How does benzodiazepine illness and injury fit into the picture?
Something is working. My Lyme symptoms have lessened dramatically thanks to a change in a treatment protocol that is helping to clear the remaining Lyme spirochetes and co-infections from my system. I now have extra hours in the day to write.
I have to tread carefully, though. There are a number of issues and concerns I do not dare write about publicly in these difficult times. We are asking ourselves about our limits and our safety. What needs to be kept closer to the chest, and what might help if it is said aloud?
You understand, right? I don’t want to take up anyone’s time unnecessarily, with bleating and bellowing that ultimately has no value to others or could even cause harm to good people. Despite the authoritarian proclivities of the nation’s current executive leader, shepherded along by a complicit GOP-controlled Congress, and buoyed by a tainted Supreme Court majority, many of us are pushing back. The criminal-in-chief is increasing his attempts to stifle us, crush dissent, and take away basic rights. Thankfully, many of us are determined to hold onto our imperfect nation’s high-minded aspirations and democratic ideals.
I live a short driving distance from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Rockwell’s Four Freedoms paintings greet you as you enter the main gallery:
Freedom of Speech
Freedom to Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear.
(1943)
Artist: Norman Rockwell
They express FDR’s vision for American democracy and the rights of its citizens as stated in his 1941 State of the Union address.
In his speech, Roosevelt warned that the nation was facing “unprecedented” times. The threat in 1941 was mainly from outside forces. Now, the United States’ greatest threats are coming from within. To many, and I agree, the U.S.-born president and the homegrown Project 2025 have combined to form today’s overarching threat to democracy.
Now more than ever, we need to hold on dearly to FDR’s Four Freedoms ethos. He asserted:
“There is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple…Many subjects connected with our social economy call for improvement.”
How does this relate to As Prescribed and the scourge of benzodiazepine injury that too many of us know personally?
FDR continued:
“We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old age pension and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.”
That is pretty specific. Disability insurance and good medical care — these are societal benefits the benzo-harmed need desperately. We have a right to them.
There are aspects of our healthcare system that are in serious need of change. Unfortunately, the medical system has only grown worse since the wannabe dictator took office. NIH funding has been cut drastically. Universities and organizations pursuing essential research have been stripped of funding. And this whole RFK Jr. MAHA thing is turning out to be another big sham. Lying about the results of research to suit a self-serving anti-vax agenda while still failing to protect the American food supply from harmful pesticides and over-processed foods guarantees that our societal health will continue to decline. And contrary to GOP false claims, Trump’s ugly new bill will force millions of vulnerable people, including veterans — veterans who sacrificed their bodies and mental health for our freedoms — to lose health insurance. This is unconscionable.
I am now over ten years post-clonazepam taper, and abilities that I used to take for granted, but lost in my worst BIND years, are returning. As Heather Ashton assured us, time really is the great healer.
Now that I am feeling mostly recovered, I am participating in society again. I am able to advocate for people’s rights out there in the big, wide world. I joined a bus trip to Boston with an environmentalist group to protest GE’s poisoning of the Housatonic River. I stood in the below-freezing cold outside of winter markets, collecting signatures for a citizens’ petition for clean drinking water. It felt wonderful. I have gone to several protest rallies since the election. I delighted in doing all this because I could. I could leave my home and move about with ease.
But this most basic human freedom, this ease of movement and connection to others, has been stripped from benzodiazepine harm sufferers whose injured neurology does not allow them to leave the confines of a dark room. They cannot experience reality without symptoms like light and audio processing issues, scrambled thought patterns, disabling pain, aphasia, ataxia, akathisia, and extreme neuro-chemically induced fear states. They are trapped in benzo hell.
I hate that others are experiencing this agony, and that just as many will be traveling this demonic path as long as benzodiazepines and similar psychotropic medications continue to be prescribed indiscriminately.
There are brave warriors out there. I see Jim T., Wendy Jo, Jessica F. — people in the benzodiazepine harm community, who, though still suffering, are speaking out about America’s descent into tyranny and fascism. They are part of the pushback that may just thwart Trump and Project 25.
I realize that there are many Trump supporters in the benzo community. I do not fully understand that, but I do know that everyone deserves excellent medical care and the benefits needed to support healing and good health. Everyone deserves their four freedoms.
P.S. Please use your energy wisely. Let your health come first. And please stay in touch hellogobbo@gmail.com
Holly