Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored – Aldous Huxley

I grew up in a town on the Jersey shore.  Having spent my entire childhood on local beaches, I never gave a second thought to our horseshoe crabs.  If you’ve never seen one, adults are quite large – up to 20″ wide and can be about 4 pounds.  They resemble metal military helmets, complete with large sharp tails. 

I took an out of town friend to the beach once and she was horrified.  There were dozens and dozens of these large animals laying on the beach upside down.  They get tossed there by the waves, and unfortunately, once on their backs, are stuck unless dragged out to sea again.

I will never forget Liz running up and down the beach trying to turn over all those horseshoe crabs to save them.

To me it seemed futile.  I never gave them another thought, except to place my blanket and cooler out of the death zone.

As I blog about benzos, and read what others have to say in their blogs, I am feeling that same sense of futility.  This morning I searched WordPress for the tag Ativan.  Numerous blogs came up and as I read many, I was saddened.  They seemed to all be celebrating the drug.  Some even acknowledged that they knew Ativan, a Benzodiazepine, would ultimately be damaging, but they were willing to take the risk.

I have also grown tired of my face to face interactions where people step back as I tell my story.  It’s not only rude, its clear that so many live in a world of denial.  People feel this could not happen to them, or could not possibly be true.  Our government, our medical professionals, would not allow this drug to be prescribed if it did what I and many, many others say.

That is scary.

I will never know if my time spent sharing publicly what I live privately has made an impact.  But, like my long ago friend Liz, this time I am running up that beach turning over those helpless horseshoe crabs.

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