America’s New Opioid Crisis

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Commentary

During a recent conversation with the comedian Bill Maher, Jordan Peterson spoke candidly about his addiction to benzodiazepines, and how this addiction nearly claimed his life. Rather shockingly, as a new peer-reviewed paper shows, of all the types of addictions plaguing the people of America, benzodiazepine addiction is one of the most overlooked and underreported.

Americans love their prescription pills. In 2009, according to Statista, the number of prescriptions dispensed was nearly 3.95 billion. By 2021, the number had reached a staggering 6.47 billion. Moreover, as rates of anxiety and insomnia rise dramatically, an increasing number of Americans are being prescribed benzodiazepines. At least 3.6 million Americans take Alprazolam, sold under the brand name Xanax, for example.

Although short-term use of this highly addictive drug has been shown to reduce anxiety symptoms, research published in The Mental Health Clinician clearly shows that benzodiazepine abuse in America has already reached “epidemic levels.”

In fact, things are so bad that Yale School of Medicine’s Jennifer Chen has made direct comparisons between the benzodiazepine epidemic and the opioid crisis. Countless pieces have been written about the opioid crisis, and for good reason. However, nowhere near as many pieces have been written about the benzodiazepine crisis.

Why?

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After all, benzodiazepines, which work by binding to GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors in the brain, are mightily difficult to give up, as Mr. Peterson and many other victims of their magnetic pull can attest to. After a certain period of time, depending on the user’s usage, these drugs begin to lose their potency. Because of this, many users up their dosage to get the same calming effects. This can create the most vicious of cycles.

Adderall, another wildly popular drug, is intimately associated with both abuse and dependence. With almost one-third of American adolescents struggling with anxiety disorders, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the country’s love affair with benzodiazepines is fast becoming an excruciating nightmare.

This is the conclusion of a new study out of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which ties benzodiazepines to an array of troubling side effects.

The authors link both long-term usage and efforts to stop using benzodiazepines to nervous system injuries and a heightened risk of suicide.

As I already alluded to and as the paper notes, although acute benzodiazepine withdrawal is a growing problem in America, “literature regarding the benzodiazepine-induced neurological injury that may result in enduring symptoms and life consequences is scant.”

Enduring symptoms, note the authors, include increased anxiety and nervousness, as well as decreased attention levels, muscle weakness, and even memory loss.

As the paper shows, the symptoms are often reported as “de novo and distinct from the symptoms for which the benzodiazepines were originally prescribed.” Moreover, symptoms tend to persist even after benzodiazepines have been discontinued for 12 months or more. “Adverse life consequences,” including damaged relationships and even termination of employment, are not uncommon.

The findings, disturbing in the extreme, prompted the researchers to coin a new term, “benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction (BIND),” which describes “symptoms and associated adverse life consequences that may emerge during benzodiazepine use, tapering, and continue after benzodiazepine discontinuation.”

Most worryingly of all, in addition to teens and adults, tens of thousands of toddlers and young children are also being prescribed benzodiazepines. This has been the case for years.

In addition to the millions of Americans taking Xanax and Valium, many more take other benzodiazepines like clonazepam (Klonopin) and lorazepam (Ativan).

Dr. Christy Huff, a cardiologist and one of the paper’s co-authors, told me that “the most concerning underreported risk of taking benzodiazepines is their potential to cause damage to the nervous system.”

This damage, she added, “can take months to years to fully resolve, and we can’t rule out that some effects may be permanent.”

The study was particularly personal for Dr. Huff. Like the aforementioned Mr. Peterson, Dr. Huff was also addicted to benzodiazepines. Thankfully, though, she’s in a better place now than she was just a few years ago. However, she’s far from fully recovered.

“While I’m doing much better than during the time period,“ she told me, ”I still experience lingering symptoms that were caused by exposure to benzodiazepines.”

Those who are hooked on benzodiazepines and want to quit find themselves faced with very real threats. “Acute benzodiazepine withdrawal can be deadly, resulting in seizures, hallucinations, and even death,"  Dr. Huff said.

In addition, she added, “In speaking with affected individuals through my advocacy work, I’ve seen more problems with nervous system injury (BIND) in those that have had their benzodiazepine stopped abruptly or tapered too rapidly.”

Hopefully the work of Dr. Huff and her colleagues will help shine some much-needed light on a crisis plaguing millions of Americans.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.