Woman Health

The below article featured our Action Against Tranquilliser Addiction and support forum staff member Karen, who spoke of how a cold turkey from prescribed pain killers led her to a nightmare addiction and withdrawal from the benzodiazepine drug diazepam. It is extracted from the Woman weekly UK magazine. The magazine copy is from the 14th of May edition but the magazine is always released a week prior to the date on the front cover, so it went out on the 8th of May and will is available to buy in the UK until the 14th of May. If you want to read the original version in print you can buy it in your local shop if you reside in the United Kingdom.

View Scans of the Woman article here! Or Read article text below

Legal...
But lethal?

Robbie Williams and Anna Nicole Smith have both been hooked on everyday medicines - like millions of others...

A drug addict used to be someone who bought illegal fixes from a shady character in a back alley. But with more and more people admitting addiction to prescription drugs, your 'dealer' can be the person you least expect to harm your health - your GP.
Former model Anna Nicole Smith died of an overdose of sleeping pills and eight other prescription drugs. And earlier this year Robbie Williams checked himself into rehab after allegedly becoming hooked on painkillers and the antidepressant Seroxat.
Many doctors agree that powerful tranquillisers, sleeping pills and painkillers are addictive, and that the body craves more as its tolerance to them increases.
Some of the ingredients in painkillers, particularly codeine, may relax you and make you feel better. So if you're already feeling a bit low it's quite easy to get hooked.

Not at risk?

Think Again

Are you still taking painkillers even though your symptoms have cleared up? Are you taking more and more painkillers to achieve the same pain relief? Is the period of time you go between doses becoming shorter? Are you repeatedly taking any prescribed drug without feeling any benefit? If you answer yes to any of the above, your body is developing a tolerance to the drugs and you may be addicted. See your doctor, but don't stop taking your medication without your GP's advice.

And although experts insist that the newer antidepressants, such as Seroxat and Prozac, aren't addictive, it's widely acknowledged that many patients have terrible withdrawal symptoms if they come off them too quickly - so then they avoid coming off.
The benzodiazepines family of tranquillisers (including Valium and Ativan and Temazepam) are known to be highly addictive, yet 20 million prescriptions are still written out for them each year.
Karen Lowles, 36, from Seaford, East Sussex, became addicted to painkillers prescribed for her frozen shoulder. 'They were quite powerful,' says Karen. 'I stopped taking them after a few months and suffered acute anxiety, sickness, hot-cold sweats, and was really agitated. It was terrible.
'Then I was prescribed another painkiller, which I took for nearly three years. When I stopped taking that, I went into severe withdrawal and was put on Diazepam.
'It's not recommended to take this for more than two to four weeks. But I was on it for four months.
'I stopped taking it too quickly and then started to self-harm and twice tried to commit suicide. I was then given antidepressants but they affected me badly too.
'I've been off tranquillisers for seven months now, but I still have bad days. I've been told it can go on for two years.'
Pam Armstrong, from the Council for Information on Tranquillisers and Antidepressants, believes GPs are partly to blame. 'We see 120 people a week addicted to prescribed drugs,' she says. 'Some GPs hand them out like sweets. People are taking antidepressants for feeling low, not because they're depressed in a true medical sense.'
GP Dr Rupala Shah, who practises in Battersea, London, disagrees.
'There's very strict supervision of what we prescribe,' she says. 'If a doctor was simply dishing out drugs, someone in authority would be asking questions.'
Worryingly though, addicts can now buy drugs without a prescription from 'internet pharmacies'. A recent United Nations report estimated 600,000 people in the UK have bought prescription medicines online - but the risks are huge. Counterfeit drugs, laced with dangerous chemicals and with no instructions, abound.
So, while addicts like Robbie Williams can go into expensive clinics - for the rest of us, it isn't quite so simple.

Get help • See your GP to check for any physical damage, such as liver or stomach problems, and ask for help. • Visit www.non-benzodiazepines.org.uk and www.benzo.org.uk