A guide for carers who are
helping people to recover
from benzodiazepine dependence
My Wife's Story
In 2010 she was prescribed it again, but this
time started to take it continuously. No one warned her of the risk of
dependence, and 2 years later it was too late. She was dependent. In 2012
she started to give the drug up and since then she has been recovering
from its ill effects. During that time I have been
her carer as well as her husband, and this account is the result.
The Guide is
in 3 parts.
• Part
1 attempts to explain what benzodiazepines are and
how they work
• Part
2 is intended to help carers as they support
people withdrawing from the drugs
• Part
3 contains additional information.
It describes the journey from a carer’s point of
view, and includes not only our own personal experiences, but those of the
people we have met. It is written primarily for other carers and those who are
supporting or involved with the sufferer, or trying to understand what is
happening to them.
It aims to explain what
benzodiazepines are, how people become unwittingly addicted to them, how that
addiction affects them, the difficulty of recovering from it and the support
they need in doing so.
It is said that some people manage to withdraw from
benzodiazepine dependence quickly and painlessly. Whether true or not others
find withdrawal difficult and disturbing, and this account is principally for
those and their carers. I have tried not to paint too gloomy a picture but it
is as well for people to understand what might happen, so that they are
forewarned. If a person’s recovery turns out to be easier than my wife’s so
much the better.
