Abstract

This easy-to-read, inspirational and supportive guide is essential reading for anyone struggling to overcome prescription drug dependency. Drawn from the author's personal knowledge of coming off benzodiazepine tranquillisers and her experience as a counsellor, this book explores everything you need to know before, during and after withdrawal, from how to recognise the symptoms to how to manage them and make firm steps towards recovery. With a focus on recovery and empowerment, it provides all the practical and emotional support needed to help you cope and regain control. This book will be a lifeline for anyone taking or withdrawing from sleeping pills, other benzodiazepine tranquillisers and antidepressants. It will also equip family and friends to offer support and provide counsellors, psychotherapists, complementary therapists and other health professionals with invaluable insight critical to providing best care.
There are astonishingly few books on dependence on and withdrawal from prescription drugs, and fewer still that are as balanced, informative and helpful as Recovery and Renewal. This is one of the most important areas of medicine but one of the most neglected. Anyone can get you on a drug, but it takes real healing to get you off them.
David Healy MD, FRCPsych, Psychiatrist, Psychopharmacologist and Author of Pharmageddon
Baylissa Frederick pursued post graduate studies in Integrative Counselling at the University of South Wales and is a BACP registered counsellor. She is the founder of Recovery Road, a project supporting individuals affected by antidepressant and tranquilliser withdrawal. She delivers motivational speeches and workshops on recovery, hope and empowerment and has been interviewed and quoted by newspapers and journals including 'The London Times', 'The Independent' and 'British Medical Association News'. She is the author of 'With Hope in My Heart: A Memoir,' and lives in Cardiff, UK.
Who Should Check Out This Book? Prescription drug users: "Recovery and Renewal" will provide you with all information you need when experiencing withdrawal, regarding symptoms and methods of coping. All shared techniques have been shown to be tested and effective. Plus, you can relate to the stories and testimonials of people who have already successfully passed the through the withdrawal phase. They will encourage and give you hope that will make huge difference in your coping experience. Counselors/Doctors: This book will give you insight into the users minds and how they percept/experience the withdrawal symptoms. Also ,the techniques used for establishing safe withdrawal, can enrich the strategies you use to help people who are struggling prescription drug abuse.
Addiction Blog, 6 Dec 2015
The personal stories are both insightful and at times moving. Having suffered severe and protracted withdrawal from prescription medication herself, Frederick writes from real experience. With practical information about going cold turkey versus tapering, and chapters specifically for caregivers and medical professionals, I will recommend this book for information and inspiration to the patients I see withdrawing from antidepressant and antianxiety medicines.
Peter Smith, holistic medical consultant and author of Sleep Better with Natural Therapies
This book gives warm-hearted understanding and practical advice about benzodiazepine and antidepressant dependence and withdrawal. It is based on personal experience, since the author has herself been through withdrawal. She is an experienced counsellor who has already helped many others through her support group, Recovery Road; this new edition will extend her proved success and will be a help to many others.
Professor C Heather Ashton, DM, FRCP, Clinical Psychopharmacologist and the UK's leading expert on benzodiazepines