The shocking inadequacy of the current mental health system is a worsening global crisis that does not seem poised to improve any time soon.
By Holly Hardman
You hear it everywhere. We have a mental health crisis. It had been building for years, and when the Covid pandemic took hold, it only worsened. Despite well-intentioned measures that seem to have been taken everywhere, the shocking inadequacy of the current mental health system is a worsening global crisis that does not seem poised to improve any time soon.
And through all this, let me tell you what many of us in the benzodiazepine harm world took note of. Prescribing rates for anti-anxiety medications like benzodiazepines shot up by 34% in a few short months at the start of the pandemic. People took their Ativan, Xanax, and Klonopin as prescribed. And that should have helped, right? With millions more prescriptions given and millions more people starting or upping anti-anxiety medications, overall societal mental health should have improved, right?
But that is not what has happened. We see the mental health crisis continuing to explode.
Were the pills not working? Did the ruling healthcare class even ask that question?
Were they taking side effects into consideration as a piece of the mental health puzzle? Were they wondering about the increasing incidence of drug kindling, tolerance, withdrawal, and discontinuation issues? Did they recognize BIND when it was right in front of them? When a patient reported fresh symptoms, such as rolling panic attacks, derealization, aural hallucinations, or other disturbing symptoms they had never experienced before taking the benzodiazepine, did they question the safety and efficacy of the drug they told their patients to take? How many doctors who are prescribing benzodiazepines have ever even heard of Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction (BIND)? Of course, most have not. I would venture to say 99% have not.
So I draw the unscientific, but logical conclusion that the pill-prescribing solution has on the whole been making our mental health crisis worse.
And to further elaborate on this unscientific conclusion, I can share that I have scoured through dozens of journals and media reports, as well as lived-experience stories on social media where I see the heartbreaking reports that come in, usually once it is too late for the patient. I hear their desperation when they reach deep tolerance, have stopped the benzo abruptly, or are in the throes of, or even years beyond, a difficult taper.
I hear:
“I cannot sleep. I have gone entire weeks with no sleep. I swear. On lucky nights, I sleep for one hour — if you could call it sleep. It’s a half-awake state with terrifying overlapping nightmares.”
“Something’s wrong with my breathing. I cannot breathe. I cannot take in air.”
“I am in excruciating pain. Sharp pains in my lower spine. The pain goes through my groin and down my leg. My neck has frozen. The pain is so bad. Where is all this pain coming from?”
“My teeth are loosening and my back teeth and my jaw are so sore, so sore. My dentist looked for an infection. Maybe I had an abscess. The dentist couldn’t find anything. To be safe, he says I should have a root canal. I don’t think I could survive it.“
“I think of suicide. From somewhere there’s a voice that’s mine but not mine and it tells me to kill myself. To stop my life. That I need to do it.”
“I’m getting brain zaps. Like electric shocks inside my brain.”
“I don’t understand where I am, the space around me. I feel an awful disconnection. Everything feels unreal and it is frightening.”
“I want to jump out of my skin. I cannot stay still. I have this indescribable compulsion to move, to escape, and it makes me pace. I pace and pace and pace. I cannot control this force. And it is terrifying.”
The above are all actually and scientifically benzodiazepine-harm symptoms —- tolerance, withdrawal, and BIND. These symptoms are all part of our mental health crisis.
And it’s not just benzos. What helps some, harms so many others. Studies show similar issues in people who were prescribed antidepressants, Z-drugs like Ambien, or gabapentinoids like Neurontin. I hear similar reports of doctors not recognizing the source of their patient’s new or worsening symptoms. Usually, dosages are upped or another drug is added. It’s rare that the source, the originally prescribed psychotropic drug, is seen as the cause of the patient’s declining health and mental state.
This disturbing aspect of the mental health crisis has been ignored. And the disorder diagnosing and the pill prescribing continue.
Why does society feel more comfortable with the DSM and psychiatric diagnosing? Diagnoses like anxiety and depressive disorders break down into finer designations, such as social phobia or panic disorder, as though there is a biological source, like a disease pathogen. There is not. What is the safety in this model? Why is this preferred? Why do we keep following the pill-for-all-ills method of care? Why do we not follow more measured approaches to understand and treat anxiety and depression? So often mental health issues can be linked to diet, negative life events, disruptive life changes, trauma, or normal growth patterns.
To me, it seems wiser to consider treatment modes that are proving to offer better long-term outcomes using (and this is only a partial list) dietary improvements, safe supplements, meditation, exercise, compassionate talk therapy, CBT/DBT, and time spent in nature.
When anxiety is medicalized and psychiatrized as a disorder, who benefits?
Not so long ago, I heard from a mother whose teen daughter had been dealing with anxiety issues. (As so many are.) The mom told me that her daughter had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I asked if her daughter had a history of vacillation between mania and depression. No, this was something new. I learned that she had been prescribed medications for anxiety/depression a year earlier. Over the year, two more psychiatric medications had been added. I was alarmed. I know the girl. She is sweet and smart.
I asked the mom if she saw the connection between the medications that included Klonopin and the new bipolar diagnosis. No, the mom didn’t see the connection. Perhaps she did not want to see the connection. I introduced her to sources with information on common adverse effects associated with her daughter’s psych meds and the bipolar diagnosis. As I have learned since embarking on a decade of psych med inquiry, a bipolar diagnosis is often given when side effects as a cause are not considered. I pleaded with the mother to take the risks seriously and educate herself. Do you think she believed me? Why, no. There was no effort to look into the meds’ adverse effects until the daughter was put into a hospital psychiatric ward a few months later.
This is a fairly typical story. 1. The prescription. 2. No informed consent 3. Troubling symptoms 4. Provider fails to recognize source of symptoms. 5. Patient or patient guardian refuses to believe cautionary information if not provided by a doctor. 6. A crisis of iatrogenic harm ensues.
One of the major points that strikes me about all this is the lack of curiosity. If there are alarms going off, why not dig deeper? What is the resistance to learning the truth?
A newspaper editor who had seen As Prescribed invited me to write an op-ed. It seemed like a great opportunity. When the editor presented the idea to a senior editor at the paper, there was pushback. When I first met with that particular senior editor, she mentioned to me that she had watched As Prescribed, and, as far as she was concerned, the real problem the people in the film have should be racked up to their mental health troubles. The benzodiazepine is not the point, according to her. And she said it in a smug, condescending way, with no compassion. I’ll never forget it.
Really, I don’t know how anybody can watch As Prescribed and view our main participant, Geraldine Burns, as a person with deep-seated mental health issues.
Geraldine had never had a panic attack or experienced anything like the agoraphobia she developed after becoming tolerant to Ativan. Of course, once benzodiazepine tolerance set in, Ativan damage took over not only her mental health but all of her body systems.
Too little was known about benzodiazepine issues thirty years ago; it took years to understand why Geraldine had become so disabled after she did a quick taper off of Ativan. She says she’ll never fully recover from the trauma of her benzodiazepine experience. And that is to be expected. But, to describe her as mentally disturbed, or some other such nonsense, is regressive thinking.
I see a spectrum of mental health difficulties everywhere, and that spectrum is presented in As Prescribed. We made a point of including a balance, with some people filmed whose base mental health level was even, who had nothing out of the ordinary going on until life disruptions took them down the path to a benzodiazepine. We also include others whose psychological issues might run deeper and take longer to resolve. And that’s all just a typical slice of a standard population sampling.
That editor isn’t the only news gatekeeper who refuses to believe the iatrogenic harm story about a chemical beast that is invading people’s lives everywhere. I do realize that it can seem far-fetched. I suppose it’s no surprise that I encounter naysayers like her often. Ga! How do you get past the doubters who lord over the narratives we are told to believe?
I also reached out to my region’s “drug czar.” She runs an outpatient drug treatment program and is still very much involved with our local heroin and fentanyl epidemic. When I spoke to her, she insisted that she knew all she needed to know to help her benzo-dependent patients discontinue the drug. The thing is, I have heard from a number of the clinic’s benzo-harmed patients, and they have told me that the patient advice for their benzo-tapering needs was deficient, even harmful, and that the knee-jerk practice of adding more drugs when BIND is not recognized is the norm.
People, even doctors, are still living in denial and darkness.
Of course, we are seeing glimmers of light as time passes. Certainly, Geraldine Burns and advocacy cohorts like Baylissa Frederick and Jennifer Leigh; practitioners like the Witt-Doerrings, Dr. Alexis Ritvo, Dr. Valsa Madhava, and Dr. Olivera Bogunovic; forces like the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, and the Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practices are making a difference.
We have seen some miracles. I was personally gobsmacked when Dr. Olivera Bogunovic shared her high opinion of As Prescribed with me. She has redoubled her commitment to educating her peers on benzodiazepine dangers. Dr. Bogunovic represented As Prescribed on Sirius XM Doctor Radio, and together we have broadened the benzodiazepine harm conversation as guests on change-making podcasts, including Everyday Wellness and Flip Your Script.
Yet benzo-harmed patients are still mainly left on their own.
Some do discover online forums like Benzo Buddies and Facebook groups like Benzo Warrior Community and Benzo Recovery & Existence. Once they start connecting with other benzodiazepine victims, they find camaraderie and avenues to healing.
But most are still suffering in isolation. Change is too slow. We have such a very long way to go before we overcome this misprescribing epidemic.
As Prescribed is available on Prime Video, Apple+, Google Play, Tubi, YouTube, and Kanopy.
Please contact The Video Project for educational and community screenings. Or reach out to us at asprescribedfilm@gmail.com.