Review of I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can

Yes Valium is addictive, but there's addiction and dependence. I'm not sure if Barbara Gordon was a victim of malpractice or addiction. I've had GAD for years. Started when I lost my mother at age 35. Right out the gate, my Primary Care Dr.put me on a SSRI. After 7 different ones, I ended up in the ER. The film is based on the memoir of Barbara Gordon, a successful Documentary filmmaker who is living with her alcoholic boyfriend who's Therapist who puts her on Valium. I'm allergic to pretty much every SSRI med for anxiety! My Psychiatrist put me on Valium in 2007. My mother took Valium. In the film, Barbara Gordon seems to need more and more of Valium to get through her day. Either she or her Therapist keeps upping her dosage. She finally has a nervous breakdown. At this point she's several pills a day. She's trying to finish a Documentary that is never addresses how she's related to the women she's doing this for, but it's implied she has a connection to her, just isn't explained. The star of the movie is Valium as there's holes in the plot! I take my Valium like my mother did. Some days I take 2 10mg tablets, others I don't take it, and then there's days that I need 3 to 4 tablets. Generally when something serious or bad happens, like the day my husband got a melanoma diagnosis. The sedative effect is low now as my tolerance has built up, but the anxiolytic effect of the med still works fine. It's the only alternative that has worked! You can't just quit this medication cold turkey or you have rebound anxiety and/or seizures. SSRIs are not the "miracle drugs" without addiction they claim and millions of people are on them. The ending of this movie is exaggerated as her Therapist wants to put her on Thorazine. She decides to go cold turkey and fights with her alcohol boyfriend who keeps her captive in their apartment. Her withdrawal symptoms are overwhelming. She eventually is heard by friends who call the apartment and hear her screaming for help. They rescue her and she enters a treatment center. It's like the film is trying to keep people who need these meds from getting a Rx for them. I've never read her memoir and what I know about Barbara Gordon is from this movie. The movie over exaggerates the dangers of a drug that has been demonized as abusive and addictive. Drs. Created the same problem w/pain meds and made them hard to get. Not everyone who uses pain medication uses it everyday. Movies like this makes it look like everyone who takes med's stigmatized as addictive, have lumped the abusers into the same group of people who take as prescribed or as needed. It's like smoking, you have to want to quit in order to be able to quit!