Quote Originally Posted by rum dick View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

I've actually been fascinated by his plight. He really had a good thing going, but apparently wasn't someone who was quite ready for all the pressures that come with fame -- especially fame for being somewhat of a spokesman for one political side, which he kept insisting he wasn't.

I know the major catalyst to his benzo abuse was the stress of his wife having cancer, which of course would be highly stressful and depressing for anyone. What followed was an unfortunate tale of medical quackery and bad decisions in attempt to fix other bad decisions. The fact that he seems somewhat influenced by his batshit crazy daughter doesn't seem to be helping matters.

He actually seems like a good guy. Loyal to his wife. Everyone who has ever worked with him at the university has had good things to say about him. Seemed to honestly want to express his real views, even once he got famous. Just made a serious of bad personal life decisions which put him in a mess.
The whole I'm a genius psychiatrist who was prescribed valium and got addicted because I didn't know hardly anything about valium and was just following my doctor's orders excuse doesn't pass the smell test. He's a psychiatrist who presumably prescribed valium to his patients before.

Btw Google the story about his daughter having a hip replacement when she was a teenager because she had a misdiagnosed food allergy. Wtf?

He's weird. His family is weird.

If he got some lazy millennial males to leave their basements and grow up, then bless him.
Well, he's a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, so that's not quite as bad. I did, however, wonder the same thing as you. How could he not have been aware of the dangers of taking the pills at that frequency?

I think he was probably aware, but was a mess and kept doing it.

I will say that some doctors will prescribe benzos for everyday use. It's bizarre. I've had conversations with people who were told it was okay to do this, and I kept insisting to them that they were making a huge mistake. You really should let 72 hours pass after each usage of benzos, or otherwise you're taking a big addiction risk, and it can come on very quickly.