I’ve been a drug addict since I was nine years of age. The drugs I’m referring to are prescribed every day by doctors for the treatment of everything from the common cold to more chronic illnesses and disabilities.

As I took more and more “pills” so my body craved them to the point of screaming out for them – literally. After for years of taking drugs without ever questioning what they were for I took it into my own hands to try and get off some of the high doses of highly addictive tablets that had been prescribed for me over many, many years.

Little did I know how difficult it would be to get off drugs such as – Valium, Dalmane, Rivotril all of which are now recognised as highly addictive drugs but all legal. Going onto these drugs was easy for me, I never had to steal money to get them. They obtained on foot of a prescription and dispensed by a pharmacist or chemist.

While I realise the potential benefits of some pills in the short term. Giving them to people over a long period of time is dangerous and causes such people to become legally drug dependent.

The battle to get off or even reduce my own intake of drugs is slow and painful, it involves profuse sweating, agitation, fear and of course the real danger of damage to vital organs.

There are organisations that help people to get of legal drugs – the difficulty is finding them. While I’ve very considerably reduced the amount of drugs I take in a day, I’m far from the day when I can declare myself clean of all drugs. Frankly, I don’t think I ever will.

BENZODIAZEPINES: HOW THEY WORK AND HOW TO WITHDRAW (aka The Ashton Manual)