Excuse the language, if it offends you, but this is important and 💯 fact. I am glad it is finally being exposed.

Yup, my doctor back in the day wrote me benzos for the first time when I was 21.
Never knew anything about the effects and withdrawals until I tried to quit years later… was on them for a very long time. Hardest thing I ever did in my life was experience the long term side effects from stopping taking them. So scary. Never knew I would experience such severe anxiety and suffering from something I was told was safe and was was on a dangerously high dose. It’s was absolutely agony and hell, but somehow I made it. Thank God