@BeyondtheRainbow:

Health care in Canada is funded federally but each province administers their own program, with their own policies and procedures. Ontario is fairly loose about benzos, tho they are getting tighter.

British Columbia is very unreasonable about supporting benzo users coming from Ontario because of the massive street drug problem in Vancouver. When i went there in 1999 i was on two milligrams of Clonazepam, and they refused to write me scrips for that much.

They would only write me two milligrams of valium, which was only 5% of what i was used to back in Ontario. There was no negotiating with the doctors there. So on top of all the stress of relocating on a tight budget, and with my private disability benefits appeal pending, coming off a , i was in what's called "protracted benzo withdrawal" the whole six months i was there.

It was really hair-raising. The provincial policy regarding benzos was restrictive and enforced, and no doctor would listen to reason. I fought with everyone. How i stayed out of jail i will never know. There's a lot of bad behavior in Vancouver, so i guess there were others behaving worse than me.

I was merely belligerent, never violent, so it was tolerated. I had a lot of friends, i didn't fight with friends, just anything to do with money, because i was so poor. So i'd fight with cashiers, bank tellers, sales people, bus drivers, etc. I got alone famously with friends tho as there is nothing to do there but socialize, when you're poor. I had so many friends i knew five guys named Bob. All guys tho. No women wanted to know me.

I didn't mind that much. I get on well with men. They wanted sex, but i'd just tell them firmly that it was not gonna happen, and they hung in there, thinking i'd change my mind, but i never did.

Of course, you're allowed to bring whatever meds you like into British Columbia, you're just not able to get a refill once they run out. I had a short supply of benzos when i moved there. I didn't anticipate having a problem getting a refill. It never crossed my mind that they'd have a restrictive policy. Remember, this was back in 1999 when there was very little knowledge about benzos. I thought they were just like any other med.

I got too poor while i was there to afford any meds at all. So by the end of the six months i was drug-free and skinny again. I lost ten pounds a month there. It was a very unpleasant way to lose weight, lots of nights i went to bed hungry. Also, i couldn't afford food.

It was a very intense time, good in many ways, but also a time of great suffering. It was hard hanging in there, never knowing if my private disability benefits appeal would shake out in my favor, or when they would, if the poverty would EVER end. I lost hope, and just lived because of the involuntary actions of my heart continuing to beat and my lungs continuing to breathe, etc.

But all of a sudden, my appeal was decided in my favor, and i went from having nothing but an apartment, no phone even, to suddenly have a chunk of cash in the high five figures and a middle-class income. I decided there were too many obstacles to staying on in Vancouver, so i returned back East, where doctors are co-operative, and homeowning was in reach.

It was the best decision health-wise, and financially, but i do miss the lifestyle of Vancouver, which is very neighborhood-oriented, and you don't have to have a car or take public transit, everything is within walking distance. The Spring there was lovely too, blossoms everywhere, verdant green grass, Stanley park and towering trees, the ocean, the kindness of strangers, the British immigrants, the parks on every corner, the constant conversation, the friendliness, etc.

Here it's more business-oriented, and services are better. It's more civilized, and overall it suits me better, because i LIKE Winter. It's sunny and refreshing. I'm decended on my dad's side by one of the first ever Canadians from 1650, and i just have The Canadian Sheild in my blood.

It was the best thing for me to return to Eastern Canada, but there were a lot of things i liked and miss about Vancouver. It's hard to have adventures here in Eastern Canada. People don't play as hard, they tend to work hard, and that's unfortunate for me, being on private disability benefits, and having a lot of time for play, but everyone is at work, or resting so they can go back to work.

I tend to end up associating with a lot of older people who are retired, and that can be tiresome, as i am only 58, and very young-at-heart. I spend a lot of time alone here, and i get lonesome. In Vancouver, all i had to do for company was walk a few steps to the park on the corner, and there was always someone to pass the time with. It's very isolating here, and that's a steep disadvantage.

My home is comfortable and i have two neighbors i am close to, one a senior woman who is still very sharp, and another, a 31-year-old man doing his Ph.D. in psychology, who is very woke, and fun, and up-to-date on the recovery movement. He's recently been diagnosed with PTSD from his work with victims, and on meds to cope so he calls himself "neurodivergent" now, tho his problem is not endogenous. He's very supportive and fun, but also very busy, and there's the age gap too. He's got an extraordinary dog, so loving and snuggly, we all fight to take care of his dog when he goes out-of-town.

So there's a bit of community animation here in the building. It's just that stuff like i tried to throw a luncheon party recently, and everybody was too busy. Stuff like that brings me down. In Vancouver, people would have fought to be invited, and stayed all afternoon.

When were you in Canada? What province? How long did you stay? Did you like it here?