Garden died overnight. He did have a prescription to at van. One of the hardest things to detox from. Your hair is blowing off your head. We wanted to take a closer look at what people are saying about these drugs. I was shaking, sweating, thinking crazy thoughts. We uncovered a growing community that believes these drugs are holding them hostage. This is the prescriptions. Trapped in a virtual prison of the mind. Is there any room for error in this at all . To me its a life or death mistake. Even if you dont take them, you probably know someone who does. Do you remember how out of control your body was . I remember riding in the ambulance. For years america has been struggling with an opioid epidemic. Could benzoes be the next big killer . First hit the scene in the 1960s and quickly became immortalized in mainstream culture. When valium was popped like candy. Side effects are rarely encountered. Pain, ive never known pain like this ever and it never stops. This is what thousands of people are saying about benzoes today. I cant sleep. I have become the tremors never stop. Help me. There are thousands of these videos of people in desperate situation just trying to show the world what theyre going through while on benzoes. These videos are hard to watch. I was a productive member of society. Could they reveal something we all should know about this fdaapproved class of medication people have been taking for decades . Tom and Debbie Wagner had zero concerns when their 35yearold son jonathan was prescribed clonpen. Can you give us a sense of what jonathan was like . Jonathan was very loving, caring person. He loved being out with his friends. Super social . Very social. Very caring about people. Did he ever deal with any emotional issues . Was he ever depressed about anything . When his marriage failed, he was depressed. Of course, he got depressed, but it was normal depression. We all have ups and downs. But by early 2016, jonathan was enjoying a new lease on life. Several years removed from a divorce, he was saving money to help launch a family dream, their own food truck. Jonathan moved in here. He was saving money, and he was so excited. Jonathan worked as a floor manager at a casino trying to save money and still have a little time for a few rounds of golf with his buddies. In february of 2016, he was offered a night shift. So jonathan took a 5 00 at night until 3 30 in the morning shift. When jonathan couldnt fall asleep when he got home at 4 00 in the morning, he went to the doctor and thats when they put him on clonpen. Jonathan took one pill every day as prescribed for seven months straight. And it worked. Until he decided he could get to sleep on his own. He decided he didnt want to take a pill the rest of his life to go to sleep so he quit taking it. Just cold turkey, didnt consult the doctor . Just stopped taking it . Yes. Then what happened . It came on mild. He was like i dont know why im depressed. Then one week he started getting real anxious. He started saying his heart was racing. He thought maybe he was just having anxiety. So he went back to the doctor, and the doctor gave him xanax. Another benzo. Tom tells me his son didnt like taking pills on principle. After about a month he stopped taking the xanax, also cold turkey. All of a sudden, he cant function. Cant eat, shaking. Crying. At that point, were you thinking that it could be the medication that hes on . We had no idea. Were like jonathan, whats wrong . Their sons transformation left the wagners stunned. Just a few months before, jonathans life was full of promise. This is who jonathan was right before it all started. I mean, he just looks like a normal guy having a good time. And i have the video of jonathan after. I took this video not having the struggle. Where do you go from this point . Desperate for answers, debbie accompanied her son back to his doctors office. Im in there with jonathan. And the doctor looks at us and hes sitting in the round stool. And he turns around to us and says there is nothing i can do for you. Youre in withdrawals. At that point, jonathan and me are speechless. Im like what are you saying . What do we do . And he gave us a card to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist put jonathan on valium. I cant deal with it. I cant deal with it. As the months dragged on, jonathan was prescribed more medication. Tell me what is wrong . But nothing seemed to help. In fact, his symptoms became more alarming. At one point, debbie called me, and i left work because jonathan wrote a note. It was a suicide note. He said get the guns out of the house. I went in your closet and i was looking at your gun. How often was he having feelings of suicide . He had just said it keeps crossing his mind. He didnt know why. Jonathan was admitted to the hospital on suicide watch. It was during this time that he was taken off all his medication and prescribed an antipsychotic. After a few days, he was discharged. A month later on may 4, 2017, he told his mother he was going around the corner for some snacks. Ten minutes later he wasnt home. Call him. Im on my way home. Well, we know now, he went to the local gun shop up here and bought a gun. And friday there was a text that had come. It said that he loved us and to know that he was going to a better place. And i called and nobody answered. He shot himself. It was about six months from the time jonathan stopped taking it and began the downward spiral that led to his death. His parents have tried to move on, but they cant bear to touch his room. Is this the way it was left . This is how it was left. Nobody has been in here. The trouble is coming in here to clean it up, it has a psychological thing that youre cleaning him out, i guess. Is that a bible on his bed . He read the bible every day. Every day. At one point he asked me about suicide and whether it was a forgivable sin. And according to the bible, there is only one unforgivable sin and thats blasphemy of the holy ghost. It was the hardest question i had to answer in my life, because i didnt want to lie to him. And i knew by saying no that i kind of gave him a little bit of a license to do something. I couldnt lie to him and let him go to his death thinking he was a sinner, because he wasnt. Out of all of this, that was the hardest part for me, because i couldnt lie to him. I had to tell him the truth. There is no denying that jonathan took his own life, but could this tragedy have been avoided . And can anyone be held accountable . They had given him so much medication, we didnt know where to stop, what to take, what not to take. After my dvt blood clot, i wondered. Could another come around the corner. Or could it play out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling numbness or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planed medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be your moment. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Cdc guidance recommends topical pain relievers first. Like salonpas patch large. Its powerful, fdaapproved to relieve moderate pain for up to 12 hours, yet nonaddictive and gentle on the body. Salonpas. Its good medicine. Hisamitsu. Seeing what people left behind in the attic. Well, saving on Homeowners Insurance with geicos help was pretty fun too. Ahhhh, its a tiny dancer. They left a ton of stuff up here. Welp, enjoy your house. Nope. No thank you. Geico could help you save on homeowners and renters insurance. Between 1996 and 2013, the number of adults filling a benzo prescription increased from eight to nearly 14 million. I want to know more about these drugs, how risky are they . And how are we supposed to know . Ill go ahead and show you where these are kept. Mohammed works at a familyowned drugstore in the suburbs of chicago. We will always hand them these leaflets. Each prescription comes with a leaflet instructing patients on what they are about to gulp down. Avoid drinking alcohol, driving. Like most people, i casually glance through this kind of sheet. Tell your doctor if you have an allergy, feeling tired or weak, weight gain. These side effects sound so benign. By this point i probably would have tossed the insert, but if you keep reading, there is scary stuff further down. Low mood, depression, thoughts of killing yourself, nervousness, thinking that is not normal, anxiety or lack of interest in life. A lot of patients that are taking these medications for such simple things like sleep, anxiety, but little do they know once they start taking it that they can ultimately become suicidal. Once a patient becomes physically dependent on these medications, as soon as they stop that consistent dosing that they are taking, they can experience severe withdrawal symptoms such as tremors and even seizure which can be fatal. Do you get the sense that people read them . Thats completely on the patient. I can only emphasize the importance of reading them and understanding what can happen with the medications. So the Drug Companies do provide warnings. If you go online to the fda website there is more data from dosage size to potential side effects, an almost dizzying amount of information. When jonathan got the material that the pharmacists give, most people dont read through that. Do you think if he had or if someone had i think the paperwork is written very softly. It says it can create suicidal thoughts, its kind of washed over, as far as im concerned they say you might get bad thoughts. People when they get their drugs, theyre suffering. So they just want to get that drug inside their body. Tom raises a good point. How many of us take the time to really weigh the risks when were feeling at our worst . Isnt that where doctors are supposed to come in . I dont believe this doctor knew. How can you give out a drug that changes your brain and especially give it out for sleep, but never ever tell you what this is doing. I would love to tell the doctor this is what you took from me because of your ignorance. The wagners are adamant that jonathans nightmare started with the first prescription for klonopin, but by the time he took his own life he had been prescribed a cocktail of drugs ranging from benzoes and antidepressants to antipsychotics. This is medical records, prescriptions. This is a prescription that we ended up with. So over the course of seven or eight months, he was on all this stuff . Yes, all of this plus more. Valium, klonopin. At one time, i think he was taking seven or eight different pills a day. With so many prescriptions that could have contributed to jonathans state of mind, as much as you might want to, can you really hold one drug or any one doctor accountable . Did you talk to lawyers about taking on this case . Yes. Yeah, we called a lot of lawyers, a lot of them. Heres one list of lawyers that we had contacted. The wagners scoured the yellow pages in search of legal help. I want to speak to one of the lawyers who consulted on jonathans case. Hello. Hi, allen is a lawyer specializing in personal injury law. My take on jonathans case was i thought that there was something seriously wrong, but the reality with indiana was that if the decedent was not survived by a spouse or by children, the damages on the wrongful death were capped at 300,000. And to finance a medical malpractice case, the cost can be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire experts to have the files reviewed. It really wasnt a question of can we prove our case. Sadly, it was a question of the economics involved. So its kind of your hands are tied. Your hands are tied and your heart sinks to know that they think there was wrong, but there is nothing we will ever be able to do. My producers and i reached out to jonathans doctor and the Hospital System he works for. They expressed condolences to the wagner family, but declined to comment. While i cant talk with them, there is an expert on the forefront of this phenomenon. Dr. Anna is a practicing psychiatrist and has been prescribing medications like these for 25 years. What is the proper way to administer or prescribe benzoes . They are a great tool short term for anxiety and insomnia. When i say short term, i mean a couple of weeks. They shouldnt be used daily for more than two weeks. When we take it, it increases the calming neurotransmitter in our brain. It allows us to relax. The reason we dont want to use them more than that period of time is because the brain and the body adapts and then the body becomes dependent on them. Jonathan wagners doctor continued to prescribe klonopin for seven months. Major medical institutions warn against taking them for more than six weeks. What happens when you stay on them for longer . Could they be exacerbating the problem . Yes, yes, absolutely. They absolutely will make anxiety worse over time. As a result, what were seeing is more and more emergency room visits and more and more people dying. There has been a sevenfold increase in deaths in the past 15 years. Thats horrific. I think we have a very serious silent epidemic on our hands. Jonathan isnt the only one who has been harmed by benzos. There is an entire community. I felt like my mind had snapped, that i had just gone crazy. This is a rare meetup in the suburbs of chicago. They come from all walks of life, but one thing unites them. They or their friends and family were all prescribed a benzo. And for a multitude of reasons. The reason i was put on xanax was for my excessive sweating. My doctors put me on klonopin for hot flashes. I had mild anxiety and trouble sleeping. Few studies have been made on how many people are harmed by benzos but the manufacturers state that one out of every 500 patients may have suicidal thoughts or actions. What kinds of things were you going through when the symptoms were the worst . There is really not a day that goes by that i dont have a suicidal thought, but i try to fight it. I would just think i have to walk out in traffic and just kill myself. As they continue to share, Something Else emerges, trying to get off the drug can be another kind of nightmare. I felt so alone and isolated. This feeling of absolute terror. You lose all your friends cephali want to kill myself. Suicide. Suicide. It was like a water fall of symptoms. I was vibrating on the inside. I couldnt walk, because it felt like the floor was moving. I felt like i needed to run away from my own body. What do you do if the medication youre taking makes you feel bad, but trying to get off makes you feel even worse . It was like pure torture and nothing i did could stop it. Biopharmaceutical researchers. Pursuing lifechanging cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. I get to select my room from the floor plan. When i book at hilton. Com free wifi. And the price match guarantee. So with hilton there is no catch. Yeah the only catch is im never leaving. No im serious, i live here now. Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. What might seem like a small cough can be a big bad problem for your grandchildren. Babies too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough are the most at risk for severe illness. Help prevent this talk to your doctor or pharmacist today about getting vaccinated against whooping cough. My bladder leak underwear. Orried someone might seeist today so, i switched. To always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. And no one notices. Always discreet. Tthe bad news . Ouyour patience might not. Ay. New depend® fitflex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. Because, perfect or not, lifes better when youre in it. Be there with depend®. They can be taken to treat insomnia, seizures and stress, but their most popular use is for relieving anxiety. Anxiety disorders affect some 40 million adults in the u. S. Its what caused chrissy, a young mother of two to seek help several years ago. Have you always had issues with anxiety . No. I had normal human worries. I never experienced true anxiety until after my daughter was born. She would continually stop breathing just at random times. We spent the first few months of her life in and out of hospitals. And she eventually got better. But i didnt. For two years chrissy experienced chronic anxiety. It eventually became too much, and she made an appointment with her psychiatrist. He told me about klonopin. I can remember asking are there any weird side effects. He said no, it was a perfectly safe drug to take. How did it feel the first time you took it . I noticed right away it took away my anxiety. Finally relieved, chrissy was able to focus on raising her two children. But after two years on klonopin, she started to notice a change. The anxiety started to come back. And it was stronger than what i had experienced before going on it. I remembered going to the appointment and saying whats going on. I was told that sounds like your bodys intolerant. Youre probably going to need to take a higher dose. But chrissy didnt want to take more. She wanted to get off the drugs. She was advised to cut her dose by quarters over a fourweek span which lines up with what i have seen from manufacturers pamphlets. A few weeks after her last pill, chrissys life came crashing down. One minute i was me, and the next i felt like i was in a living nightmare. My ears were ringing. The inside of my body started to vibrate. It was like a motor was running on the inside of me. Thoughts started to come into my head, completely separate from me. It was thoughts of wanting to die. And i didnt want to die. It was telling me to go in the kitchen and get a knife, that it would take away my suffering. And its a very compelling thought. Its almost like that makes sense. That will take away my suffering. But at the same time, i knew, no, dont do that. Your kids need you. It was crazy. It was a battle. It was. And i can see how someone could lose that battle. Frightened, she went online looking for answers. I started to look up my symptoms, and everything i was experiencing was due to the klonopin, coming off the klonopin. Every single symptom i was feeling. It was an alarm bell moment, and it reminds me of jonathan wagner. Like chrissy, jonathans downward spiral didnt begin until after he stopped taking klonopin, in his case cold turkey, something even the manufacturers advise against. What happens to your brain when you suddenly stop a benzo that you have been taking for an extended period of time . So if we stop all of a sudden its like an excitatory nerve transmitter thunderstorm in our brains. Its a very uncomfortable feeling, restlessness, depression, heightened anxiety, motor tic