[snowwrestler]

When I was prescribed a benzo a decade ago, my doctor told me it was safe, non-habit-forming, and I could take it whenever I wanted to feel less nervous. There was no warning whatsoever about addiction, tolerance, or the serious side effects that were possible.

Luckily I am generally skeptical of pharmaceuticals, at least to the extent that I try to educate myself about them. So I did my own reading up about it. But even then, while online sources did indicate that benzos could be habit-forming, I did not see the strong language and terrible stories that are coming out now about benzo addiction.

So hopefully that illustrates the newsworthy issue: a lot of doctors, and even online medical info sites, did not adequately appreciate the risks of benzos, or warn people about those risks.