No thats totally not right, it should definately not be like that and doctors are too quick to prescribe them without every really explaining these things to people I think. there was an article I read in a magazine lately about 3 different women who have tried for years to come off valium and experienced terrible symptoms of withdrawal. when i was in my early twenties a doctor prescribed me prozac as I had been made redundant and was in a bad relationship and a few other bits and I got the prescription and kept the tablets in a drawer and never took them because I have quite an addictive personality and will admit that if something is working for me or I enjoy it then I wouldnt want to come off it and I would have been trapped in the same thing and didnt want something false to be controlling my personality for any length of time and decided that I had to work through it myself and come out the other side without it otherwise I would be addicted to it. my hairdresser has been on things for years and has struggled desperately to come off them too. I know that they are necessary in some cases and i am not in anyway saying that nobody needs them but i do think that if a doctor prescribes them then a patient should be in full receipt of all the facts first or maybe offered or guided to alternative therapies.
I hope I have put that all in the right way and dont come across wrong with what I have said...

I wish you all the luck in moving forward with this, if your own doctor doesnt think you can move forward I would seek a second opinion.

K