Now Is a Good Time to Talk About the Dreaded “Benzo Belly”
It’s time we talked about benzos
If you’ve ever had to experience withdrawal from benzodiazepines, you’ll be able to empathize with the controversial author Jordan Peterson on what he called a year of “absolute hell.” In October 2020, Peterson talked briefly on his YouTube channel for the first time in a long time, describing how he almost died during a very long and life-changing withdrawal.
What’s so worrying is that dependence on these drugs is something of a silent epidemic. They don’t get the press they deserve. Their power to inflict the most painful of withdrawal symptoms is seldom talked about.
What’s more worrying is the fact that they are one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. According to a paper written by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2017, there were 45.0 million prescriptions for alprazolam, 26.4 million prescriptions for lorazepam, 29.2 million for clonazepam, and 12.6 million for diazepam. That was just in the U.S.
According to the study titled, “America’s State of Mind Report,” benzodiazepine use in the U.S. increased wildly at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. This is a good time to be talking about “benzos” and how to come off them.
