Meeting Life Unmedicated: Aging, Protracted Withdrawal and Healing - A Conversation With Marsha Zaritsky
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How did Marsha’s experience with Klonopin during menopause lead to her discovery of a benzo withdrawal injury?
Welcome to the Madden America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooke Seem, and I am the author of the award-winning memoir on antidepressant withdrawal may cause side effects. Today, I'm with Marsha Zuritsky, and I am very interested to talk to her because she reached out to me about the fact that we don't spend a lot of time talking about women who are prescribed psychiatric drugs as part of menopause. And we don't talk a lot about it when it comes to the older adult population. And so I thought Marsha would be the perfect person to have on the pod to talk about this. Marsha is a survivor of being prescribed Klonopin for sleep when going through menopause. She said she was never told what class of drugs she was put on. And it wasn't until years later that when she became ill with severe digestive issues that she figured out she was on a benzo and that it could be the root of all her health issues.
Very interestingly, Marsha is also a licensed mental health therapist certified in IFS therapy, which is internal family systems. She is licensed to see clients in Idaho and Washington, although she did tell me before we started recording that she is full. But the reason why this is so interesting is because when we have people in the mental health field who have also had experience with psychiatry and psychiatric drug withdrawal, that can sometimes change and inform how they practice and approach the entire industry, if you will, as a whole. So I am very excited to have you here, Marsha. I am thrilled to hear what you've been through and where you're at now, because even just seeing you through the screen, I can tell how much radiance and joy there is there. And we need a lot of hope in this space. And so I'm glad to be here with you. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk about it and share what I've been through and what I've learned.
You're welcome. So right before we started recording, you mentioned to me something very interesting, and that is that you have been through and recovered from a protracted withdrawal injury, and also currently you are hyperbolic tapering. And those are two things we often don't see together. So if you can just take us back a little bit and tell us how this all started and what was going on in your life at the time.
You know, sleep has always been somewhat of an issue for me. And I was traveling a lot for fun and using Ambien when I was traveling for sleep. And at some point, my doctor's like, oh, this is not a good drug for you to be on. She gave me Klonopin for sleep. I didn't ask any questions. Big mistake. And I thought she was giving me something non-addictive. And then menopause hit, sleep got even worse. So it was something I used not every night, on and off. For probably over a decade through menopause. Menopause can go on for quite a while. Yeah, I started to have severe digestive issues. You know, that one time through all of this, I went to the ER in the beginning because I was in so much pain. Food sensitivities. You know, spent probably a year and a half with...
spending thousands upon thousands of dollars seeing naturopaths around digestive issues. And it was finally me who I figured out that, oh, wait a minute, that's when I realized I was on a benzodiazepine. For some reason, we had some Xanax in the house and I took it one day and like, wow, my stomach stopped hurting. And I asked my doctor for, could you hand me, give me a few of these because sometimes it's so hard to eat. And she's like, I can't do that. You're on a benzo. And that's when things started to click. So I was in tolerance on it. and having really bad, severe symptoms. That year prior to getting off was as bad as withdrawal. I was in withdrawal and I did up it to 0.5 and felt better for like a few weeks. And then like, that's where I saw the writing on the wall. Like I was just intolerance. My body was not tolerating the drug anymore. And I went into rehab to get off of it, which I would never recommend. And then that's where I was poly drugged.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Marsha’s experience with Klonopin during menopause lead to her discovery of a benzo withdrawal injury?
0:04–4:16
2
What were the main challenges Marsha faced when she tried to quit the benzo and ended up in rehab?
4:16–8:39
3
How did polypharmacy and the addition of Zoloft, gabapentin, and other meds affect her withdrawal journey?
8:39–13:42
4
What sparked Marsha’s interest in hyperbolic tapering and how did she begin the process?
13:42–18:09
5
How did aging and menopause shape Marsha’s perception of healing and fear of recovery?
18:09–22:51
6
In what ways has Marsha’s withdrawal experience changed her therapeutic practice and client interactions?
22:51–27:25
7
What advice does Marsha give older adults considering medication changes during menopause?
27:25–32:14
Speakers
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