Withdrawal from benzodiazepines
How tragic it is that little seems to have changed since Shirley Trickett wrote her letter in 1983. Having endured the most horrendous withdrawal from Nitrazepam, an experience beyond imagination, bedridden for 3 years, I have sustained brain damage and am physically and cognitively disabled. My doctors (GPs and consultants) have either failed to recognise the cause of my symptoms or even worse have deliberately misdiagnosed them to cover up the true facts. I have met countless individual online suffering a similar fate. Many are withdrawing from antidepressants.
As patients become increasingly angry and desperate, their behaviour is deemed "unreasonable" and in some cases they are excluded from their GP practice. I have always been a polite, reasonable person but now I find it hard to be civil to any medical doctor. Every new referral requires me to explain in detail what has happened to me to counter the false diagnoses now residing in my medical notes. I am fortunate to have obvious signs of physical and cognitive disability, otherwise I would no doubt have been written off completely as suffering from some sort of mental illness, as happens to so many whose symptoms are less tangible.
My doctors have been keen for my to see a psychiatrist. The only source of information, help and support has been the online community of fellow sufferers. I find it very hard to accept that this is the behaviour of a "caring' profession. I now realise that a doctor is at liberty to apply any diagnostic label she/he chooses without any concern for its accuracy. This raises a multitude of questions, ethical, moral and practical. I no longer wish my medical records to be used for research purposes in primary care. Research based on a multitude of erroneous diagnoses can hardly be useful. I no longer believe anything that a medical doctor cares to tell me. Of course I now run the risk of being diagnosed with "paranoia"! I wonder why we are in this situation in 2017.
The withdrawal symptoms from benzodiazepines have been known for decades. Antidepressant withdrawal produces a similar array of bewildering symptoms. "Medically unexplained symptoms" account for a significant proportion of GP consultations. This is certainly no coincidence. There is certainly nothing about my experience that does not have a clear and unambiguous explanation. It is therefore very sad that my doctors prefer not to discuss the matter with me. Had I suffered a stroke I am sure I would have been treated very differently. If specialist services existed for patients like myself I might have had access to appropriate help.
Competing Interests: None declared.