While the number of deaths, and the tragic impact it has on family and friends, continues to grow for many thousands of innocent regular people worldwide, and while acknowledging the ever growing list of celebrity deaths, there is a lot that others in the entertainment industry can do to help curb this disturbing trend and give meaning to the lives of those lost. Please endorse and support World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day.
Call-out to people in the entertainment industry
If you are in the entertainment industry (or know of someone who is) and would like to help, please contact.
W-BAD welcomes support from celebrities, musicians and other high profile public figures who can help us become more effective in raising critical awareness to stem the tragic human suffering and costs to society.
Jordan Peterson, who has experienced the unimaginable suffering from these prescribed drugs firsthand, acknowledges this medical tragedy, noting at the bottom of his Family Update Video, Celebrity deaths involving benzodiazepines: Anna Nicole Smith, Whitney Houston, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Winehouse, Tom Petty…
Support from celebrities to help spotlight our cause is most welcome. If you are in the entertainment industry (and/or a friend or family member of those lost) and would like to help by endorsing and supporting W-BAD, please contact.
Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan
In this video interview Jordan Peterson speaks about his personal experiences while Joe Rogan comments on those of his own friends. These two credible and widely followed public figures emphasize just how debilitating these drugs can be when taken exactly as prescribed, highlighting that the risks are much closer to home than many might realize…
News Broadcast Quoting Celebrity Deaths from Benzodiazpines
Seven Network Australia, Sunday Night Documentary, 15 July 2012. Reporter: Tanveer Ahmed, Producer: Alex Hodgkinson
Many don’t realize that Xanax (type of benzodiazepine) is more addictive than heroin. It is the anti-anxiety drug in the medicine cabinet of millions of Australian homes. Many feel it is being over prescribed here by inexperienced doctors unaware of the drug’s dark side.
Broadcast About Michael Jackson
According to this video news clip, Michael Jackson was being co-prescribed numerous drugs including 3 different benzodiazepines, one of which (Lorazepam) was stated as being the co-contributor to his death along with acute Propofol intoxication.
BBC Article About Michael Jackson
This BBC article confirms the prescribed drugs outlined above.
Magazine Article on Celebrity Deaths from Benzodiazpines
“It used to be that hard drugs were the cause of celebrity overdoses…Of the celebrities who have overdosed on drugs in the past five years, eight appear to have taken prescription medications — specifically, a mix involving easily accessible anti-anxiety medications known as benzodiazepines.”
Perhaps this newspaper title poses a valid question.
In describing the benzodiazpine Klonopin (Clonazepam), Stevie Nicks said, “It’s a horrible, dangerous drug.”
When discussing her subsequent 45-day hospital detox and rehab from the drug she explained, “It felt like somebody opened up a door and pushed me into hell… The only thing I’d change [in my life] is walking into the office of that psychiatrist who prescribed me Klonopin. That ruined my life for eight years…”
Extremely frightened and genuinely prostrated, there are countless people suffering beyond all realms of imagination.
There is no available help or understanding, which has forced this human tragedy behind closed doors, allowing it to continuously spiral out of control for decades.
Unsuspecting victims of failed medical and political systems, are then forced into a situation whereby the only support they receive is from one another.
Desperately exchanging information within the online support groups, which are all run voluntarily by other sufferers away from public view, they hang on for dear life by a fragile thread, hoping that one day they might recover from the ordeal – an ordeal that was brought about by following their doctor’s orders – an ongoing 24/7 ordeal of torturous inhumane suffering that can continue relentlessly for many years.
Remembering
May we pause for a moment to remember those whose lives have been lost. The Facebook group Souls Lost To Psychiatric Drugs was formed to share stories of people who have lost their lives as a direct result of taking medications that were prescribed by their doctors, such as benzodiazepines, with the primary intention being to remember them and honour their lives.
It also makes for a vivid account of just how tragic this medical disaster has become: a description given to the situation by two world leading experts in the documentary The Benzodiazepine Medical Disaster by Shane Kenny – Producer, Journalist and Broadcaster.
Consideration
Regarding the words “psychiatric drugs” above, and the category of drug within which these names come under (psychotropic medications: any drug capable of affecting the mind including antidepressants and drugs for stress/anxiety and sleep), it is worthwhile noting that many people harmed by these prescribed drugs were not necessarily suffering from psychological illnesses as such.
Rather, many of them were otherwise ordinary everyday people who were simply experiencing stress, anxiety insomnia etc. from ordinary everyday difficulties that life can sometimes throw up at us.
Another consideration is that these drugs are all too easily prescribed by overly zealous doctors. In some instances, benzodiazepines are prescribed “off-label” for a multitude of trivial ailments without sufficient informed consent, or without any consent at all, which has given rise to the term, pharmaceutical rape, as explained by Dr. David Healy – world renowned Psychiatrist, Psychopharmacologist, Scientist and Author. He emphasizes that this term is NOT intended as a metaphor.
When unsuspecting individuals begin suffering from dependency and/or adverse effects, many are left completely unaware of what is actually happening to them or why, which in turn elevates anxiety levels to the contrary, as does the drugs themselves once tolerance forms. Also, many are not made aware that their prescription drug is in fact a type of benzodiazepine.
Often blame for the patient’s deteriorating condition is shifted to the patients themselves in an effort to protect the reputation of the drugs (possibly the same reason why applications for conducting any long term research has been rejected). Often, patients are subjected to what is known as “medical gaslighting,” which in turn creates an additional layer of suffering, isolation and confusion – in other words, harming them twice.
While W-BAD was established to bring “the truth” out into public view and to give innocent sufferers a voice and sense of validation, please note that the above is a closed group accessible upon request. One such tribute posted in this group, however, is that of Michelle Goulevitch, an honorary member of W-BAD in memoriam.
