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--- Dec 2017 update: It has been 10 months since my benzo withdrawal. The withdrawal symptoms only last a few days. I am very unwell. I need clonazepam.

Also, my apologies for the anger which can be heard in my April voice below.

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--- Friends/family: please do not mention my doctor's name, because I do not want to implicate him without his consent. Thanks! ---

There is a train-wreck coming around the corner, and formal "doctor-talk" isn't working, so I must publicly appeal to the reason of the citizens of this province.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, Canada appears to be working overtime to ban clonazepam. They started with the opioid/benzo problem, got overzealous, and are now reviewing doctors who prescribe clonazepam to people with bipolar disorder.

Their efforts include reviewing and threatening their peers (psychiatrists) with revoking their license to practice if they have acted upon their scientifically-backed knowledge that certain people with Bipolar Disorder and/or PTSD, anxiety, CSA, DID, or seizures benefit greatly from clonazepam.

Doctors aren't allowed to talk about this, because their "hands are tied." I talked to someone from the Fraser Health Authority, and he said that they know what's going on lately, but guess what... their hands are also tied. He told me that the College just says, "this is the way it is," and so that's the way it is. The College sounds like a high-school bully. Professionals who are in direct contact with patients aren't allowed to express their opinion?

Psychiatrists carefully administer and monitor a controlled addition to clonazepam, which has far less damaging side effects than many prescribed medications, including the "orthodox" atypical antipsychotics and neuroleptics that are prescribed to patients with bipolar disorder. The dosages of these brain-damaging drugs may be reduced if the patient is also taking clonazepam (a benzodiazepine brand-named "Klonopin.").

If the CPSBC's reckless efforts continue unchecked, it could eventually leave unstable people with bipolar disorder on the streets, without a doctor, smoking pot (as the only relief from mid-brain distress/damage), and without prescription medications that prevent psychosis and dangerous judgment!

This would be a great cost, not only to these patients and their doctors, but also to our province and its taxpayers.

Clonazepam effectively calms the damaged amygdalae of people with bipolar disorder and/or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or early childhood trauma, including Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and associated Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). It is also used for people suffering with epilepsy. There are no psychiatry-approved substitutes. Without clonazepam, we observe an increase in symptoms of Tourette Syndrome and other over-active panic responses, as well as an increase in trauma-related nightmares and general anxiety and stress.

We do not have the credentials nor the time to conduct careful scientific research into this; however, the College does, and they should do so without bias against "controlled addictions" while ignoring the efficacy of the medication.

The formal process of intelligent psychiatrists reasoning with the College and submitting streams of paperwork (forms and letters), and of distressed patients filing formal complaints is not working, so we must increase awareness and pressure using social media.

The College is fixated on their agenda, without regard for real people who are suffering.

Ironically, the CPSBC's self-generated mandate includes this sentence: "The College’s overriding interest is the protection and safety of patients."

Please see this public Facebook post to better understand why this matters to me:

If I lost my psychiatrist, I would lose my prescription medications, including access to the antipsychotic which is preventing manic psychosis (delusions) and manic loss of judgment.

I would need to lie about my clonazepam addiction for another psychiatrist to accept me as his patient, because doctors are not interested in being put under review because someone under their care is addicted to clonazepam.

The best way for me to survive without clonazepam is to use medical marijuana, which also calms the damaged amygdalae in my mid-brain, but no psychiatrist in BC would prescribe medical cannabis to someone with bipolar disorder, because, from their accurate scientific perspective, there is not nearly enough research on using cannabis to treat neurological conditions.

I am just one person with bipolar disorder. (We are many.)

1. Official link: There are none, because the information is all hidden from the public. It could only be found in Protected "doctor-speak" forms and letters, which, of course, no doctor is allowed to talk about.

20 April: see the update below for the college's official paper on this from June 2016.

This is why the supervisor (the College) is not being supervised; hence, the necessity for (and inevitability of!) one or two or 25 disturbed bipolars with enough energy remaining in them to to go emotional in the news media so that the public and the BC Ministry of Health become the supervisors of the evidently over-bloated College that is ironically able to hide under the banner of "We Are Here to Make Sure that This Sort of Crap Doesn't Happen to Patients in BC."