, 2000 SN SEAT SEA Fiat ads Kattan rescribe Former North Van councillor | details lengthy drug addiction Vashti Singh Contributing Writer JOAN Gadsby wrote her new book, Addicted by Prescription, as a follow-up to Barbara Gordon’s 1979 story I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can. Both use their books to tell of their harrowing experiences of being dependent on doctor-prescribed medica- non, Both explain how tt fered hdrawal and subse- quently learned how to live with- out the drugs. And just as Gordon's book was a bestseller, so Gadsby anticipates hers will be But unlike Gordon’s final con- clusion that her battle was not with pill pushers but with herself, Gadsby continues to hold everyone but herself accountable for her drug abuse problems Despite her numerous overdoses, usually resulting trom mixing the pills with alcohol, Gadsby claims she never thought her prescriptions were the problem. She blames her doctor: ~ the health care system and drug companies for her addiction. While, undoubredly, cach of these played a role in her addiction, Gadsby completely absolves herself from an responsibility for her 23-year addiction that is described in her book. This glaring omission is all the more unfortunate because it mars an otherwise insightful look at one woman's battle with prescription drug addiction. The book is the former District of North Vancouver coun- cillor’s latest effort to draw awareness to the issue of prescrip- tion drug dependency. Gadsby has been committed to fighting against improper benzodiazepine (benzo) prescribing since she came off the drugs 16 years ago. She’s produced an interesting, extensively researched and well-written read. Ic is a useful resource for those wanting to understand the turmoil addicts of commonly prescribed drugs face, both when on the drugs and once they come off. Gadsby outlines her struggle that began with the death of her four-year-old son on Christmas Day, 1966. Her marriage began to fall apart and she started to have | trouble sleeping. Once Gadsby confessed these troubling circumstances to her family physician, he prescribed sleeping pills. Eventually Gadsby found herself on a “chemical cocktail” of f tranquilizers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants. a . NEWS photo Terry Peters FORMER North Vancouver District councillor Joan Gadsby has published a book about her addiction to pre- scription drugs and hopes her story will become a television movie of the week. Increased dosages and additional benzo prescriptions fed to her subsequent dependency. The highly addictive group of drugs included Valium, Ativan, Serax and Restoril. During her dependency, she found herself arrested, jailed and hospitalized. Sadly, she was often prescribed more drugs to deal with what doctors and psychiatrists called at different times a mood disorder, bipolar disorder and an emotional imbalance. | Gadsby, who eventually went on to sit on the Lions Gare Hospital ‘board, often appeared in the headlines after her numerous and very public violent outbursts. Gadsby described such actions as completely out of charac- ter and said that the drugs changed her into a different per- son. “As I found out much later, the two different types of be zodiazepines I had been prescribed and faithfully took cvery day affected my central nervous system in much the same way as mixing one of them with alcohol would have. There is no debate abour this; it is an established medical fact. Yet the medical establishment consistently attributed all of my prob- lems to emotional instability and alcohol.” After she stopped taking the drugs, she went into serious ~ withdrawal. She experienced hallucinations, anxiety, trouble: sleeping and impaired concentration. : A particularly strong aspect to the book is Gadsby’. s call to action at the end. She outlines the measures she personally has undertaken to fight the prescription of benzos. She also. - describes various resources for people wanting to get off the. drugs and common side effects. 7 Gadsby provides an extensive summary of the information available about the dangers of benzodiazepines, anda tho ough bibliography. Furthermore, she details the international efforts that hay been taken to stop the prescription of benzos. Her proactive approach to taking her life back is a strong. ; force in the book and, as happened with Gordon’s’ story, Gadsby has plans to raise further attention to this issuc. by ing to turn her book into a television movie of the week.