I believe there’s a lot more to it than we know about, perhaps even the doctor’s who prescribe these meds didn’t have all the necessary facts. In the past several years I’ve been in a constant struggle with my doctor about the Ativan, he was reducing my dosage without discussing it with me, this action set me back a lot. I was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 and combined with the pandemic I was a total wreck. I sometimes stressed more about what he was doing to me than everything else because the Ativan was my anchor, even more so now. I feel my relationship with my php is not working and I feel trapped. We have a serious shortage of doctors and nurses in Ontario, Canada not to mention the doctors today won’t easily prescribe these meds and rightfully so but what is going to happen to those of us who have already become victims of this drug. I wish to point out that there are many who have gotten off Ativan but it’s like you said, we have this drug imprinted in our brain and so we must always protect ourselves from getting involved with drugs like this…for those of us that are using them, all I can really say is don’t give up on yourself and do not be too hard on yourself, you had help getting into it and you will find help getting rid of them. I’d also like to confess that I prefer to use them since I have tried so many other choices with no success…