Paddy Doyle's Story

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http://www.benzo.org.uk/

 

Paddy Doyle's Story

 

'Lives are being ruined by legal drugs'

Paddy Doyle

 

Many people will have heard of Valium (diazepam), Ativan (lorazepam),

Dalmane (flurazepam) and will think of them as drugs which help people

to relax when they are under stress or when a diagnosis of depression

is made by a doctor. These drugs and other Benzodiazepines can and do

cause addiction if used over a long period of time. The view of the

British Medical Association is that such drugs should not be given to

people for longer than four weeks – after which time the medication

ceases to be of any benefit to the person taking it.

 

The harmful effects of the long term use of " sedatives " has at last

come to light and people who have lived for many years on

Benzodiazepines are now caught in the addiction or dependency trap.

For them the struggle to get off these dangerous drugs is a hard one,

they need support, they need great patience and in the process of

reducing their drug intake then will experience some horrendous

withdrawal symptoms.

 

Many will fail to get off these highly addictive drugs, but there is

no shame in that failure, it is the result of ingesting chemicals

which will over time have altered their body chemistry making them

prisoners of " tranquillisers " .

 

Benzodiazepines are dangerous when taken for periods in excess of four

weeks. Take time to read the information contained on this website and

remember that information is the best prescription.

 

Paddy Doyle

Email Paddy

Paddy's Web Site

 

Ireland's secret addicts

 

Ireland On Sunday, June 3, 2001

by Cormac Bourke

 

STRETCHED OUT on one side of his living room couch, bestselling author

Paddy Doyle looks drained. He is paler, more tired and more subdued

than those who have met him before would expect.

 

A sufferer of Idiopathic Torsion Dystonia from the age of eight, his

condition leaves his entire body in constant spasm and has been

likened by neurologists to doing an eight-hour gym workout every day

of his life.

 

In recent weeks, however, he has begun a struggle which, he says, is

worse than those he endured due to his disability or during his time

in an horrific regime as an orphan in an industrial school –

chronicled in his book, " The God Squad " .

 

Paddy is trying to beat a 40-year drug dependency which has been

legitimated by the medical profession.

 

Given that his condition has no known cure and no certain cause, it is

surprising that he has spent 42 years on benzodiazepines, highly

addictive drugs which are supposed to be prescribed for only four

weeks at a time.

 

In recent weeks, he has broken down crying for no particular reason, a

symptom he says is born of frustration and the effects of withdrawing

from the drugs.

 

He turned 50 a fortnight ago and, while his wife says he is not

the sort of person interested in a big bash, he was not up to partying

anyway.

 

In use since the late 1950s, benzodiazepines are used as either

tranquillisers or sleeping pills.

 

Warning

 

As long ago as 1988, the British medical authorities were warning GPs

that, due to the addictive nature of the drugs, they were not to be

prescribed for longer than four weeks. A number of circulars from

Department of Health chief medical officer Dr Jim Kiely in recent

years have similarly warned Irish doctors about the dangers of

benzodiazepines.

 

According to GMS Payments Board figures, however, the numbers of

prescriptions written for benzodiazepines has only fallen slightly in

recent years.

 

In 1995, a whopping 848,000 prescriptions were handed to public

patients by doctors, not taking into account prescriptions filled by

those without medical cards.

 

In 1999, the last year for which figures are available, over 805,000

similar prescriptions were dispensed. In fact, the number of

prescriptions for the well known sleeping tablet, Valium (diazepam)

increased over that four-year period from 306,000 to 336,000.

 

In Britain, between one million and one-and-a-half million repeat

prescriptions for benzodiazepines are written every year.

 

Like Paddy Doyle, tens of thousands of Irish people face an addiction

which is sanctioned by the medical profession.

 

During all his 42 years on benzodiazepines, Doyle says he has never

had a kidney or liver function test or had his heart checked for the

effects. At one point, he was taking a cocktail of eight drugs three

times a day, every day, three or four of which were benzodiazepines.

 

" No-one is supposed to be on more than one benzodiazepine at a time, "

he says. " I was on three or four at the one time. "

 

" Benzodiazepines can cause an awful lot of damage, including excess

sweating, weight loss and mood swings. Some can even cause depression,

it seems, while others aggravate spasticity (spasms). "

 

His decision to give up benzodiazepines came after his condition

worsened and the medical profession were unable to help him. Having

read up on the drugs, he decided enough was enough.

 

Having begun to reduce his intake over a month ago, he says he is

already feeling better and is less " jumpy and jerky " .

 

" It's not going to take me that long but I won't do anything reckless.

I think I'll be far less prone to spasms and mood changes.

 

" A psychologist friend said to me: 'Paddy, one morning you're going to

wake up and realise you have been asleep for 40 years.'

 

" It's important to stress that I never robbed a single pill from any

hospital press or anything like that. This was medication handed to me

by medical people, who told me it was going to fix me up.

 

" The brain is the most complicated computer known to man and yet we're

dabbling with it every day of the week and know almost nothing about it.

 

I think at this stage, having messed me around since the age of eight,

it's time for the medical profession to put it right, or at least as

right as they can. They turn people into drug addicts. It may even be

worse then being on heroin or morphine.

 

Magic

 

" When people are so vulnerable, they go to their doctors and say they

are not feeling right and the doctors tell them they are depressed.

They suggest taking these tablets for a month and tell you that if

you're still feeling bad, you can try them for another month.

 

" But after four weeks, these things are useless, never mind for four

months, four years or in my case, 40 years.

 

" In fairness to doctors, people do expect to leave a doctor's surgery

with a magic pill which will solve all their problems. "

 

Limerick-based Dr Terry Lynch, the author of the controversial book

Beyond Prozac, echoes Doyle's sentiments.

 

He says that, after media attention to the side effects of a

benzodiazepine called Ativan in the late 1980s, a doctor he knew

actually publicly apologised to his patients for prescribing

benzodiazepines.

 

" If people are suspected of having a biochemical problems, like a

thyroid problem, or are suspected of having diabetes, they are given a

blood test. But thousands of people are diagnosed as having a

biochemical disorder of the brain every week, without any test to

prove it. "

 

He says antidepressants, which are replacing benzodiazepines as the

new panacea, are equally addictive.

 

" Doctors say these drugs correct a chemical imbalance but having

studied the medical evidence, there is little proof of that. These

drugs certainly change how a person feels. The older types of

tranquillisers tend to sedate, while the more recent products

stimulate the patients.

 

" A substantial number of people – I would say 20-30% – feel absolutely

awful while they are on them.

 

" The medical profession says that antidepressants are 70% effective,

but I don't believe that.

 

" Quite a number of people may get better on medication, but quite a

number who are not on drugs get better as well. "

 

'Lives are being ruined by legal drugs'

 

TENS OF thousands of people experience a similar hell to Paddy Doyle,

imprisoned behind the bars of addictive drugs legitimated by the

medical profession.

 

While addictions to painkillers such as codeine are common, the most

debilitating dependencies are believed to be to benzodiazepines and

anti-depressants.

 

Addictions

 

According to Limerick-based Dr Terry Lynch, who has penned a

controversial book on the topic called Beyond Prozac, history is

repeating itself when it comes to addictions to legal drugs.

 

" There have been five or six groups of drugs which were introduced in

the past and were not supposed to be addictive, " he says. " Those

include alcohol, opium, barbiturates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines

and, now I fear, anti-depressants.

 

" We have been very slow to recognise the addictive nature of drugs. In

the past, it has taken 20 to 25 years for doctors to accept that

certain drugs are addictive. There was medical proof, but doctors

didn't really want to explore that. "

 

He says that the core of the problem is that doctors are " preoccupied "

with finding a " drug " solution to mental distress.

 

" Over the past 50 to 60 years, the medical profession has decided to

treat those sort of problems as an illness, " he says. " The starting

point decides the way of treatment. If it is an illness, it is treated

with a drug. But if it were classified as something else, then other

forms of treatment would be used.

 

" I feel that a lot of what is being called mental illness is an

experience – human distress.

 

" If people aren't sleeping well, for example, there are ways of

dealing with that other than a pill. I am in favour of more

therapy-based treatment. A fundamental problem in medicine is that we

doctors don't believe in that approach. The value of therapy is

grossly underestimated. Doctors are suffering from a case of tunnel

vision. "

 

Medicines

 

" The issues involved in the over-prescription of medicines are very

serious and a more radical approach may have to be taken in the future.

 

" The direction of health care doesn't come from the Department of

Health; it comes from doctors because they are the ones who decide

which treatments are valuable and which are not.

 

" Patients need to be listened to and heard and they need time. But if

patients were given that time, doctors would make less money. "

 

Paddy's Web Site

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