Former government press secretary and RTÉ presenter Shane Kenny is on a mission. And it's a mission that has arisen out of an extraordinary and traumatic medical experience which drove him to the point of even considering suicide.
The experience arose in the most bizarre fashion, when he was diagnosed with an inner ear condition called Meniere's disease, symptoms of which can cause severe tinnitus, vertigo and vomiting.
"As the tinnitus was beginning to ease, I started to get these other really strange symptoms. After exercising one morning, I had this terrible fullness in my ear. The effect was like drowning. Drowning in sound… That was the start of sound sensitivity, which I thought was Meniere's, and I restarted taking the odd diazepam."
But whatever about those symptoms, it was the reaction to the drugs he was prescribed to counter the condition that really sent Shane on a downward spiral.
Those drugs were members of the benzodiazepine family of drugs, a family of drugs which includes diazepam, and are present in commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals marketed as Valium, Xanax and Atvian.
"These drugs, the family of benzodiazepines, can cause long-term side-effects. For the majority of people who suffer from the side-effects, they do go away. But for a significant minority, like me, they can go on for years and years. Mine are still going on. I've got these electric pains shooting through my legs."
For Shane, it was his experience of Valium, containing diazepam, first prescribed to him in 2001 (although he didn’t start taking it until 2008 – and then for only a short time before side effects began) to counteract the symptoms of Meniere's disease, that led to the most painful side effects, turning his life upside down and leading to the point where he even registered with Dignitas, the Swiss-based assisted suicide facility.
"I registered with Dignitas online but I very quickly discovered that you had to do go through incredibly complicated processes to be accepted."
Thankfully, Shane was able to come back from the brink, although he still lives with the side-effects of the drugs he was prescribed. He is convinced that the over-prescription of Benzodiazepine drugs is widespread and is having a devastating effect on people across the Western world. And to highlight the issue, he has now made a documentary entitled Benzodiazepine Medical Disaster, featuring personal stories and some hard-hitting clinical re-evaluation of the use of these drugs.
To listen to the full interview with Shane Kenny, click here.