Benzodiazepine Awareness with Geraldine Burns Garrett Burns

This podcast is very special and personal to me because I’m going to be speaking with one of my childhood friends, Paula. We have known each other since kindergarten, went to the same grammar school and high school. After high school she went off to Marquette University in Wisconsin where she got her Bachelors Degree. She majored in English Literature with an additional major in Elementary Education.

She returned home and started her career at a college. Eventually she opens up her own very successful school for preschoolers and kindergarten children. After suffering some migraines and a few panic attacks on the highway, a trip to a doctor ends her up on not only a benzodiazepine, but an antidepressant right at the first visit. Here we are 40 years later and she is now tapering.

In this episode, I speak Wayne Douglas who is a New Zealander living in Japan teaching English and does translation. He is currently writing his book Under the Rising Sun which will be on his website Undertherisingsun.com. He is the Founder of World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day on July 11 and frequent guest on Dr. Peter Breggin’s podcast. He is an advocate for a change in the prescribing of benzodiazepines and is currently working on a self made documentary based on a speech he gave at the House of Representatives in Japan which will eventually be on his YouTube Channel.

In this episode you are going to be hearing from Teryn who when she was a 19 year old girl was prescribed Paxil then later klonopin after the death of her mother. Eventually, she gets married and finishes school to become a speech therapist, and has beautiful daughter as her life is turned upside down from pharmaceutical drugs. She is unable to work and care for her daughter and her marriage dissolves. She develops multiple chemical sensitivities, moves into a green/echo friendly type of housing and had decides she couldn’t live like this any more. See how her faith in God and her determination to not live sick any more helps her recover her full health, go back to work and enjoy life to its fullest.

In this podcast I interview Josh Fitzmaurice who was a certified public account who was misdiagnosed and in January 2017, became chronically ill after his nervous system was damaged by a prescribed benzodiazepine. He was too ill to continue his job as an accountant and had to move back home with his mother to begin his road to recovery. His life became a constant battle to keep a positive mindset and never give up hope that he would get better. He knew he had to find a healthy distraction to keep his mind busy and that’s when he had the idea to try to learn fashion design, something he had always been interested in. His company SLYKShades.com was born out of his iatrogenic illness. SLYK Shades is the first part of a much bigger lifestyle brand focused on positivity, compassion and kindness. No matter what, find the good. His story will inspire anyone listening.

If anyone orders from his website and uses the code: WARRIOR, 20% will be given to the documentary AS PRESCRIBED.

D E Foster is a former database developer, contract screenwriter, and writing instructor at the University of Colorado. For the past seven years, D has experienced an odyssey of debilitating withdrawal complications from the long-term use of clonazepam (Klonopin), a prescription benzodiazepine. Unable to continue to work in his previous professions, D turned his focus to writing a book, "Benzo Free: The World of Anti-Anxiety Drugs and the Reality of Withdrawal," which was published in the fall of 2018.

The following spring, D launched "The Benzo Free Podcast" which is now on its 67th episode and reaches thousands each month. And in March of this year, he started a new YouTube channel called "Easing Anxiety" which helps people who struggle with chronic anxiety find a way to a better life.

D spends his remaining time researching a new book, speaking about benzos, and relaxing at his home in northern Colorado with his wife and dog.

Since the COVID-19 virus started, most of us wondered how many more innocent people were going to be prescribed a benzodiazepine. An article came out stating that anti-anxiety drugs have risen 34% during this pandemic.

In this episode, I interview one of those innocent patients prescribed a benzodiazepine during the pandemic. After leaving a message for his doctor, 20 minutes later he gets a text his prescription is ready. No conversation with his doctor, no conversation with a pharmacist, no informed consent. Had he been informed first, he would not have taken this medication. Thankfully he found out early benzos were his problem. He is now tapering and has a clear picture of taking his life back.