by Matt Samet
Useful sites for further information about benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine/psychiatric-medicine withdrawal, as well as support for those going through withdrawal:
• benzo.org.uk
• The Ashton Manual: benzo.org.uk/manual/index.htm
• benzobuddies.org (with a forum for advice and questions)
• benzosupport.org
• bcnc.org.uk/
• paxilprogress.org/forums/
Further Reading
A list of books treating with anxiety and panic, tranquilizers, antidepressants, benzo addiction and recovery, and the problems with psychopharmacology:
• Addiction by Prescription: One Woman’s Triumph and Fight for Change (Key Porter Books, Ltd., 2001), Joan Gadsby.
• Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (Crown Publishing Group, 2010), Robert Whitaker.
• Benzo Junkie: More Than a Case History (out of print, but still available through amazon.com), Beatrice Faust.
• Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (Modern Library, 2007), William Styron.
• Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression (New York University Press, 2004), David Healy.
• Poe’s Heart and the Mountain Climber: Exploring the Effect of Anxiety on Our Brains and Our Culture (Three Rivers Press, 2005), Richard Restak, M.D.
• Recovery and Renewal: Your Complete Guide to Overcoming Dependency and Withdrawal from Sleeping Pills, Other “Benzo” Tranquillizers and Antidepressants (RRW Publishing), Bliss Johns.
• The Accidental Addict (Pan Australia, 1994), Di Porritt and Di Russell.
• The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers (Basic Books, 2008), Andrea Tone.
• The Benzo Book (Essex Press, 2006), Jack Hobson-Dupont. Also available as a free PDF at www.thebenzobook.com.
• The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth (Basic Books, 2010), Irving Kirsch, Ph.D.
• Toxic Psychiatry (St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994), Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
• Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry—A Doctor’s Revelations about a Profession in Crisis (Free Press, 2010), Daniel J. Carlat, M.D.
• Worse Than Heroin (Lulu.com, 2008), E. Robert Mercer.
• Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications (Da Capo Press, 2007), Peter R. Breggin, M.D., and David Cohen, Ph.D.
NOTES
Prologue
1. Andrea Tone, The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 153.
Part One: Anxiety Rising
Chapter One
1. Daniel J. Carlat, M.D. Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry—A Doctor’s Revelations About a Profession in Crisis (New York: Free Press, 2010), 87.
2. Robert Whitaker, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America (New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010), 4.
3. Daniel Carlat, 178.
4. William Styron, Darkess Visible: A Memoir of Madness (New York: Modern Library, 2007), 52–53.
5. Robert Whitaker, 210.
6. Marcia Angell, “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” The New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/.
7. Robert Whitaker, 210.
8. Robert Whitaker, 233.
9. Daniel J. Carlat, 69.
10. Irving Kirsch, Ph.D., The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 1.
11. Daniel Carlat, 69.
12. Marcia Angell.
13. Robert Whitaker, 132.
14. Robert Whitaker, 320–321.
Chapter Two
1. Paul Foxman, Dancing with Fear: Overcoming Anxiety in a World of Stress and Uncertainty (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson Inc., 1997), 19.
2. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1986), 97.
3. Ibid.
4. http://www.arrs.net/HP_DukMa.htm.
5. http://www.boston.com/marathon/history/1980.shtml.
Chapter Three
1. http://www.cabq.gov/aquatics/indoor-pools/los-altos-pool.
2. Paul Foxman, 10.
3. Richard Restak, M.D., Poe’s Heart and the Mountain Climber: Exploring the Effect of Anxiety on Our Brains and Our Culture (New York: Harmony Books, 2004), 46.
4. Robert Whitaker, 68.
5. Richard Restak, M.D., 189.
6. Paul Foxman, 188.
7. Paul Foxman, 12.
8. Paul Foxman, 10.
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasympathetic_nervous_system.
Chapter Four
1. http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/04/23/story3.html.
2. Niall Grimes and Jerry Moffatt, Jerry Moffatt: Revelations. (Sheffield, UK: Vertebrate Press, 2009), 30–31.
3. Peter Breggin, M.D. Toxic Psychiatry (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 153. See also: Carlat, 89.
4. Peter Breggin, 50.
5. Peter Breggin, 153–154.
Part Two: Panic Attack
Chapter Five
1. Richard Restak, M.D., 190.
2. David M. Garner, Ph.D., “The Effects of Starvation on Behavior; Implications for Dieting and Eating Disorders.” Healthy Weight Journal, September/October 1998, 68–72.
3. Ibid.
4. “Battles of Belief in World War II,” http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wwii/a1.html.
5. David M. Garner.
6. Moffatt and Grimes, 209.
7. Moffatt and Grimes, 203.
Chapter Six
1. Paul Foxman, 11.
2. Richard Restak, 141.
3. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1PANIC_ADULT.shtml.
4. Richard Restak, 149.
5. Paul Foxman, 147.
6. Aleksandar Hemon, “The Aquarium.” The New Yorker, June 13, 2011, 50–62.
7. Richard Restak, 192.
8. Andrea Tone, 27.
9. Andrea Tone, 135.
10. Andrea Tone, 137–138.
11. Andrea Tone, 153.
12. Andrea Tone, ix.
13. Richard Restak, 191.
14. Andrea Tone, ix.
15. Richard Restak, 191.
16. Peter Breggin, 241.
17. Lauren Cox, “Tranquilizer Detox Withdrawal Can Last Years,” http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=6354685.
18. Robert Whitaker, 132.
19. IMS Health, “Top 20 U.S. Pharmaceutical Products by Dispensed Prescriptions,” http://www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/StaticFile/Top_Line_Data/2010_Top_Products_by_RX.pdf.
20. Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but Benzodiazepines Are Still the Leading Treatments for Anxiety Disorder.” The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, September 2002 63:9.
21. Heather Ashton, M.D., “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw,” http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha01.htm.
22. Andrea Tone, 166.
23. Heather Ashton.
24. Richard Restak, 190.
25. Heather Ashton.
26. Andrea Tone, 167.
27. Jack Hobson-Dupont, The Benzo Book: Getting Safely off Tranquilizers (Nantucket, MA: Essex Press, 2006), 39.
28. Heather Ashton.
29. Heather Ashton.
30. Richard Restak, 153.
31. Heather Ashton.
32. Heather Ashton, “Risks of dependence on benzodiazepine drugs: a major problem of long term treatment,” www.benzo.org.uk/ashrisks.htm.
Chapter Seven
1. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw,” http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha01.htm.
2. Heather Ashton, “Toxicity and Adverse Consequences of Benzodiazepine Use,” Psychiatric Annals, (March 1995): 25:3.
3. Ibid.
Chapter Eight
1. Heather Ashton, “The Ashton Manual Supplement, 2011,” www.benzo.org.uk/ashsupp11.htm.
2. “Medication/Drug Usage During Benzodiazepine Withdrawal and Recovery,” www.bcnc.org.uk/drugs.html.
3. Heather Ashton, “Risks of dependence on benzodiazepine drugs: a major problem of long term treatment,” www.benzo.org.uk/ashrisks.htm.
4. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepine Withdrawal: Outcome in 50 Patients.” British Journal of Addiction (1987), 82, 655–671.
5. Ibid.
6. Heather Ashton, “The diagnosis and management of benzodiazepine dependence.” Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 2005, 18:249–255.
7. Heather Ashton, “Guidelines for the Rational use of Benzodiazepines: When and What to Use.” Drugs 48 (1994) 1: 25–40.
Part Three: The Last Milligram
Chapter Nine
1. Ben Wallace-Wells, “Bitter Pill.” Rolling Stone, February 5, 2009.
2. Ibid.
3. Matthew Herper, “The Truly Staggering Cost of Inventing New Drugs,” http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/02/22/the-truly-staggering-cost-of-inventing-new-drugs-the-print-version/.
4. Irving Kirsch, 50.
5. Irving Kirsch, 39.
6. Irving Kirsch, 47.
7. Daniel Carlat, 125.
8. Ibid., 109.
9. Ibid., 125.
10. Ibid., 130.
11. Marcia Angell, “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption.” The New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jan/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/.
12. Daniel Carlat, 15.
13. “U.S. adults remain naïve about prescription drugs.” BMJ 2011; 343: d5798.
14. Daniel Carlat, 165–166.
15. Daniel Carlat, 165.
16. Peter Breggin, 198.
17. http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#2005.
18. David Healy, Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression (New York: New York University Press, 2004), 14–15.
19. David Healy, 15.
20. Heather Ashton, “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw.”
21. http://www.benzo.org.uk/perrott11.htm#ray.
22. Jack Hobson-Dupont, 19.
Chapter Ten
1. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/obit/2006/11/william_styron_19252006.html.
2. William Styron, 71.
Chapter Eleven
1. Heather Ashton, “Protracted Withdrawal from Benzodiazepines: The Post-Withdrawal Syndrome,” Psychiatric Annals (March 1995) 25:3.
2. Ibid.
Epilogue
1. Daniel Carlat, 77.
2. Marcia Angell, “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?”
The New York Review of Books; www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/.
3. Irving Kirsch, “Antidepressants: The Emperor’s New Drugs?” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irving-kirsch-phd/antidepressants-the-emper_b_442205.html.
4. Irving Kirsch, The Emperor’s New Drugs, 10–11.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 13.
7. Heather Ashton, “Overprescribing of Benzodiazepines: Problems and Resolutions,” http://psychmedaware.org/OverprescribingBenzodiazepines.html.
8. Peter Breggin, 12.
9. Daniel Carlat, 43.
10. Jon Ronson, “The Kids Are Not Alright.” New Scientist, June 4, 2011, 44–47.
11. Daniel Carlat, 54.
12. Robert Whitaker, 270.
13. Marcia Angell, “The Illusions of Psychiatry,” The New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry.
14. “Many authors of psychiatry bible have industry ties,” New Scientist, March 17, 2012, 4. www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328563.900-many-authors-of-psychiatry-bible-have-industry-ties.html.
15. It can be found at: http://www.benzo.org.uk/ashsupp11.htm.
About the Author
MATT SAMET is an accomplished longtime rock climber and former editor in chief of Climbing magazine. He is the author of Climbing Dictionary. Samet lives with his wife and their son in Colorado.
The author is neither a physician nor a medical professional. Readers should not view the information presented in this book as medical advice or as a substitute for medical care.
DEATH GRIP. Copyright © 2013 by Matt Samet. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Jacket design by Rob Grom.
Cover photograph of Matt Samet © Ethan Hill; carabinet and rope © Alamy.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Samet, Matt.
Death grip: a climber’s escape from benzo madness / Matt Samet.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-250-00423-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02236-3 (e-book)
1. Samet, Matt. 2. Mountaineers—United States—Biography. 3. Mountaineers—United States—Psychology. 4. Mountaineers—United States—Mental health. 5. Benzodiazepine abuse—United States. I. Title.
GV199.92.S295A3 2013
796.522092—dc23
eISBN 9781250022363
2012037798
First Edition: February 2013
* Although I often took the generic form of the drug, clonazepam, I refer to it by its brand name in this book to reflect the vernacular usage among psychiatrists and patients.
* Here, again, although I often took the generic form of the drug, lorazepam, I refer to it by its brand name to reflect the vernacular usage among psychiatrists and patients.