Credit: Matt Becker, CC BY 3.0
Stevie Nicks, the former lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, is very public about how prescribed benzodiazepines, taken as directed after becoming sober from cocaine, were devastating to her health, life, and career. Nicks says the last time she used cocaine on stage was during a concert at Red Rocks in 1986. It was a turning point for her. Afterward, she went straight to the Betty Ford Clinic. But in an attempt to help herself, she encountered a problem far worse than her cocaine problem—she became physically dependent on a benzodiazepine prescription. Fresh out a rehab, she reluctantly saw a psychiatrist:
I went to see a doctor just to check in with somebody and let everybody know that I was OK. I guess when most people go off cocaine they have a very hard time. I wasn’t one of those people, but he didn’t know that. So he suggested that I go on this drug for my nerves, and I just said OK to get everybody to leave me alone. Well, what a big mistake. I really wonder where I would be now, what I would have done if those eight years were full of creativity and love, and good things instead of full of nothing.
That psychiatrist would be the one to put Stevie on the benzodiazepine called Klonopin.
Nicks has described Klonopin as a “horrible, dangerous drug,” and said that her eventual 45-day hospital detox and rehab from the drug felt like “somebody opened up a door and pushed me into hell.”
“The only thing I’d change [in my life] is walking into the office of that psychiatrist who prescribed me Klonopin. That ruined my life for eight years.”
“The only thing I’d change [in my life] is walking into the office of that psychiatrist who prescribed me Klonopin. That ruined my life for eight years,” she said. “God knows, maybe I would have met someone, maybe I would have had a baby.”
“I was really sick,” she says. Even though her years of cocaine abuse left a large hole in the septum of her nose, she claims that the Klonopin did far more damage:
It was not my drug of choice…I’m not a downer person. I was looking for things that made me want to clean the house and shop, write songs and stay up for four days. I was sad and I was sick. I didn’t really understand right up until the end that it was the Klonopin that was making me crazy. I really didn’t realize it was that drug because I was taking it from a doctor and it was prescribed. It just hit me really hard that that was the foundation for why I was completely falling apart.
Stevie says she took the Klonopin for eight years, learning way too late that Klonopin is a dangerous drug that can also carry adverse effects like depression and weight gain:
My woman’s vanity could not deal with that at all. After being a rock ‘n’ roll sex symbol for all that time, and then all of a sudden to be ‘little fat girl’ was just so unacceptable to me. I could see the disappointment in people’s faces when they’d see me walk in…
Writers do not thrive on drugs like Klonopin and Prozac. It takes your soul; it takes your creativity; it takes your love of running home at night and getting out a typewriter or getting out your paper and pencil and writing something that you love. It takes that away. You don’t care anymore. So Street Angel [the album] was all about just not caring. And that’s horrible to me. One of the few things that I’ve never not done in my life is not care. And I didn’t care for a long time…
Doctors are dying to put you on drugs: ‘Feeling a little nervous? Here, let’s mask everything so you don’t have a personality anymore.’…The overwhelming feeling of wellness and calm equals blah, nothing. My creativity went away. The fabulous Stevie everyone knew just disappeared. I became what I call the ‘whatever’ person. I didn’t care about anything anymore. I got very heavy. One day I looked in the mirror and said, ‘I don’t know you.’ And I went straight to the hospital for 47 days…
It took 47 days for Nicks to detox from the prescription drug, and longer to recover from the damage:
…and it was horrible. My hair turned gray. My skin molted. I couldn’t sleep, I was in so much pain. Legs aching, muscle cramps…The rock star in me wanted to get in a limousine and go to Cedar’s Sinai and say, ‘Give me some Demerol because I am in pain.’ And the other side of me said, ‘You will fight out this 47 days’…
That doctor – he’s the only person in my life I can honestly say I will never forgive. All those years I lost – I could have maybe met somebody or had a baby or done a few more Fleetwood Mac albums or Stevie Nicks albums.
Nicks told Rolling Stone:
So I’ll never forgive him. If I saw him on the street and I was driving – well, I don’t have a driver’s license and it’s good, because I would just run him down.
I wish this had not happened to her. Hopefully, her speaking out has inspired someone to take action for change in their lives. American healthcare is too wrapped up in prescribing pills and/or surgeries. Not much compassion for mankind in those options. So many people go to their doctor, who carry their prescription pads on their bodies.
I can’t wait to see you in August here in Austin, Stevie
I never knew.
I just wanted to be better, my anxiety caused panic attacks,
imagine 13 years. only .01 mg nightly &
I never took the rest of my prescription. I only took it at night.
Somehow, I realized my vision, memory and twitching was absolutely from this medication. And then
my fight to get off this poison was a nightmare.
I tapered down to .05 for 6 months
then to half of that only for a week, my mistake i didnt want to be on it anymore, im now told i should have done .25 mg for another 3 months, therefore
much to my surprise…
I was in a state of depersonalization, as I read later. nothing was real. Paranoia, muscle spasms, heart racing, body temperature increase and decrease. no sleep… I did everything I knew in my soul to get through.
my one thought was that I knew I didn’t feel like that when I went on this medication, so this was a temporary feeling, I prayed and meditated.
practiced deep breathing. I couldn’t drive, sleep or eat. I made myself drink water and eat chicken noodle soup for 3 weeks. There was so much more to this month long withdrawal. which is the worst of it. every day after that is better and better. I know after taking this for 13 years for anxiety.
My words to anyone who wants to be off of their prescription. Absolutely, taper and be strong, have a plan, exercise, even just a walk. Expect to feel detached and know it’s temporary. Drink lots of fluids and vitamins, every day will get a little better.
Just know your body will recover and you will be better.
God Bless all
My journey to come off Klonopin has just begun and it’s a nightmare so far. I took .5 mg at bedtime for over 20 years. My neurologist originally prescribed it for Restless Leg Syndrome in 2001. My Current Dr was totally shocked I had taken this dangerous “addictive” drug for 20+ years.
The hardest part of detox is the lethargy from lack of sleep and the overall zombie effect, often referred to as depersonalization. I feel like a wobbly, walking waste case. I did 2 weeks at approx. .375 mg (cutting tablets) now on .25mg dissolving tablets. Dr wants me to stay at this level for 2 months.
Hope he knows what he’s doing, because I really feel Whacky.
Roche Pharmaceutical should be sued over development of this poison!
my wife has taken this junk for like 30 years it was ruined our family she will not stop taking it it should be fucking out loud like crack her hair when her cocaine or anything else that’s damaging to you and a family nobody should be on this longer than 2 weeks
I’ve been forced down to 0.5 milligram once a day with no warning. Only prescribed 0.5 mlg. 3 times a day as needed.Have’ nt slept for 3 days. So tired, feel like pulling hair out and I’ve chewed on 5 fingers and wearing Band-Aids on left hand,
all fingers, after 5 yrs. Too much, too fast
I believe the Author meant to write Cocaine, not Klonopin here:
“I guess when people go off Klonopin (cocaine) they have a hard time.”
It’s well-documented that Stevie did NOT have an unusually challenging time getting off cocaine.
Stevie, like so many dealing with the unimaginable horror of Benzodiazepine’s “Gotcha” moment and then rapid descent thereafter, was unprepared as to what she may experience at Home and going forward after she left the rehab facility for cocaine.
She might surely have have had some understanding of what may come, allowed “it” all, help onto her deep understanding that I am healing and this discomfort is Temporary.
She would have endured with grace and grit while remaining steadfast and hopeful in her Recovery.
No, no might. She would have.
The majority of Us would have.
She was drug-free and healing, ready to return to Love and her music.
She was also terribly weary and working Stevie-Hard to hard at finding her way back to Love.
Of. Course. She. Was.
Not at all her natural disposition. Other people missed the “old” ( on cocaine) Stevie and they suggested (pushed) her to see a psych doctor. Our Gypsy Goddess was simply trying to get her bearings and come back to Herself after all the work and healing she devoted herself to in rehab.
Stevie Nicks is a Warrior and my spirit animal.
Eternally grateful to Stevie for inspiring me along my way, as a person and as a musician. Rediscovering
her Music held me on my Journey.
Thank you, Ms. Stephanie Lynn, you will continue to walk alongside me as we handle the Seasons of our lives.
Can we? ❤️
Thank you for making this story public. It is horrible to take a drug as directed and not know the devastating effect it has on my life. It made me think I was dying, want to die and try to make that happen.
L.Cooper
I AM ON A DRUG SIMILAR IN THAT ONE HAS THE SAME EFFECT
SOMETIMES I JUST LOST