand the logic behind retooling our pharmaceutical plants, hiring engineers, tool & die makers, production staff, and pay the pretty penny we will need to to onshore our medicines again? We are staring catastrophe in the face.
Evie, what a journey it’s been for you! We are all in your corner. My father was put on a benzo in his thirties for IBS, which stopped the pain. For the next 60+ years he tried to find various other remedies, and to wean off, but he never did until his dying day at 89. (He was given morphine in hospice). It was never the right thing to do for him, yet he lived a successful and happy life with many talents, and without serious IBS.
I am hopeful that you are able to leave the benzos safely, but until you can, remember that your life will always have enormous meaning despite this pill. FYI: Chris mentioned GABA. The amino acid L-taurine increases the release of GABA without causing sleepiness, and is otherwise a healthy source for other body systems.
First of all, Evie, I listened to your story a bit heartsick for you. You have my prayers and best wishes for a complete recovery!
How many people started Benzodiazepines with innocence, hoping for help with serious issues? How many started on these prescriptions with anything close to information resembling informed consent?
In my own family, my mother was started on Xanex years ago for difficulty sleeping at night, and I guarantee my aging parents were never warned of the repercussions. She was on it for years and later developed Alzheimer’s, (hmmm) and passed about 5 years ago. I think she was on Xanex until the end. My husband’s issues with depression lead his primary care physician to prescribe an SSRI for him so many years ago we can’t remember how long. Definitely nothing like informed consent for the Escitalopram he was on for years, in spite of little evidence that he was receiving much of any benefit for the alleviation of symptoms. In the beginning of 2022 we took our health into our own hands and started a ketogenic diet for a host of reasons. Encouraged by the many stories of cessation of depression and anxiety with a low carb, high fat diet, my husband began a wean down of Escitalopram last June, completing it a couple months ago. It was a rocky road. We found out on the journey that his testosterone was super low, even for his age, and he started a small dose of replacement therapy injections of testosterone cip. His mood improved immensely. We are still tweaking things and learning.
I appreciate each person that tells their story about Benzo’s and SSRIs.
Will big Pharma ever be held accountable? I have my doubts. Can physicians be trained to recognize, search for and disseminate better information for their suffering patients? Let’s hope for it.
I have 2 older sisters using SSRIs, and I think one may still be on a Benzo, and they think it’s all good.
How far are we from Common Knowledge?
https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FBI-russiagate-tip-1684928261.9348.jpeg Yep found the bar tender.
So first off, great that you’re getting off the benzos, Evie. I had a very short encounter with benzos, at some point in my life where there just was so much stress that I stopped sleeping. I was in terrible shape and was prescribed thirty days of zopiklon. I was warned that they should be taken with caution and that they could create a dependency. I only took a single whole tablet. It was way too much for me, and I ended up cutting them in half. I was really only going to take them for a week, to catch up on my sleep, but I did end up finishing the whole box. I tapered off, after that week though, and only took a quarter of a pill and by the time the prescribed pills where gone, I was actually ok. I still have sleeping issues every now and then, but all I take now is melatonin. And I ensure I physically exhaust myself.
Anyway, my kid has ADHD and autism. It can get pretty bad at times. Don’t get me wrong, in a normal society where he wouldn’t have to fit in at school (which is a really narrow institution that doesn’t really allow kids to be themselves - and no, homeschooling is not an option, it is illegal in my country), I don’t think he’d necessarily need these medications, but school brings out the absolute worst in him, and he can only go there if he’s on these pills.
In the beginning we where trying to not go down the route of amfetamin derivates. For some reason, in my head, that was worse than the other kinds. It was practically drugs. He was put on a pill called Strattera. We weren’t told much about it - just that it didn’t work for everyone and that finding the right medication and dose was trial and error. I read up on the pill and briefly noted that “suicide and violence” was a rare side effect. Less than a week in, my kid (who was 7 or 8 at the time), went to the kitchen in a fit, and brought out a kitchen knife, threatening to kill himself. We disarmed the situation carefully, and hid all the sharp objects in the house. I almost took him to the ER. I called the doctor, because of course I wasn’t sure that I could just stop the medication cold turkey and well, in the end he got off them. It’s one of the absolute worse experiences I’ve been through. My son doesn’t really remember this episode (thank God), he just remembers generally feeling mentally bad around the age of 7-8, and that he often felt like he shouldn’t live (mostly because of all the crap at school). It’s heart breaking to hear that from a kid so young. He’s now on a low dose of another ADHD medicine, and that works ok for him.
I really wish we could get him off all those things (except the melatonin which he does need for sleep). I don’t feel comfortable drugging my child, and I also worry about potentially running out of the medicine and his body not having the chance to adjust to that. I don’t think it’s deadly with the medicine he’s on, but I also think it probably wouldn’t be comfortable. The amount of kids on these meds are astounding. And honestly, I think it says more about our school system (at least in my country), than it says about the kids.
Our school wants us to see if our younger son also has ADHD in the hopes of putting him on meds. The youngest has a hard time listening and respecting rules and authority - aswell as poor impulse control and a bad temper. He gets into fights a lot. At this point, since no other treatment, other than pills are being offered, I’m just not going to do it. I’m not going to seek care so my other son is also drugged into submission.
Pills seems to be the solution to everything these days. If you’re sad - here’s a pill. If you’re difficult - here’s a pill. If you’re fat - here’s a pill. Modern medicine is a wonder - there’s much good in it too. But not all problems can be treated with drugs this way.
When fully felt, a negative emotion actually turns into its positive opposite! Anger, in particular, when fully felt will bring Truth about what actually happened.
You might enjoy my channel and this one is especially relevant:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxveqmXM7Cg
Wind projects are indeed a corrupt scam to destroy rural communities. In WI, it’s not about stealing the land. The landowner leasing a turbine gets a better income than a small farmer can get from agricultural projects. The facilities are often sited right next to a nonparticipating landowner whose property value, particularly home value, drops significantly. It’s about funnelling our tax dollars to TOTALLY UNREGULATED merchant power companies. No environmental impact statements required. No economic studies about harm to local communities. No studies about the safety of these industrial facilities sited next to schools and homes. The next time you get food shortages, remember the acres of PRIME farmland that have been PERMANENTLY destroyed by wind and solar.
