OT: Eew, they gave me benzos again

January 16, 2008

There is a plot by local doctors to get me high. Of course it's my

fault because I still use allopathic medicine for certain situations

(rare). For instance, last year I went to the ER with a horrible ear

ache and they gave me...Ativan?? On top of the Ativan, they gave me

these little gel caps which are supposed to suppress cough. They had

the name Benzaproprol..alol... something.

You'd think the " benz " would have given me a heads up but I was too

sick to pay attention. I did toss the Ativan, though our insurance

was probably charged $1000 for those two little pills.

This year I got the flu again, took Virastop and never got the real

respiratory part of it at all, no sniffles, no ear infection-- great.

Best flu I've had since I ceased flu shots. I did get a little

annoying cough that was keeping me up at night, so I went to the

doc's and said, hey, give me those gel thingies again. I fill the

prescription, take a few for a few nights in a row and wonder why I'm

so dismally depressed during the day, so I look the stuff up on the

web.

Oh, benz as in " benzodiazapine " . Among the shortest acting, most

addictive psych meds out there (changes body chemistry and brain

structures, forms dependence within eight days because of excessively

rapid brain clearance, can turn nondrinkers into alcoholics within a

short period, produces mania in up to ten percent of those treated,

seizures upon withdrawal, able to leap tall buildings with a single

bound...). It's supposedly a miniscule amount in the capsules. Which

is fine. I'm not against adults using this stuff judiciously, as long

as they're being given complete informed consent, which I was not.

And that's the problem. If I knew less about these meds, I would

have assumed that this depression, though it's not characteristic of

me, was arising from something wrong in my life or in my head (well,

there is something wrong in my head, ha ha, but it doesn't depress

me).

This is how allopathic medicine makes it's money. Out of the frying

pan (cough leading to Rx for benzos), into the fire (drug-induced

depression), then into a pit of $ & ^% (prescription for some heavy

duty antidepressant and an indelible dx for a psychiatric disorder,

one's name on the six o'clock news and on and on).

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