I’m so glad you found us.
Benzo Free is a community of dedicated individuals working together to raise awareness about anti-anxiety drugs and to provide positive support to those who are dealing with dependence and withdrawal.
Keep calm, taper slowly, and take care of yourself
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Easing Anxiety
Benzo Free is now part of Easing Anxiety which recently launched a brand new website. We are in the process of transitioning our content to that site over the coming months. The Benzo Free site will continue to operate until that transition is fully complete.
Easing Anxiety features a wide variety of videos dedicated to those who struggle with chronic anxiety including instructional videos, meditations, insomnia support, guests, book reviews, and most of all, a personal connection from someone who has struggled with anxiety for years and found a path to a better life.
The Benzo Free Podcast
Launched in February 2019, the Benzo Free Podcast is about anti-anxiety drugs, dependence, and withdrawal hosted by Benzo Free founder and author, D E Foster.
About the Podcast
This podcast is a semimonthly discussion about benzodiazepines, nonbenzodiazepines, those who take them, and how to survive dependence and withdrawal. Your host, D E Foster, was prescribed clonazepam (Klonopin) for over 12 years and is now five years benzo-free. In the podcast, D blends first-hand experience, personal stories, interviews, and a variety of facts and studies from his years of research on the topic.
Podcast episodes will be available on the Benzo Free Website and on the podcast providers listed above.
A Bit About Benzos
Benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines (z-drugs) are some of the most popular medications ever created. Unfortunately, they are also some of the most addictive. Better known by their brand names such as Ambien, Ativan, Klonopin, Lunesta, Valium and Xanax, these drugs can cause physical dependence in as little as two weeks and withdrawal can be a debilitating, life-altering ordeal which can last months, even years.
The truth is that millions of people take these drugs every day, and yet very few know anything about them.
Our goal is to help change that.
A Message to Those Who Suffer
If you have been taking a benzo long-term, please don’t panic. The burden of benzo withdrawal is manageable and can be eased through knowledge and preparation. There are thousands of people who have gone before you — most of whom have fully healed — and many of them are here to help you along the way.
The benzo free podcast
Launched in February 2019
the Benzo Free Podcast has become a lifeline of the benzo community providing information, support, and a personal connection to thousands struggling with benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal (BIND).
Hosted by D E Foster
the podcast blends personal stories, interviews, and a variety of facts and studies from a decade of research and lived-experience. If you, or someone you know, has been affected by anxiety medication, you might want to check it out.
About the Host
D E Foster is a former writing instructor at the University of Colorado, Denver and the Colorado Film School and developed educational programming at various film festivals and writing conferences. He is a produced screenwriter and author of the book Benzo Free: The World of Anti-Anxiety Drugs and the Reality of Withdrawal. He also supplements his income developing database systems for a variety of corporate clients.
For the past five years, D has experienced an odyssey of debilitating withdrawal complications from clonazepam (Klonopin), a prescription benzodiazepine. Unable to continue to work as a database contractor, D focused on his writing full-time and Benzo Free was born. He now spends his time hosting the podcast, researching a new book, speaking about benzos, and recovering at his home in northern Colorado with his wonderful wife of 22 years and his Aussie shepherd, Bear.
Can we help you find what you are looking for?
The book that started it all…
Benzo Free
The World of Anti-Anxiety Drugs and the Reality of Withdrawal
by D E Foster
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Benzo withdrawal is ripe with unending questions. Most without answers. But one question has been answered: What is the single best resource for benzo withdrawal?
It’s simple. The Ashton Manual.
The Ashton Manual is officially titled Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw and was written by Prof. C. Heather Ashton DM, FRCP. It can be found on the website benzo.org.uk/manual and it is completely free.
Prof. Ashton’s manual has guided thousands of patients to success during withdrawal. No other resource has helped more people through this challenging experience. Full of medical facts and valuable information, Prof. Ashton finds a way to let us know that she believes we can succeed and motivates us to do just that.
Many people in the benzo community will tell you that Prof. Ashton has helped more people withdraw from benzodiazepines than all the other people combined. And they would be right.
Now retired, Chrystal Heather Ashton DM has held such distinguished titles as Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London (FRCP), National Health Service Consultant in Clinical Psychopharmacology, National Health Service Consultant in Psychiatry, and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychopharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Prof. Ashton worked at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne since 1965 as a researcher, clinician, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor, and emeritus professor. She published approximately 250 papers in professional journals and books on psychotropic drugs and gave evidence to various government committees on tobacco smoking, cannabis, and benzodiazepines, and lectured on benzodiazepines in various countries.
In 1982, Professor Ashton established the first benzodiazepine withdrawal clinic within the British NHS and ran the clinic for 12 years. She studied the histories of over 300 patients and closely followed their progress.
For twelve years I ran a benzodiazepine withdrawal clinic for people wanting to come off their tranquillisers and sleeping pills. Much of what I know about this subject was taught to me by those brave and long-suffering men and women…It is interesting that the patients themselves, and not the medical profession, were the first to realise that long-term use of benzodiazepines can cause problems.
— Prof. Ashton
When Professor Ashton closed her clinic in 1994 to retire, there was no one to take it over to continue her work. In 1995, she submitted a research proposal to the medical research council in the U.K. to “investigate the link between long-term benzodiazepine use and permanent brain damage.�? Her proposal was rejected.
- Ashton, C. Heather. Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw (aka The Ashton Manual). 2002. Accessed April 13, 2016. http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/.
- Foster, D E. Benzo Free: The World of Anti-Anxiety Drugs and the Reality of Withdrawal. Erie, Colorado: Denim Mountain Press, 2018. http://www.benzofree.org/book.
- Lakhani, Nina, “Drugs Linked to Brain Damage 30 Years Ago,�? Independent, November 7, 2010, accessed March 4, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/drugs-linked-to-brain-damage-30-years-ago-2127504.html.
- We all make mistakes. And that definitely holds true for this website. Benzo Free is only as good as the time and effort put into it. We welcome any updates. If you can include references to reputable and verifiable online resources, it would be a big help. Thanks
