This article is from public number: translation (ID: yeeyancom) < span class = "text-remarks">, Translator: Do you like it, the original title “I lost a decade of my life to prescription d”rugs”, picture from: Visual China
Eight weeks after I couldn’t sleep, I called an NHS psychiatrist. It was the fall of 2010, and the sleeping pills and antidepressants prescribed by my family doctor didn’t work. I was so tired that I could hardly speak, and the consultant was very compassionate. I begged him to prescribe some medicine for me to rest.
He listened to my story sympathetically. I told the story of my husband trying to divorce me, and then the pain that this thing caused me caused me to suffer from insomnia. He agreed to give me a little extra help, so he prescribed me a higher dose of antidepressant and gave me a sedative, one of the benzodiazepine family.
At first, clonazepam allowed me to sleep briefly for a period of time, and during this time gave me a hazy sense of pleasure, but this relief did not last long. Later, doctors increased dose. Then I also know that benzene is not a good thing and I may need to get rid of them.
Followed by more than five years of dependence on drugs and terrible withdrawal symptoms, I couldn’t sleep after I decided to quit these drugs. After a long struggle, I finally quit benzol in 2015 and suffered a period of sequelae, including phobia, being unable to read or even typing. These symptoms are called “long term withdrawal.” Starting in February of this year, I gradually recovered my health, worked hard to look forward, and left my lost decade behind.
Until two months ago, a front page news caught my attention. The caption reads: Finally takes action to overcome the drug crisis! The British public health agency is calling on the government to help those whose lives are ruined by prescription drugs . The key is to open a helpline and develop stricter prescription guidelines. In the past year, 11.5 million patients in England have received at least one prescription, including five potentially addictive drugs. These include antidepressants, opioid painkillers, benzodiazepines, gabapentin for neuropathic pain, and class Z drugs for insomnia. 2017 to 20In 18 years, 17% of adults have taken antidepressants.
This is big news, especially the officially acknowledged withdrawal of antidepressants. “The victims of prescription drug withdrawal are mainly white women over 45 years of age,” said Dr. David Healy, a professor of psychiatry at Bangor University. This is not fully explained in the psychiatric literature for some reason.
We know how to get people to take these drugs, but we don’t know how to get people out of these drugs. “There is a serious problem behind the British public health statistics: there are 7.3 million prescriptions for antidepressants every year. Healy said that many people are taking psychotropic drugs that they cannot give up.” I am not opposed to drug treatment- —I think the effects of drugs are limited, but patients need to know the risks. “Healy said.
So, are these withdrawal symptoms really serious? “Oh yes,” said Healy. “Say that, if all the factories that make these drugs disappear tomorrow, then our problem will be serious.” Prescription drug addiction is one of the biggest health problems today, since the last century Since the early 1990s, Healy has been warning patients about the dangers of using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) . A widely used antidepressant. It turns out that people have been taking SSRIs because they are so uncomfortable. Dr. Healy said, “ Some people have been taking antidepressants for decades, and once they stop taking them, they will feel worse. ”
Rebecca Hawk, 36, is a wedding designer in Leeds. She experienced painful childbirth to give birth to her son Oscar. She said: “Before Oscar was born, I didn’t have any mental health problems. But when he was three months old, I still cried with tears, couldn’t fall asleep, and couldn’t get close to him. “The psychiatrist diagnosed Rebecca with postpartum anxiety and asked her to take venlafaxine. Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI) , a fairly common antidepressant.
Rebecca feels that she has improved after taking the medication: “I regained confidence and I started socializing and exercising again. But after about 18 months, my husband suggested that given my performance so well, maybe I should give up taking the medicine. I went to the doctor and the doctor advised me to halve the dose right away. I followed her advice and it didn’t feel too bad.
She said: “I walked into the doctor’s office and I cried after looking at her. My anxiety is worse than before, I feel nauseous and trembling, I ca n’t eat any more. In addition to continuing to stop antidepressant Medicine, I can’t think of any other way. “After Libei and I finished the phone call, she sent me a list with the withdrawal symptoms after she took venlafaxine. These symptoms include depression, uncontrollable crying, anger, and inability to eat or sleep. “I have thought of suicide,” she said, “I even thought about how to do it. Fortunately my husband has always supported me.”
In the “England Public Health Report”, antidepressants are the most widely prescribed drugs, and people have known for decades the symptoms of withdrawal after benzo dependence. An official report from the United Kingdom’s National Institute of Health and Health (NICE) states that “benzodiazepine hypnotics only cause severe insomnia and cause people to lose Ability to use or cause extreme pain to control symptomsThe dose should be used for a maximum of 4 weeks, if possible intermittently. “
Like what happened to me, many patients quickly became tolerant of their prescribed doses, and in order to achieve the same anti-disease effect, they increased the doses. The point is: Where do people like me go for help? Because there are no ready-made things to help people withdraw from drugs except for some websites and understaffed helplines.
Annie is 41 years old and was a human resources manager. Since 2012, she has been out of work because of problems caused by pregabalin, which is a neurological analgesic used to treat anxiety. She said: “When I tried to quit Pregabalin, I felt very lonely. No one really talked about prescription drug addiction, and hardly anyone heard of it. I have nowhere to go, sometimes I want to die. The doctor wanted me to try a new medicine. The first medicine was like a dream. I felt that my pain had eased and my anxiety had disappeared. But one day after I decided to quit, I went to hell. “< / p>
Annie soon got severe stomach cramps. “I can’t go to the toilet,” she said, “I’m sweating at night and can’t sleep. I don’t know what happened because I can’t think normally, but I realize it must be related to the withdrawal of Pregabalin.” p>
The problem is that the medical community doesn’t really know how to treat prescription drug users, and there is no reliable way to get off the car. “Decrease” sounds like a gradual withdrawal plan, in which the drug dose is graduallyReduce until the user completely quits.
However, there are survivors of drug withdrawal, like us, but we all paid the price. Anne suffers from chronic fatigue and cannot go out in groups; Rebecca wants another child, but she is afraid of suffering from postpartum depression again; I suffered 9 years of frustration in my career and lost my magazine editor Work has also become fat. But these stories will become even more important when thousands of people suffering from prescription drug addiction finally come out of the shadows bravely.
This article is from the public number: translation (ID: yeeyancom) , translator: do you like it lost a decade of my life to prescription drugs》