Georges Marcoux was well on his way up the corporate ladder when he was hit with unbearable stress and anxiety.
When he couldn’t sleep, he went to his doctor, and was given a prescription for Oxazepam, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety.
It helped, and he ended up taking the medication every day for 35 years.
“It was a routine,” he said. “So I never asked myself why. Never asked myself, should I stop it?”
He says over the years, no doctor or pharmacist ever questioned why he was taking the drug, which can be habit-forming and increase the risk of accidents.
Marcoux said it wasn’t until he started learning more about the side effects of the drug he was taking that he decided he needed to stop.
“I could fall, I could have problems with driving,” he said. “I also had five brothers and sisters that died of Alzheimer’s, …