Shalini Ramachandran

benzodiazepines work inside the brain to calm the nervous system.

Here's Betsy again.

I guess one thing I want to understand, according to medical guidelines, how long...

should patients be on benzos?

And typically, how long does someone stay on this drug, at least based on the conversations you had with people?

In other words, even though benzos aren't meant to be taken long-term, a lot of people do.

And as Betsy and Shalini talked to more patients, they began to hear about the problems that emerged from that extended use.

It was ironic.

The answer that some patients were getting to help with the side effects from the drugs they were taking was more drugs.

And just like with that executive that Shalini spoke to, some people who tried to get themselves off benzos were hit with even more problems, painful withdrawal symptoms, because their brains had become so used to the effects of the drugs.

These symptoms could become extreme.

One woman Shalini talked to, a mother of five, was prescribed another common benzo, Xanax, for mild insomnia.

The mom said that after two years of taking the drug, she'd started having memory loss and panic attacks like never before.

So she tried to quit.

Studies show that somewhere between 15 and 44 percent of chronic benzo users experience moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms, and about 10 to 15 percent have symptoms that continue long after they taper off the drugs.

For some, the pain is so bad that they take their own lives.

Shalini reported on one woman, a doctor, who spent more than three years trying to stop taking Xanax and later Valium.

In March 2024, she killed herself.

Her husband later found a note on her phone that read, quote, My body has been completely destroyed.

I would never leave my family and beautiful daughter if I had another option.