If you are looking at this site you are probably wondering who I am and who am I to offer any kind of advice to you.
To my horror, I realize that I am going to be 72 this coming February, 2022! But I am getting healthier and stronger every day….I’m pretty sure that it might be hard for you to find someone who actually improves as they age but here I am!
I was very lucky to have the assistance of two wonderful doctors during and after my withdrawal. I met one of these doctors at a weekend workshop when I began to get very sick. I saw him again recently as his patient and he described me as a ‘miracle’. He said ‘Coby, when I first met you, my prognosis for you wasn’t very good but now I can see a wonderful future for you.’ He talked about the many changes that I had implemented that brought this miracle about. It was such wonderful confirmation that my program works!
I’ve recently married a wonderful man whose name is Lewis. My life now is so very different to the total dysfunction that I lived around 12 years ago. I told myself that things couldn’t get much worse and that there was only one way to go but up and that is how things have gone – up!
February 14, 2022, marks 12 years of me being benzodiazepine free after a 35 year dependency mainly on Mogadon but later Halcion and Valium. Along the way I have struggled with adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia, PTSD and debilitating migraines in addition to the usual long list of benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms.
I’ve been an Art teacher and middle school administrator for most of my life and I am also a qualified Life Coach, hypnotherapist, and EFT practitioner. For various reasons, I decided to retrain myself so I went back to university (while I was withdrawing) and this has enabled me teach English to migrants and refugees. My working days were very long but I love the worked and I loved my students… and I think they loved me in return.