Benzodiazepine use/abuse is significantly growing and has led to a new healthcare problem known as “the Benzo crisis”.  Benzodiazepines, depressants that produce sedation and hypnosis, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and reduce seizures, are among the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medications, with more than one in 20 people in the U.S. filling a prescription each year. The most common benzodiazepines are the prescription drugs Valium, Xanax, Halcion, Ativan and Klonopin. 

Highly addictive and designed for short-term use (two to four weeks), this over-prescribed class of drug has become the third most commonly misused illicit or prescription substance among adults and adolescents in the U.S. This new epidemic is due in part to the prevalence of primary care physicians, that have limited training in treating mental health as opposed to psychiatrists, to prescribe these medications, often within a 15- to 30-minute conversation with a patient. A 2011 study showed that misdiagnosis in these kinds of primary care settings reaches 65.9 percent for major depressive disorder, 92.7 percent for bipolar disorder and 71 percent for anxiety disorder.

Matthew Smith, who has a doctorate in medical history, and is a professor and historian in social psychology and pharmacology at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, says that the all-too-common prescribing practices in the U.S. are partly due to the healthcare system—where, according to a report in September 2024 from the Census Bureau, 65.4 percent of Americans rely on private insurance.

“Private providers are not interested in paying for hours and hours of psychotherapy; they’re very willing to pay for a drug, because it’s cheaper, it’s easier,” he says. “And it’s also something that the drug companies are interested in as well.” Immediately putting individuals on pharmaceutical drugs is often the first resort, rather than the last, Smith says. As a result, far too many individuals are getting caught in an uphill struggle to wean themselves from medications with seemingly no end. Smith points out that the rise in psycho-pharmacology and the demise in psychoanalysis has led to the failure of addressing the role that poverty, inequality and other socioeconomic factors also play in people’s mental health.

Adam Jacobs, a successful businessman who manages billions of dollars in client assets, along with a team of 23 people at a wealth management firm, explains that when he tried to stop Klonopin, withdrawal symptoms completely took over any sense of control and often led him to relapse into depressive and physically straining cycles—an experience that would continue for 20 years.

“There are millions of people on these drugs and the anecdotes and the stories that you will hear is that these drugs are harder to get off than heroin,” he says. “The difference is that you can still function, unlike if you’re on heroin and you’re totally high and strung out,” he explains.

When trying to stop Klonopin, his withdrawal symptoms ranged from the commonly referred “head zaps”, to physical pain in the bones, muscles and teeth, and restless leg syndrome. Convinced there could be no end to the agonizing cycles, he contemplated suicide.

Fortunately for Jacobs, he found Dr. Judy Tsafrir’s office, where the course of his struggle would change through untraditional means. A board-certified adult and child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Tsafrir has practiced homeopathic psychiatry for more than 20 years and serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. She is the author of Sacred Psychiatry and consistently works with patients to wean them off of psychotropic drugs.

While her training is conventional, her approach is not. She advertises that her practice is dedicated to healing through integration of heart, mind, body, soul and the biosphere and cosmos. Her protocol consists of an anti-inflammatory keto-based diet, a Gupta meditation program, sunlight, time outside and occasional Ketamine sessions, alongside slow, carefully monitored, drug tapering. 

It’s been over a year since Jacobs started the protocols, and he says he couldn’t have ever imagined the mental place he’d currently be in. “I am more physically active, more present than I’ve ever been with my family, my work. It’s unbelievable. Even my thought processes are so different.” He expects the final stages of tapering to take place this month, adding, “You don’t realize, unless you experience it—that if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.”