Today’s guest is here to share how her struggle with unbearable insomnia led to an accidental descent into prescription benzodiazepine dependence.

Melissa Bond is a narrative journalist and poet. In the years of her dependence on benzodiazepines, Melissa blogged and became a regular contributor for Mad in America. ABC World News Tonight interviewed her for a piece in January 2014. Melissa is a respected writer on the perils of over-prescribing benzodiazepines and has been featured on PBS Story in the Public Square, Radio West, the podcasts Risk!, IGNTD, and Psychology Unplugged. The Salt Lake Tribune and the New York Post have both done features on her book Blood Orange Night, her memoir about becoming dependent upon and then withdrawing from benzodiazepines. 

In this episode, we talk about...

- Melissa's descent into prescription benzodiazepine dependence

- What her insomnia looked like

- How she knew her symptoms were more than momma exhaustion

- What her withdrawal from benzodiazepines looked like

- How her struggle impacted her marriage

- What her mental health looks like today

- Why you should never cold turkey your psych meds

- What literature says about benzodiazepines

- Why everyone needs to read Anatomy of an Epidemic

- Why you need to know what stopping benzodiazepines can look like

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