Over the years I have returned again and again to one subject on this show: what happens to people who take a benzodiazepine or another psychiatric medication exactly as prescribed, become physically dependent on it, and then try to stop. These are the episodes where that subject is front and center. Some guests are physicians who went through it themselves. Some are advocates who built the communities and nonprofits that now do much of the educating doctors never received. Two are scientists whose work touches the question from the side, and two run ketamine clinics. I have found ketamine helpful for some patients, and I know many in the deprescribing field disagree. Those two conversations are here because the guests describe treating people in benzodiazepine withdrawal, not because I am recommending it.
Physical dependence is not addiction. That distinction runs through every conversation here, and it is the reason this show now spends most of its time on tapering, protracted withdrawal, and benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction (BIND). If you are tapering, or caring for someone who is, start with the newest episode and work back. The older conversations were recorded when the show covered addiction and recovery more broadly, and I say so in each one, but the questions people asked then are the questions people ask now. The series archive lists these episodes newest first and picks up each new one automatically.
The episodes, newest first
Barbara Connolly, PhD, on Safe Benzodiazepine Tapering and the Benzo Warrior Community (April 2026). Barbara runs Benzo Warrior, the online community I recommend most often. We talked about how people learn to taper safely, why so many are pushed to go too fast, and what to do when the prescriber will not help.
Andrew Hill, PhD, on Neurofeedback to Heal the Brain (September 2024). A neurofeedback scientist on what a brain map shows and where the method fits for people whose nervous system has been thrown off by medication. A long stretch of this one is about benzodiazepine dependence, protracted withdrawal, and why people in withdrawal often cannot tolerate any new medication.
Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, of Avesta Ketamine on Ketamine and Brain Healing (October 2023). A former Georgetown pharmacology professor who runs a ketamine clinic. I described protracted benzodiazepine withdrawal as a pain syndrome nobody will treat, and asked whether she has worked with people tapering or in protracted withdrawal. She has, and she described why they are more sensitive to the experience and what her clinic does differently for them.
Steven Reichbach, MD, on Ketamine for Suicidal Ideation (August 2023). An anesthesiologist on ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant depression and suicidal thinking. We also talked about people who do not want Xanax or Klonopin for sleep for the rest of their lives, and about what I have seen help with sleep during a taper.
Nicole Lamberson on Benzo Tapers, Dependence, and Physician Desensitization (August 2024). Nicole leads the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition. We talked about why withdrawal gets mistaken for addiction, why tapers are run too fast, and how medical training wears down a doctor’s empathy.
Nicole Lamberson: Surviving Benzodiazepine Protracted Withdrawal (June 2023). Nicole’s own story of a cold turkey stop from several psychiatric medications and the years of protracted withdrawal that followed. One of the clearest first-person accounts I have heard.
Gary Aston-Jones, PhD, on Dual Orexin Receptor Antagonists (March 2023). A Rutgers neuroscientist on a sleep system in the brain and the newer sleep medications that work through it. I asked him whether people injured by benzodiazepines might carry subtle, lasting changes in the brain. His answer, that the brain changes rather than breaks and that change can be reversed, is worth the listen on its own.
Laura Delano: Overcoming Iatrogenic Injury With the Inner Compass Initiative (September 2022). Laura took five psychiatric medications until 2010, came off them, and lived through a long withdrawal. We talked about what has to happen before a taper begins and what a sustainable pace looks like.
Kendra Campbell, MD: Free Range Psychiatry (April 2022). A psychiatrist who left the emergency room, came off her own medications, and built a practice around helping people come off theirs. Tapering, trauma, the chemical imbalance theory, and akathisia.
Christy Huff, MD: The Benzodiazepine Information Coalition (April 2022). A cardiologist on how a very small nightly dose of Xanax led to interdose withdrawal in a few weeks, a taper that took more than three years, and why her training never prepared her for it.
Medicating Normal: Why Are Psych Meds Prescribed So Frequently? (March 2022). Lynn Cunningham and Nicole Lamberson on the documentary about overprescribing and informed consent. I said then that it would change how I inform patients about the medications I prescribe, and it did.
Teralyn Sell, PhD: Healing the Brain Through Nutrition (August 2020). A doctor of psychology who coaches people on nutrition and brain health, on why tapers fail when they move too fast and how the brain can be supported along the way. Teralyn has since become a regular voice on psychiatric medication harm and co-hosts her own podcast on the subject.
One more conversation worth hearing
Lloyd Sederer, MD: The Future of Addiction Treatment (November 2020). Most of this conversation is about opioid treatment, but at the 24 minute mark I asked a former New York City mental health commissioner why psychiatrists no longer talk to their patients. His answer was the economics of the fifteen minute visit, and he gave the numbers. Anyone who walked out of a first appointment with a prescription and little else will recognize it.
Where to go next
The articles on this site pick up where the episodes leave off: what BIND is, why a slow taper works and a fast one fails, and what the Ashton Manual says and how it is used today. Every new episode on this subject will be added here.
This content is for educational purposes only and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Physical dependence is not addiction.