Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

Major national UK newspaper looking for patient stories of drug withdrawal


Glaucus

Recommended Posts

A major national newspaper is looking for people living in the UK willing to share recent stories of negative effects while trying to withdraw from benzodiazepines, antidepressants and / or opioid painkillers.

The newspaper is particularly looking for recent stories from those who experienced one or more of the following:

- You were prescribed the drugs for longer than you should have been
- You tried repeatedly to withdraw without support
- Your doctor was unable or unwilling to help with withdrawal
- You were told to go cold turkey by your doctor
- You eventually managed to withdraw but only with support from a charity or online forum or Facebook
- You were sent to traditional drug and alcohol services but discovered these were inappropriate
- You were told that your symptoms were due to a disorder and not the drug withdrawal

The newspaper is also looking for stories from family members / partners who provided support during withdrawal, as well as from bereaved families where patients were driven to suicide because of intolerable symptoms.

Ideally, you would be willing to be named and photographed for the paper. Interviews will be handled sensitively and will be conducted by journalists who have experience in this area.

If you are interested, please send a short version of your story as well as contact details to admin@cepuk.org and we will forward to the newspaper.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence and the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry are keen to support this initiative as part of our effort to lobby for appropriate withdrawal services, including a national helpline. Your help is needed! Please share!

 

On various SSRIs/SNRIs from 1990 to Dec 2010; drug free since then.  Also on clonazepam 2003 to 2009; taken off via horrific detox.  Crossed over from Effexor to Celexa in 2009, then tapered off over 1.5 yrs.

 

Have had glimpses of improvements but still going through a brutal withdrawal...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for posting.

 

I can tick 6 of the boxes.

When i demanded answers i wasnt  sent anywhere except to a psychiatrist. That was a very dangerous place to be sent.How stupid to think they could tell me something helpful and useful. All i got was a barrage of  'alternative facts. '

Thought for the day: Lets stand up, and let’s speak out , together. G Olsen

We have until the 14th. Feb 2018. 

URGENT REQUEST Please consider submitting  for the petition on Prescribed Drug Dependence and Withdrawal currently awaiting its third consideration at the Scottish Parliament. You don't even have to be from Scotland. By clicking on the link below you can read some of the previous submissions but be warned many of them are quite harrowing.

http://www.parliament.scot/GettingInvolved/Petitions/PE01651   

Please tell them about your problems taking and withdrawing from antidepressants and/or benzos.

Send by email to petitions@parliament.scot and quote PE01651 in the subject heading. Keep to a maximum of 3 sides of A4 and you can't name for legal reasons any doctor you have consulted. Tell them if you wish to remain anonymous. We need the numbers to help convince the committee members we are not isolated cases. You have until mid February. Thank you

Recovering paxil addict

None of the published articles shed light on what ssri's ... actually do or what their hazards might be. Healy 2013. 

This is so true, with anything you get on these drugs, dependance, tapering, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, just silent. And if there is something mentioned then their is a serious disconnect between what is said and reality! 

  "Every time I read of a multi-person shooting, I always presume that person had just started a SSRI or had just stopped."  Dr Mosher. Me too! 

Over two decades later, the number of antidepressant prescriptions a year is slightly more than the number of people in the Western world. Most (nine out of 10) prescriptions are for patients who faced difficulties on stopping, equating to about a tenth of the population. These patients are often advised to continue treatment because their difficulties indicate they need ongoing treatment, just as a person with diabetes needs insulin. Healy 2015

I believe the ssri era will soon stand as one of the most shameful in the history of medicine. Healy 2015

Let people help people ... in a natural, kind, non-addictive (and non-big pharma) way. J Broadley 2017

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A major national newspaper is looking for people living in the UK willing to share recent stories of negative effects while trying to withdraw from benzodiazepines, antidepressants and / or opioid painkillers.

The newspaper is particularly looking for recent stories from those who experienced one or more of the following:

- You were prescribed the drugs for longer than you should have been- You tried repeatedly to withdraw without support

- Your doctor was unable or unwilling to help with withdrawal

- You were told to go cold turkey by your doctor

- You eventually managed to withdraw but only with support from a charity or online forum or Facebook

- You were sent to traditional drug and alcohol services but discovered these were inappropriate

- You were told that your symptoms were due to a disorder and not the drug withdrawal

 

The newspaper is also looking for stories from family members / partners who provided support during withdrawal, as well as from bereaved families where patients were driven to suicide because of intolerable symptoms.

Ideally, you would be willing to be named and photographed for the paper. Interviews will be handled sensitively and will be conducted by journalists who have experience in this area.

If you are interested, please send a short version of your story as well as contact details to admin@cepuk.org and we will forward to the newspaper.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence and the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry are keen to support this initiative as part of our effort to lobby for appropriate withdrawal services, including a national helpline. Your help is needed! Please share!

 

A major national newspaper is looking for people living in the UK willing to share recent stories of negative effects while trying to withdraw from benzodiazepines, antidepressants and / or opioid painkillers.

The newspaper is particularly looking for recent stories from those who experienced one or more of the following:

- You were prescribed the drugs for longer than you should have been- You tried repeatedly to withdraw without support

- Your doctor was unable or unwilling to help with withdrawal

- You were told to go cold turkey by your doctor

- You eventually managed to withdraw but only with support from a charity or online forum or Facebook

- You were sent to traditional drug and alcohol services but discovered these were inappropriate

- You were told that your symptoms were due to a disorder and not the drug withdrawal

 

The newspaper is also looking for stories from family members / partners who provided support during withdrawal, as well as from bereaved families where patients were driven to suicide because of intolerable symptoms.

Ideally, you would be willing to be named and photographed for the paper. Interviews will be handled sensitively and will be conducted by journalists who have experience in this area.

If you are interested, please send a short version of your story as well as contact details to admin@cepuk.org and we will forward to the newspaper.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence and the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry are keen to support this initiative as part of our effort to lobby for appropriate withdrawal services, including a national helpline. Your help is needed! Please share!

 

I have tried to send my story to the link above but it does not seem to be recognising it ,

2001 to jan 2015 Effexor 150 mg 

jan 2015 15 mg mirtazapine 20 mg quetiapine 

feb 2015 quetiapine stopped 

feb 2015 30 mg of citalopram added 

feb 2015 mirtazapine increased to 30 mg 

july 2015 citalopram stopped 

sept 2015 200mg of pregabalin 

jan 2017 mirtazapine stopped

jan 2017 20 mg fluoxetine

march 2017 all meds stopped 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I could just add to the above post re a major UK newspaper seeking patient stories of drug withdrawal, this paper wants to hear from people who have had their experience of benzodiazepines/sleeping tablets, antidepressants, and opioid pain killers particularly in the last 10 years and not to be ageist but they especially want to hear from those who are younger, I think this is designed to show that this is very much a current issue.

 

When I came on here last I was struggling to come off diazepam as well as a Z-drug after a year and a half striving to survive from a brutal withdrawal from Effexor, that was back in 2013. As of November 5th of that same year I have been psych drug free after over 30 years of taking antidepressants. I strongly suspect that my healing was considerably compromised not only by my length of time on antidepressants but also by additional psychiatric drugs and benzodiazepines in particular. People such as myself are calling on the UK government via petition to launch an independent inquiry into benzodiazepine use, we have known of the problems around dependence and withdrawal at least since the 1960s and yet people are still having their health harmed by this class of drugs. Anyone from anywhere in the world is welcome to sign, we already have the signature of Prof Malcom Lader, a renowned expert on benzodiazepines and the BMA is taking a close interest on the progress of this petition. Please sign if you have been damaged by benzodiazepines or if you know of anyone in this situation. Every signature will count. Thank you.  

 

https://www.change.org/p/health-select-committee-an-independent-inquiry-into-benzodiazepines    

1979 put on Clomipramine.
Failed attempt to withdraw from Clomipramine started on Seroxat 1992.
1997 Effexor replaces Seroxat after failed withdrawal.
2011 fail to withdraw from Effexor despite combined use of Prozac and Seroquel. Started on Cymbalta.
Anxiety not resolved by Cymbalta so taper off by 28th March 2012. Left on 10mg Buspirone and 1 quarter of 5mg Diazepam.
Anxiety at times very severe. 19th May take my first half of a 5mg Lamictal.

As of 5/11/2013, off all psychiatric drugs. Doing better but hope for more healing yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone is having any problems connecting to the admin@cepuk.org link they may send their stories to claire@benzoinfo.com.

 

 

 

1979 put on Clomipramine.
Failed attempt to withdraw from Clomipramine started on Seroxat 1992.
1997 Effexor replaces Seroxat after failed withdrawal.
2011 fail to withdraw from Effexor despite combined use of Prozac and Seroquel. Started on Cymbalta.
Anxiety not resolved by Cymbalta so taper off by 28th March 2012. Left on 10mg Buspirone and 1 quarter of 5mg Diazepam.
Anxiety at times very severe. 19th May take my first half of a 5mg Lamictal.

As of 5/11/2013, off all psychiatric drugs. Doing better but hope for more healing yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am interested I have drug withdrawal experience with eczema induced by topical and oral steroids as well as antidepressants and anti psychotic withdrawal that I am now in. I am also young!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Pete, we are really struggling to get more people to come forward. You can contact the journalist at jo_waters15@hotmail.com or telephone 0208 289 1777. Hope things are going ok for you.

1979 put on Clomipramine.
Failed attempt to withdraw from Clomipramine started on Seroxat 1992.
1997 Effexor replaces Seroxat after failed withdrawal.
2011 fail to withdraw from Effexor despite combined use of Prozac and Seroquel. Started on Cymbalta.
Anxiety not resolved by Cymbalta so taper off by 28th March 2012. Left on 10mg Buspirone and 1 quarter of 5mg Diazepam.
Anxiety at times very severe. 19th May take my first half of a 5mg Lamictal.

As of 5/11/2013, off all psychiatric drugs. Doing better but hope for more healing yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

We are still keen to hear from people in the UK who are prepared to share their negative experiences of withdrawal from antidepressants, benzodiazepines/sleeping tablets and opioid pain killers. The journalist Jo Waters would like to hear specifically from people in their 20s having received enough material from those older and if you are in the unfortunate position of having suffered a loss of a family member or partner due as a result of intolerable withdrawal symptoms please contact Jo who will treat your story with the utmost sympathy. This article needs people who are prepared to go on the record. Every piece of publicity helps our chances of bringing prescription drug dependence to a wider public as well as helping our efforts to gain specialist withdrawal services and a national helpline. Jo can be contacted at the above telephone number and email address. Thank you. 

1979 put on Clomipramine.
Failed attempt to withdraw from Clomipramine started on Seroxat 1992.
1997 Effexor replaces Seroxat after failed withdrawal.
2011 fail to withdraw from Effexor despite combined use of Prozac and Seroquel. Started on Cymbalta.
Anxiety not resolved by Cymbalta so taper off by 28th March 2012. Left on 10mg Buspirone and 1 quarter of 5mg Diazepam.
Anxiety at times very severe. 19th May take my first half of a 5mg Lamictal.

As of 5/11/2013, off all psychiatric drugs. Doing better but hope for more healing yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have written my story and would like to participate in the above , but I cannot seem to send it to the above admin@cepuk.org has anyone else had trouble in sending their story to this site

2001 to jan 2015 Effexor 150 mg 

jan 2015 15 mg mirtazapine 20 mg quetiapine 

feb 2015 quetiapine stopped 

feb 2015 30 mg of citalopram added 

feb 2015 mirtazapine increased to 30 mg 

july 2015 citalopram stopped 

sept 2015 200mg of pregabalin 

jan 2017 mirtazapine stopped

jan 2017 20 mg fluoxetine

march 2017 all meds stopped 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HI Terry,

 

If the CEPUK link doesn't work you can contact the journalist Jo Waters directly at the telephone number 0208 289 1777 as well as her mobile number 07971 286 878 or at the email address jo_waters15@hotmail.com. I hope that will help you out.

1979 put on Clomipramine.
Failed attempt to withdraw from Clomipramine started on Seroxat 1992.
1997 Effexor replaces Seroxat after failed withdrawal.
2011 fail to withdraw from Effexor despite combined use of Prozac and Seroquel. Started on Cymbalta.
Anxiety not resolved by Cymbalta so taper off by 28th March 2012. Left on 10mg Buspirone and 1 quarter of 5mg Diazepam.
Anxiety at times very severe. 19th May take my first half of a 5mg Lamictal.

As of 5/11/2013, off all psychiatric drugs. Doing better but hope for more healing yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy