Episodes of The Rehab Podcast about benzodiazepine and psychiatric drug dependence, tapering, protracted withdrawal, and BIND.
Barbara Connolly, PhD, runs Benzo Warrior, the online community I recommend most often when someone tapering a benzodiazepine asks where to find support. In this conversation from April 2026, we talked about how people learn to taper safely, why so many are pushed to go too fast, and what still gets in the way.
Andrew Hill, PhD, is a scientist who has worked in neurofeedback for about 25 years and runs his own company, Peak Brain Institute.
Nicole Lamberson leads the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, a nonprofit that educates people about the harms of benzodiazepines taken exactly as prescribed. In this conversation from 2024, we talked about the difference between physical dependence and addiction, why so many people are tapered too fast, and how medical training can wear down a doctor's empathy.
In October 2023, I spoke with Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, a physiologist and nurse anesthetist who taught anesthetic drugs to graduate students at Georgetown University for many years. She now leads Avesta Ketamine and Wellness, which has clinics in the Washington, D.C.
In August 2023, I spoke with Dr. Steven Reichbach, an anesthesiologist who has worked with ketamine for about three decades. His clinic gives ketamine by intravenous infusion to people with certain mood disorders and certain chronic nerve pain conditions.
In June 2023, I spoke with Nicole Lamberson, who survived a cold turkey stop from several psychiatric medications and has lived with protracted withdrawal for years. She now works with the documentary Medicating Normal and advocates for people injured by prescribed medications.
In March 2023, I spoke with Gary Aston-Jones, PhD, a neuroscientist who directs the Brain Health Institute at Rutgers University. He has spent more than 30 years studying the brain systems behind motivation and reward, and his recent work focuses on a chemical messenger called orexin.
In September 2022, I sat down with Laura Delano of the Inner Compass Initiative to talk about something most doctors were never taught. How does a person come off a psychiatric medication without being harmed by the process?
In April 2022, I spoke with Kendra Campbell, MD, a psychiatrist whose Instagram posts under the name Free Range Psychiatry I kept seeing, and whose name came up in another interview I did about the damage psychiatric medications can cause.
Christy Huff, MD, is a cardiologist. She directs the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition, a nonprofit that teaches patients and doctors about the harms of prescribed benzodiazepines. In April 2022, I spoke with her about her own time on Xanax and why so many people still cannot find a doctor to help them taper.
In March 2022, I spoke with Lynn Cunningham and Nicole Lamberson of the documentary Medicating Normal, a film about the overprescribing of psychiatric drugs and the harm that can come from taking them, in particular over the long term.
In August 2020, I spoke with Teralyn Sell, PhD, a doctor of psychology who coaches people on nutrition and brain health. Her focus is the chemistry of the brain in people with anxiety or depression and in people coming off drugs and alcohol.