Sister has lost will to live, resisting food & drink - Part 2

Laura - I am so sorry that this has happened.

I know too well what you are up against. The Psych ward staff don't seem to know a darned thing about anti-anxiety meds. Even the Psychiatrist is ignorant to what can happen on them.

No one can go cold turkey off these. I watched my Dad go through ativan and zopiclone withdrawal psychosis....and it fell on deaf ears.


Praying for you all...

I'm so sorry this is happening to your family. Joining with you in prayers. Please Lord, make things right in this situation. Only you know how that can happen. Bring medical staff along that are filled with compassion and understanding, let Laura and her parents have wisdom and clarity as they share their concerns with the doctor. I pray for protection for her sister. And I pray for a deep peace that passes understanding.
Lots of love.

Thank you all so much for the support.

I posted also over at benzobuddies, but didn't really hear back, and I'm absolutely desperate to figure out what to do about them keeping her there and not giving her the Ativan--We have been tapering slowly b/c that's what she can handle.
This ***** acted as if the Benzo had nothing to do with the depression and that she needed MORE psychiatric treatment, when it was the psychiatric drugs that got us into this nightmare in the first place

Peteza--Thank you so much for the lawyer info and sympathy. I'm absolutely sick over this. haven't eaten all day. it's 12:30 am and I've been printing out as much as I can find on these poisons to back us up.

I have to get up early and get over there. My parents are elderly and they just can't handle this. My mom is 78 and has problems with her gallbladder-she takes lots of stuff to stay healthy and we had no way of getting it to her. So I have so much to pack up for the am. I'm beyond exhausted. This has been such an ordeal--thank you to all here--you are the only support I have. Older sister abandoned us, as did the Down syndrome community (fair weather friends, as they say)

jenny - It's only been a few months - that's not really that long...it can take many months. (even over a year for some)

Girlie--Thanks again for your support. It helps to hear from someone who has been through this. I'm beyond disgusted with psychiatry and the way we were treated--talk about turn everything into a sign of pathology. They absolutely refused to hear what we were saying. I can't believe that guy tried to turn tinnitus into AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. And the guy tried to act like the depression had no connection to the Ativan, or the withdrawal process, which she is still on and going through. All you have to do is look it up--benzos deepening depression (it's all over benzo buddies)--it was even on my licensure exam (unfortunately, I remembered that by the time it was too late)

But this is totally what we expected--the doctors always say, "Oh no, it wasn't the drug, that's just your imagination, you just need another drug for your symptoms (new problems that were due to drug #1). We saw it with my dad--"Oh, no your neuropathy wasn't from the Lipotor, here you just need gabapentin for the rest of your life"

I am so terrified. I honestly feel like I'm going to drop from the stress.

Know that you have "a place" here, and that if we can be of help, we will do our best!

Hang in there and do your best to take care of you too - as well as all the others you are trying to care for!

YAY!!! What wonderful news!!!

Right now, you need to just concentrate on you and helping your sister. Once this is over, then you can consider where your efforts would be best placed - although, we would LOVE to have you here - but that's a decision for later.

I'm sure glad you got the contact info for the Psych doc that your Mom met with!! Since he is 'in system', he might be a really good person to work with!

Jenny- thank you so much. I hold onto that story to give us hope. Your sister made it out, so hopefully we can too--but it's terrifying.

And I can relate to you when you say the stress gave you PTSD. I honestly feel that way as well--I feel traumatized. I couldn't sleep last night, I was literally shaking and my heart was racing. This whole ordeal with Lyme has been a horrific trauma, and we got absolutely NO sympathy from these supposed mental health professionals.


Trav--thank you so much for your constant support

Okay, little back-tracking, turns out that wonderful guy my mother talked with was NOT a psychiatrist (makes sense now), but he did give her a phone number, so we'll still contact him and see if he can help us.

Unfortunately, it's obvious to us now that we have a long road ahead of us. Earlier in the taper, we were doing better (had 3 1/2 hours upset, with calm mornings, relatively calm evenings). Once we got past 1/6 and 1/8, things started to get more difficult. It seems like her body/brain is taking longer to catch up. We were hoping to be completely off Mar 31, but that didn't work, so now we are hoping for end of June. But we are clear that we cannot go too fast. I think the fact that she is now having physical discomfort is adding to the emotion and upset (and rightly so)

Peteza- THANK YOU so much for you info on the legal side of things. We will look into that. Also, I've been printing out tons of info to support our case that the Ativan has done this to her. Looks like there have been lawsuits, we are looking into this. http://www.ryar.org/ativan/

We have learned our lesson: stay away from doctors, they all tow the party line "its not the drugs" I've finally figured out how to use that benzobuddies forum (honestly, I'm so stressed and overwhelmed, I couldn't even figure out how to navigate the forum). Anyway, I've learned lots of these people in withdrawal from these benzo poisons also experience sensory sensitivity issues and tinnitus (we've seen resurgence of these and was thinking it was the Lyme, which made no sense b/c we've been treating the Lyme, but now we suspect is the withdrawal from Ativan)



Jenny- thanks for your support. Unfortunately, I misspoke, the guy was not a psychiatrist (which makes sense, b/c this guy was acknowledging it was the Ativan, that Ativan is one of the most difficult to get off of, and he even mocked drug ads in general for all the side effects, often even including "death") Anyway, the guy maybe is a social worker or something. But we still have him as a contact and he's affiliate with some sort of social service agency that can perhaps help us (now we might have two service agencies to work with).

At this point, we are hoping to just have some health aide, nurses, anyone, who can just visit her/us, give her some attention. She's so lonely. I think having others here will help that, she's so needy and desperate, which is why we started the fake card campaign (honestly there has been no support from the Down syndrome community, which has known her for 35 years). I think the cards (we just fake them from her friends, friends' parents, former teachers, church outreach, former coaches) have really helped her. She actually told lots of the people during our hospital nightmare about it--EMT's, nurses, etc. She seemed proud to feel that people were still caring about her.

Unfortunately, we have a long road ahead of us. I will dedicate my life to getting her better. She is an innocent in all of this. We are the ones who took her to the doctors and trusted them and it was the worst mistake of our lives. Though we have a hellish road ahead of us, I do feel more hopeful that we now have some new contacts. It also helps that I finally figured out how to use that forum. It also helps that we have all this documentation to back us up on the dangers of Ativan (it has to help that there are Ativan lawyers and have been lawsuits)

I only hope that our ordeal can help prevent others from doing the same

Another thing we learned (as was told to us already by those on this forum and the other forum) is to stay away for hospitals and psychiatrist--it's obviously their job to defend big pharma and the psychotropic drugs (it's their bread and butter). Also, stay away from these crisis centers (which is where we were at the hospital)--it was basically like being locked in a prison, once we got there we were locked in, we lost our rights, we were forced customers. It was TERRIFYING.

I hate to even bring this up, but because of your sister's DS, you and your Mom and Dad do need to be careful. I've read where those caring for others that couldn't make their own decisions were told it was "Munchausen's by proxy" - so do look into that so you can defend yourself and not be caught off guard.

You can find posts all over the internet about people being held in a Psych ward when it's really just these infections. It's a real shame that these doctors don't care to learn about the other possible issues that can cause these psych issues!!

Also, I'm writing up a sequence of events- everything we've been through--so that it's clear that my sister was coping remarkably well w/Lyme until we got involved with the drugs.

Also, I was really shocked by how badly we were treated by these supposed mental health professionals--absolutely NO compassion whatsoever.

And I definitely get what the Lyme community has been saying--they don't know anything about Lyme and want to interpret everything as you are crazy, you have an emotional problem. When we were talking about the onset of her Lyme symptoms this **** psychiatrist immediately asked, when was her last evaluation with a psychiatrist (NEVER b/c we knew is was Lyme, and now we know those things were Lyme, like the buzzing, vibrating, humming, b/c they are now GONE since we started TREATING the LYME). Sorry for the rant--I'm just outraged at all of this

Again, THANK YOU so much to everyone here. I cannot begin to tell you how helpful all of you have been. The only light in the darkness for us.

Please keep praying for us. Things have not settled down. My sister's depression and anxiety from the withdrawal have reached unbearable levels. She's in so much pain, she's absolutely desperate, begging us to kill her and telling me she can't take it any more.

Also, was going through all my health info research on my sister, and was reading the info on methylation--which my sister has a problem with b/c of the Down Syndrome--and apparently methylation plays a role in detoxification, as well as the production and breaking down of neurotransmitters. So I think this explains why she's having such a tough time w/withdrawal. Also mentioned that people with methylation problems tend to be extra-sensitive to medication--so it explains why she had such a bad reaction to both drugs.

Anyway, things are still extremely bad and unmanageable. We are going to try to find a doctor to make a house call (a local hospital might provide that service for people stuck at home). We are going to try to get a prescription for Vistaril--it worked to calm her at the hospital and is not addictive--it's in the antihistamine class of drugs.

Also, I think this says it all: we looked over the paper work from the hospital and it diagnosed my sister with "mental disorder" and made absolutely NO mention of Ativan or withdrawal. They didn't listen to a thing we said!