Geraldine Burns has been a pioneer in helping to spread awareness about the potential dangers of benzodiazepines. In 1999 she started the first Internet support group for people who were wishing to withdraw from tranquilizers or who were already off and having problems. This was the first group of its kind and, before it closed, it had close to 4,000 members internationally. The support group was started with the goal of offering 24 hour/7 days a week support to people who had been made ill by prescription medications; to allow for members to learn about symptoms of withdrawal, tapering methods, and non-drug methods of healing. She is dedicated to the responsible and informed prescribing and use of prescription drugs which have the potential to cause physical dependence and withdrawal syndromes.
She was instrumental in having Dr. C. Heather Ashton, Professor Emeritus from the University of Newcastle write her manual “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw” also known as The Ashton Manual. This manual has now been translated into 11 other languages.
In 2006, she launched the website www.benzobookreview.com. 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.
She has done a number radio shows including Prescription Addiction Radio, The Frankie Boyer Show, Dr. Gloria Gilbere’s Your Health Matters Show, and Blog Talk Radio.