I had a chance to catch up with an old friend and found that she was profoundly depressed
I offered my story which basically is this…I got away from toxic people and started living authentic life!
I started living the way I was meant !
We discussed psychedelic drugs and she was deathly afraid of them, even using cannabis.
Well after talking I found she was in a real pickle.
She had retired from ajob she loved, was estranged from her only son, had given her pet chickens away had kidney disease and had broken her arm
She can no longer ride her bike, do yoga, write poetry or do the things she wants and loves
Meanwhile her plant o purchase a small plot of land in the country with a cabin has been morphed by her husband into a huge log home miles from her friends and network
He is not listening to her wishes or thinking of her needs
I basically told her psychedelic drugs only tell you things you dont want to hear…but need to!
I also told her her husband sounded like a narcissistic person and she was going to be depressed if she stayed with him and don’t start getting her things…her chickens, her poetry, and yoga.
I hate seeing this shit happens to others after I went through it all and saw that movie…she was not open to using drugs at all but admitted being addicted to lorazepam and wanting to get off of it?
Damn
It’s easy to accept defeat because it looks hopeless. The works is benevolently indifferent to pain but we all deal with an awful lot of it.
Maybe she would come around to being OK with edibles?
I’d guess she’d need CBD/CBN for anxiety, if that improves she might be able to cut back on the Lorazepam (nasty stuff long term)
Cheers
G
Addicted to lorazepam is not a quick easy thing to kick either. Actually dangerous to detox from like alcohol… Benzos and alcohol are the two substances you want help detoxing from, they can hurt ya seriously…
Maybe be a guide for the first smoking sesh, or edible sesh?
Straight to psychedelics can be a hard line to tow unless you are ready for the message. Might want to get past the addiction first before dealing with the messages.
Hope they (and you) do OK. 
@anon90741032
Unfortunately I am several states away and her experience with cannabis last year and lsd in the seventies were not helpful. I tried to explain that dosage and setting are important…not sure she is ready. That fact she is seventy one with kidney disease complicated things. She does have a friend who was a colleague at the University who is encouraging micro doses as did I. I’m afraid hubby is trying to get her away from her support network and colleague’s support…or he is just selfish
That is quite the collection of hurdles to get past. They also need to WANT to change…
Benzos are so scary - you don’t remember so much that is truly going on…
I may be basing this in my experience but my experience tells me if your partner is not listening then you need a new partner…lol.
I’m not sure I’m the best one to give me advice. I have suffered from depression my whole life. It varies in intensity. I was prescribed Xanax for approximately 6 years, hydrocodone for 2 years. I also struggled with other drugs. It’s not easy to quit, but was necessary for my survival. If she wants to get off of lorazepam, she can with a taper. Although, I would not push it. Just be there for support if she needs it, which it sounds like she does. My brother in law has cancer also. He is completely against THC but opened up to CBD gummies. Sorry to hear about your friend. Benzo withdrawal is a bitch by the way.
The best thing to do for a depressed person is to listen to them.
There is no reason to help them answer questions that they already know the answer to.
Drugs don’t hide depression…. For long.
Depression is tricky and often self inflicted. As one tries to eliminate it, the brain often finds more complicated ways to conceal the depression. If all else fails, the depression is released as anger. And we don’t want to trigger a depressed person’s anger.
A word to the depressed. Learn the triggers, and learn how to avoid those triggers. Then find a way to eliminate as much stress as possible. That may cause you some friends, but often times a enough, friends are the cause of depression, because the like to come dump their sorrows on you.
I tried to make it short. I been living with chronic depression my entire life. The best treatment I have found is a little bit of happiness.
Sorry for butting in.
I’ve been struggling a bit with my inner demons. I’ve found that changing up things from my same old mundane routine helps. Best of wishes to your friend and everyone else out there struggling with depression.
Yep. This. Although if you’re 71 years old, I dunno. That’s gotta be hard, just to be like,”Later!” when you’re that old. Still, life’s too short. I feel like if who I was with was making me miserable, especially at that age, I’d be out. 71, maybe I have ten good years left. I’m gonna try to enjoy that.
The benzos thing is another matter altogether. That’s some serious shit. Like everybody else is saying, you gotta ween off of those very carefully. I was eating Xanax a few years back, not abusing them, just taking them as prescribed, once in the morning, once at night. But I didn’t like the way they made me feel, so I quit cold-turkey. EXACTLY 72 hours after I ate my last one, I had a seizure. My girl had to call 911, ambulance trip to the hospital, it was a whole thing. I’ll never eat that shit again. I think that those benzos are probably contributing heavily to your friend’s depression. I know they made me feel like shit. They alleviated my panic attacks, sure, but they didn’t elevate my state of mind.
Everybody involved in the pharmaceutical industry should be sent to prison.
Anyway, hope it works out for her. I think that things are just really fucking weird right now. I dunno if it’s the way the planets are aligned or what, but it seems like a lot of people are just feeling very down right now. Seems like a lot of bad shit and weirdness is going on. I dunno.
I know a couple and the conversation went something like this:
“Well the kids are grown and done with school so let’s sell the house and travel the world.”
“No I don’t think so.”
“Ok I guess our marriage is over.”
Bing bang boom.
Benzodiazepines = bad. Short term hump maybe but no longer.
Depression is complicated. Sometimes just accepting that you’re going to suffer helps alleviate the suffering. If that makes any sense.
Haha! For sure, dude. I’ve definitely never had a problem ending things. I kind of actually love being like,”Okay, I’m done. Have a nice life!” haha. I’m still friends with all of me exes, it’s never been acrimonious, but yeah, that feeling you get when you’re newly single is just so fucking good.
Still… 71 years old, living in the middle of nowhere, shitty partner, strung out on benzos… I dunno. I can see how that situation would feel pretty overwhelming. I feel for her, anyway, and I don’t even know her, obviously.
@Blu-Tri
No one’s thinking you are butting in…I appreciate your input
@minitiger yes…I’m just wondering if she shouldn’t just insist in keeping the house in Madison and let him do what ever.
If they can afford it… I dam sure. … won’t move to the boonies and disrupt everything I love at seventy one years of age.
Oh well. Its hard to talk to people when you have your own history of dealing with de shit and can’t really impose your own thing, but your thinking…hmmm sounds familiar!
Madison? Madison, Wisconsin? Well, Jesus, no wonder she’s depressed. Wisconsin suuuuuucks. My dad ended up in Baraboo, because of his gawd-awful wife. I went to visit him when he was on his death bed, about ten years ago, and he said,”I always thought I’d be dying on a tropical beach somewhere, no idea how I ended up in Baraboo…” haha. That right there made me go,”I’m gonna live my life exactly the way I want to and do everything I wanna do, all the time. No consequences!” haha. I mean, I was already living like that anyway, but that shit right there solidified my entire outlook on life. My dad was a super-successful attorney in Florida, made a lot of money, drove Porsches all his life (I don’t care about cars, but he did) and he still somehow ended up in fucking Baraboo, Wisconsin. I will never be like that.
Your friend shouldn’t be like that, either. I wanna die happy and satisfied. Everybody deserves to die happy and satisfied. Tell your friend to get the fuck out.
Maybe she should look at what Gabor Mate has to say about such conditions, psychedelics …
Maybe her fear of psychedelics decreases when she hears it from someone with such credibility
Here is one
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9B5mYfBPlY
I made a lemonade using a blue bruising bollette. I know they aren’t supposed to be psychoactive, but I assure you they gave me and my wife visuals. I awaken one night like wt…. Just thinking I’m dreaming. But every time I closed my eyes, it was as if I was watching one of those animations. It had my wife hallucinating and jumpy.
I don’t know what it was, but know we don’t do that anymore. The dang pot have us crazy enough.
I’ve been there with the lorazepam, took me 3&1/2 years of weening off slowly while steadily increasing my THC intake up to an absolutely insane amount of tree (strictly heavy indicas with CBD only) and sleeping LOTS when I could. These damn pharmaceuticals are ruining so many lives it makes me sick. I was one of the lucky ones who had so much to live for/ get better for. I’ve been absolutely clean from anything but cannabis and concentrates , and find keeping a small vial of CBD isolate was a lifesaver during those times as a small amount in coffee or just on my tongue would alleviate almost any anxiety I had , and the CBD rich weed has anti anxiolytic properties that I have learned can be an absolute lifesaver. After reevaluating my life choices and many other things I found I was basically anxiety free for many years until this pandemic hit, I have had many ups and downs but have been able to basically stay on the level even with all the uncertainties. I really hope you can help her, need any help, advice don’t hesitate to hmu
It’s sad to be more afraid of cannabis than lorazepam. I was given that once, and it made things very much worse, constant vomiting, so undesired weight loss. Poison. It would be great if she could find an actual Doctor that believed in more natural treatment options and help lessen the fear.
I don’t take that. The one that starts with a c. I’m a zany person. I can’t sleep at night. @Breelie if my thc if high enough I’m good. Head trauma for me. Nothing works but weed.