#28: Geraldine Burns 🇺🇸 from the Benzodiazepine Awareness podcast

October 16th, 2023 In this episode: Geraldine Burns has been a pioneer in helping to get the word out about the potential dangers of benzodiazepines. In 1999 she started the first Internet support group for people wishing to withdraw from tranquilizers or already off and having problems. She is dedicated to the responsible and informed use of this class of prescription drugs. She was instrumental in having Professor C. Heather Ashton, Professor Emeritus from the University of Newcastle write her manual “Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How to Withdraw” also known as The Ashton Manual. This manual has now been translated into 13 other languages. In 2006, she launched the website BenzoBookReview.com. It was started after she was given the rights by eleven internationally known authors of books that had been written on the subject of tranquilizers of which some were no longer being published. She worked to have some of them revised and updated so we could bring the most up-to-date information on tranquilizers and sleeping pills to the public. Her advocacy work has been filmed from 2014 to 2020 for the documentary “As Prescribed”. You can learn more about the documentary at www.asprescribedfilm.com. It is a documentary film project about benzodiazepine dependency and discontinuation syndrome. On February 24, 2016, the first bill was filed in Massachusetts titled An Act Relative to Benzodiazepines and Non-Benzodiazepine Hypnotics. She worked closely with Representative Paul McMurtry to have this first of a kind bill filed in the United States. Over the next few years, at five different sessions she and other Massachusetts benzo survivors testified in front of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use and Recovery. After the third session, the bill was received favorably, but because of Covid, the bill did not go forward. The 4th bill for the year 2021 was heard on November 8th which again did not go forward. A 5th bill was just heard on October 2nd, 2023 and we are waiting for a favorable report. On January 13, 2018 she testified in front of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use and Recovery for Governor Baker’s Opioid Bill. In 2018 she and her son Attorney Garrett Burns launched her Podcast “Benzodiazepine Awareness with Geraldine Burns” which is also available on YouTube. After the birth of her second child, something didn't feel quite right and Geraldine was prescribed Ativan (Lorazepam). Despite Geraldine's concerns about the drug, she was told she needed to take Ativan for the rest of her life. As time progressed Geraldine discovered there was a medical issue unaddressed. In an age before the Ashton Manual and the internet, she tapered her Benzodiazepine. As she wanted to spread awareness, she got in touch with professor Heather Ashton, who sent her the first three chapters of her now famous manual. Find Geraldine's podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/benzodiazepine-awareness-with-geraldine-burns/id1358022441 The Massachusetts Benzodiazepine Bill testimonials: https://youtu.be/WZ2Ut-U5TBA?si=LVsczd_teYnjYgsX