If you've been on these long-term, I cannot stress enough how slowly you need to taper.
Edited to add that I wish I could contribute more to this conversation than lived experience, but saying that benzodiazepines "...are associated with an increased risk of suicide due to aggression, impulsivity, and negative withdrawal effects"[0] is like describing the sinking of the Titanic as a fender-bender.
Same at first it was like "Cool, no thoughts head empty, I don't feel anything anymore" but then it was "fck no thoughts head empty, I really don't feel anything anymore".
I got them prescribed by my psychiatrist (~4mg/day). And getting off of them was like going through hell, I really just wanted to stop taking them (I tried it for one day...), but I needed to reduce it by 0.5/week to not completely go berserk. But even with slowly reducing it, it wasn't a pleasent experience.
Yes, I wasn't addicted (as it didn't feel good to take it) and after reducing it step by step, I was off of it (took some time). Though after that my other stuff (the reason why I got benzos prescribed) was there again, but I had no urge to take Benzos again.
The withdrawal can also kill you outright. Most other drugs can lead to a fatal withdrawal due to complications, but the withdrawal process itself isn’t lethal, like with benzos.
I take them occasionally for panic attacks and my god they are strong. A nibble off a corner normally does the job for me. I can’t imagine being prescribed them for daily use — and regular use has a whole bunch of nasty side effects.
There's a theory bouncing around that the medical coma he supposedly used resulted in some degree of brain damage, causing him to really go off the political deep end.
Yep. 3 x 0.5mg a day for over ten years. Started my taper in 2018 and it took 3 1/2 years. In retrospect even that was probably too fast, because things started to go very wrong in 2020 and went catastrophically wrong at the end of 2021.
Send me a DM (email in profile) if you have specific questions. I'm more or less an open book.
Edited to add that I wish I could contribute more to this conversation than lived experience, but saying that benzodiazepines "...are associated with an increased risk of suicide due to aggression, impulsivity, and negative withdrawal effects"[0] is like describing the sinking of the Titanic as a fender-bender.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine