Books Relating to Benzodiazepines

On this page you can find a series of books relating to benzodiazepines, including those from Benzo Book Review and others.

 

Under The Rising Sun

Written by W-BAD’s Founder, Wayne Douglas

Interested publishers are welcome to contact.

Under the Rising Sun is a yet to be published work currently in the editing stage.

Based on actual events, this book is written as a novel, using pseudonym names for actual characters.

An EPIC true story, it takes us on a journey through a mind-altering drug dependency that unfolds in the hustle and bustle of central Tokyo, later followed by a brutal withdrawal in New Zealand.

The story heats up up as the protagonist sets out on a course for justice, navigating the confines of the Japanese court system while plagued by distressing relapses of withdrawal.

The bizarre antics of the Japanese courts sees the story proceed with a series of twists and turns resembling scenes from an Orson Wells movie.

The Tokyo High Court verdict is delivered when more challenges are thrown up, as the March 11 mega-quake and Fukushima nuclear disaster strike without warning. The Supreme Court appeal proves a daunting prospect in the midst of radiation fallout, aftershocks and rotational blackouts. Not to be deterred by the surrounding mayhem, the protagonist continues unabated, frantically jotting down notes in Japanese by candlelight – the language difference adding to the already overwhelming challenge.

Facing down the barrel of a potential Armageddon amidst mounting uncertainty, Prof. Heather Ashton, a world leading psycho-pharmacologist, makes a rare appearance, offering invaluable support and expertise. This contact leads to a close long-term relationship, and eventually, the creation of World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day.

Filled with intriguing scenarios, Under the Rising Sun invites us on an epic journey, allowing us to explore some intriguing case puzzles and experience life in Japan along the way. This true story received a full-length feature article in The Japan Times, 13 March 2012. It is also the final work that Prof. Ashton was involved in during her long distinguished career.

 

Endorsements for Under the Rising Sun

John Blake Publishing Ltd. London, UK

“Thank you very much for sending the proposal for Under the Rising Sun for us to consider at John Blake Publishing Ltd. I have passed it on to our editorial team who have considered it carefully.”

“They believe that this is an incredibly interesting concept for a book and see a lot of potential in it…”

Dr. Peter Breggin, World Renowned Psychiatrist, New York, US

“It’s a story among stories.”

Dr. Hirokuni Beppu, World Renowned Doctor and Medical Journalist, Tokyo, Japan

“I can only imagine how difficult a court case in a foreign land must have been. Scenes from the movie ‘The Trial’ by Orson Welles come to mind. An exhausting, seemingly bizarre, lonely and unsupported battle I suspect…”

Prof. Heather Ashton, World Leading Authority in Psychopharmacology, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

“Thank you for your very polite and thoughtful reply. I am afraid I was rather overcritical but you have taken it very well. Basically, I was just trying to be honest and hoping to promote your book as a best seller… However, I had forgotten that we did not ‘meet’ over the ether until your court case. Mea culpa – please forgive me. I confuse time and events these days. I feel as if I have ‘known’ you and your story from the beginning and have somehow identified myself with it…”

 

See Under the Rising Sun Website for details

 

 

Books Available at Benzo Book Review

Benzo Book Review was established by Geraldine Burns in 2006.

Important Note

While years ago the words “addiction” and “dependency” were often used interchangeably, it has since become necessary to use them more appropriately for the purpose of distinguishing between the problem of recreational use, where the word “addiction” is appropriate, and iatrogenesis / medically induced harms (from taking benzodiazepines exactly as directed by a physician), where the word “dependency” is appropriate.

In some titles these words may have been used as an oxymoron for aesthetic purposes or attention grabbers, however, it is important to be aware of the difference. To ensure that our cause is properly represented, W-BAD does not endorse certain terminologies, such as addict, junkies etc., which may be harmful to our cause  (see Language Page and Addiction and Physical Dependency are NOT Synonyms for details). The following books are intended to serve as a public forum for discussion. W-BAD accepts no responsibility for the content. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

 

The Accidental Addict by Di Porritt & Di Russell

The Accidental Addict discusses the effects of dependency to benzodiazepines, commonly prescribed for stress, sleep and as muscle relaxants, including such names as Valium, Serepax, Ativan, Xanax and Mogadon.

According to the authors, many people have unwittingly become dependent on these drugs. They describe common symptoms of dependency, evaluate various therapies used to combat the dependency, and present personal stories of men and women who have overcome benzodiazepine dependency.

The authors worked as volunteer telephone counsellors and support group organisers for TRANX, a Melbourne-based tranquilliser rehabilitation agency. In 1990 they established the Benzodiazepine Research Group and spent three years researching the experiences of people suffering from the effects of these drugs.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

The Ashton Manual by Prof. C Heather Ashton, DM, FRCP

This monograph contains information about the effects that benzodiazepines have on the brain and body and how these actions are exerted.

Detailed suggestions on how to withdraw after long-term use and individual tapering schedules for different benzodiazepines are provided.

Withdrawal symptoms, acute and protracted, are described along with an explanation of why they may occur and how to cope with them.

The overall message is that most long-term benzodiazepine users who wish to can withdraw successfully and become happier and healthier as a result.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Coming Off Tranquillizers, Sleeping Pills and Anti-Depressants by Shirley Trickett

A highly-acclaimed guide to the safe withdrawal from tranquillizers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants.

This comprehensive guide which has become a ‘bible’ for thousands of men and women who find themselves faced with the difficulties of withdrawal from tranquillizers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants, fully revised and updated with an important new section about anti-depressants.

Shirley Trickett gives clear descriptions and straightforward explanations of withdrawal symptoms, as well as sensible, balanced advice about how to cope with them.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Benzo Junkie by Beatrice Faust

Benzo Junkie is a memoir by Beatrice Faust. “Over half a million people are addicted to benzodiazepine tranquillisers and sleeping pills in Australia alone. How is it that dangerously addictive mind-altering drugs are sold so readily to a trusting public?

Beatrice Faust exposes the great international scandal of drugs that are sold without sufficient testing, drugs known to be addictive or harmful from the time they are released. Many, like thalidomide, are notorious; others, less well known, are equally destructive.

Combining well-documented research and reports from other benzo junkies, Beatrice Faust’s timely and important book is a biting analysis of malpractice in the medical-industrial complex. Doctors, drug companies and governments all profit from pushing benzos. Faust goes beyond critique and personal experience, pointing constructively towards a more preventative, holistic, patient-centred medical ethos.”

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Back to Life: The Great Escape from Tranquillisers by Pam Armstrong

This book brings together thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences related to the problem of involuntary tranquilliser addiction, or benzodiazepine, antidepressant, and Z-drug dependence. The book covers in detail the beginnings and current state of the problem of tranquilliser dependence as well as various withdrawal methods and concludes with a section containing over 30 tapering charts and protocols.

The author, Pam Armstrong, was a founding member of the Council for Information on Tranquillisers and Antidepressants (C.I.T.A.). She was a nurse, teacher, and sociologist who also had formal qualifications in counseling, and supported many patients in their withdrawal process from benzodiazepines.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Alive and Kicking by Peter Ritson

Alive and Kicking is a memoir by Peter Ritson, a co-founder of the nonprofit organization CITA (Council for Involuntary Tranquilliser Addiction) in England.

The book details Ritson’s journey from benzodiazepine withdrawal. Ritson became addicted to a sleep aid drug when it could be purchased over the counter; when the government began regulating it and a prescription was necessary for purchase, he had to quit cold turkey.

This is the story of how he survived cold turkey withdrawal.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

The Judas Window by Felicity Bielovich

The Judas Window is a story about the devastating consequences of prescription drug abuse – a story of enormous significance to the thousands of people everywhere who have been drawn into a descending cycle of drugs, depression and ruin, and to the many more thousands who have suffered in observing that descent. The Judas Window will also speak volumes to anyone concerned about the frightening power of the prescription drug industry, an industry that effectively manipulates both doctors and patients in pursuing its billion dollar gains.

The Judas Window is a story about hope, dignity, and against all odds, the triumph of a human spirit.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Prisoner on Prescription by Heather Jones

Prisoner on Prescription: True Account of Successful Tranquillizer Withdrawal Paperback – September 30, 1990. Published by Headway Books, 1990.

(NB: There is no available synopsis for this book)

Heather Jones Bio: Heather was born in Wolverhampton in 1944 but lived her early years in Hessle near Kingston upon Hull. At school she developed a keen interest in writing and won several awards. In 1962 she joined the Royal Air Force and it was at RAF Patrington, East Yorkshire where she met my husband, Lou.

They moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1966, and she has lived there ever since. They have two children, three grandsons and a great granddaughter, the latter she says being a pure delight! The Truth? is her fourth book, a story that was told to her by Louis Llewellyn Jones, and is available through Pegasus Publishers. Prisoner on Prescription (a true account of successful tranquilliser withdrawal) was her first book and is still on sale to this day.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Addiction by Prescription by Joan Gadsby

Addiction by Prescription: One Woman’s Triumph and Fight for Change

This book tells Joan Gadsby’s story of overcoming benzodiazepine dependence and becoming a well-known advocate.

In 1966, when Joan Gadsby’s four-rear-old son died of brain cancer, her doctor prescribed a ‘chemical cocktail’ of sleeping pills and anti-depressants. It was the first step in her twenty-three-year addiction to benzodiazepines – an addiction which threatened her family relationships, financial security, career and personal health. As a result of the drugs’ side effects, Gadsby was on various occasions arrested, restrained, sedated, jailed and written off as either psychotic or alcoholic. It was only after she almost died following an unintentional overdose in 1990 that she stopped taking the drugs and tackled the horrors of withdrawal on her own.

A marketing executive who has worked with four of Canada’s largest companies and served as a poll-tapping elected councilor, Gadsby has emerged from her addiction to become a tireless advocate in the area of prescribed sedative and hypnotic drugs. In 1995, she formed the Benzodiazepine Call to Action Group. Its objective is to create awareness and lobby for systemic and legislative change that will hold physicians, drug manufacturers, pharmacists, health authorities and political decision makers to a higher standard of ethics and accountability.

Drug free for more than a decade, Gadsby has interviewed thousands – consumers, doctors, health care professionals, pharmaceutical representatives, academics, pharmacists and government officials world-wide. Her extensive international research has earned her recognition as an authority on benzodiazepine addiction.

See Benzo Book Review

 

 

Beyond the Barrier by Felicity Bielovich

Beyond the Barrier is a memoir by Felicity Bielovich that recounts her journey from sanity into the agonizing depths of depression as a result of being overprescribed psychiatric drugs, including benzodiazepines.

Bielovich was subjected to numerous abuses including psychiatric incarceration and forced ECT. Her memoir chronicles her fight to regain her sanity by tapering from the drugs.

See Benzo Book Review

Felicity Bielovich’s Story: A journey to hell and back

Felicity Bielovich is a woman who has been to hell and back. Addicted to (rendered dependent on) prescription drugs for two years, she is a living proof of how easy it is to become addicted to (dependent on9 drugs such as benzodiazepines, which are the most widely prescribed drugs in this country.

Bielovich has a message of hope for people like herself, which she hopes to spread through her new book, The Judas Window.In an interview with the Cape Times Bielovich spoke of her dependency on benzodiazepines. She described how her life became one of depression and despair, leading eventually to a nervous breakdown.

She was also committed to a state mental hospital after the side effects of taking benzodiazepines began to kick in. Her nightmare began after a major back operation, when she was prescribed benzodiazepines by a neurologist to ease her pain.

Read the full story at benzo.org.uk

 

 

About Benzo Book Review

 

Benzo Book Review was established by Geraldine Burns in 2006. BenzoBookReview.com was started after she was given the rights by eleven internationally known authors of books that had been written on the subject of tranquilizers, of which some were no longer being published.  She worked to have some of them revised and updated, so we could bring the most up-to-date information on tranquilizers and sleeping pills to the public.

 

 

More Books about Iatrogenic Benzodiazepine Dependency and Withdrawal

Benzo Free

benzo.org.uk: Benzo Books & Other Resources

Death Grip: A Climber’s Escape from Benzo Madness

Recovery & Renewal by Baylissa Frederick: The newest, most updated version

Stepping Toward Freedom: Affirmations for Healing in Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

The Benzo Book