#45: Barbara Connolly, PhD, Senior Admin Benzo Warrior Community 🇺🇸

December 20th, 2024 In this episode: Barbara Connolly, PhD is the Senior Admin of the Benzo Warrior Community. She is a retired professor of political science, she has lived experience with complicated withdrawal from both benzodiazepines and antidepressants, and truly understands living with complex chronic illness and pain, particularly Ehlers-Danlos and mast cell activation syndromes. Barb was herself badly injured in 2017 by a rapid taper off Klonopin after 22 years of prescribed use for muscle spasms, and didn't realize until much later that the resulting cascade of symptoms and disability was due to benzodiazepines. Because of that experience, it became important to her that others going through withdrawal from benzodiazepines get far better information and support. She has run Benzo Warrior Community for nearly four years with a terrific team of peers all of whom haved lived experience, and has helped thousands navigate their journeys through benzodiazepine recovery. BWC has about 4,500 active members in English-speaking countries all over the world, and features Zoom support meetings for members and caregivers alike. Barb hosts a speaker series for BWC about all things benzodiazepines, withdrawal, BIND, and recovery, featuring doctors, coaches, pharmacists, and survivors. She excels at connecting people with the resources needed to consult effectively with doctors, marshal support from family and friends, cope with difficult symptoms, and figure out all the logistics of tapering as well as managing food sensitivities. A member of the Benzo Action Work Group, Barb is one of the trainers for the benzodiazepine peer training and is interested in research on health care policy and benzodiazepines. She enjoys hiking, ballet, and politics and is grateful to be much-recovered and able to wander again in the great outdoors. Contact Barb about coaching services at this email: Barbara.Connolly.31@gmail.com Join Benzo Warrior Community here: benzowarrior.com To listen to the presentations from the speaker series, subscribe to the Benzo Warrior Community youtube channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3xdLrxubxjcAtB5eVyHCzw Discussion after the presentations is not recorded in order to protect privacy of attendees, so If you are interested in participating in the speaker series and the Q&A after, please join BWC.