For many of us, the news of Michael Jackson’s untimely transition was deeply saddening. It would be further disheartening, however, if the current focus on painkillers and anaesthetics overshadows the impact his benzodiazepine use had on his life. A recent CNN news article stated that, “Michael Jackson took more than 10 Xanax pills a night, asking his employees to get the prescription medicine How to Buy Xanax 1 Mg Online without Prescription under their names and also personally travelling to doctors’ offices in other states to obtain them.”
When more of a drug is needed in order for the desired therapeutic effect to Buy Xanax Online be achieved, this is known as ‘tolerance’. Michael’s behaviour is a classic example of someone in benzodiazepine tolerance. He was truly hooked and was desperate to acquire more to increase his doses. We will never know if he fully understood how the drug was affecting him, or whether he tried to discontinue but could not cope with the withdrawal effects. Did any of the doctors who treated him since his first prescription know enough about benzodiazepines to be able to differentiate between his tolerance symptoms and other presenting issues? If so, how was this handled?
Chronic benzodiazepine use can result in the most bizarre and unlikely manifestations of side effects. In addition, if tolerance has developed and the safe maximum dose has been achieved, withdrawal symptoms will surface. A user can therefore experience memory impairment, paranoia, agoraphobia, insomnia, muscle pain and a host of other physical and psychological symptoms long before discontinuing the drug.
