Shirley Dahl has worked in the medical records field for over 40 years. She finds this regular exposure to the continued over-prescribing of benzodiazepines gut-wrenching due to having experienced her own three year taper off Ativan, originally taken for only six weeks for a medical crisis. These experiences fuel her passion to help bring awareness to problems with benzodiazepines and the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome.
Shirley worked with Emily Robin and Anthea Young from a Yahoo! benzo withdrawal support group several years back on creating a Citizen Petition to the FDA requesting consistent labeling across the whole class of benzodiazepines, a black box warning, and safe use guidelines. Despite over 500 people sharing their stories of harm, the FDA dismissed the claims. That ruling in 2015 was a very disappointing outcome, but Shirley is excited to see the progress being made by W-BAD and hopes focus at the state level will bring some desperately needed traction and awareness on this issue.
Shirley submitted letters asking her state’s political representatives to recognize and observe July 11th as World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day. She plans to launch a face-to-face support group in her area to bring information and support to anyone needing a compassionate hand. To relax, Shirley loves time spent with her husband and family that includes 11 grandchildren, being on or near water, reading, and researching many things, including research done on benzodiazepines and Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Syndrome (BWS).