Death Grip: A Climber's Escape from Benzo Madness

Bruce Lee famously delivered a "one inch punch" with enough power to blast volunteers back from his closed fist, swept off their feet by the force of Bruce's impossible power and refined technique. A similar experience awaits the unsuspecting reader of Matt Samet's "DEATH GRIP", a confesional tale unlike any other climbing-oriented writing that I can think of.For comparison, I point to Mark Twight's Kiss or Kill, in which layers of socialization, tolerance, self-esteem, and interest in living long enough to grow old are peeled back to expose the frayed edges of a soul sharpened through the process of pushing past all limits. Twight's writing defined the event horizon of intensity in climbing writing for many years until now; while Samet's tale is much less focused on the details of particular climbs, the grinding brutality of the years that Samet lived in the grips of benzodiazepam addiction and detox makes Twight seem like a sunny morning paging through pictures of cute cats.Death Grip is unique in its virtuosic choice of words, which sent me scrambling for an unabridged dictionary more than once, its subject matter, which has not been even hinted at within the sphere of climbing literature, and for its unflinching honesty. Matt Samet has bared his soul in an approachable and at times terrifying manner-you sense at numerous points in the narrative that yourself and your friends and family could easily have been swept into the riptide of Big Pharma toxicity and head control that very nearly destroyed the author.Without doubt, this book is a monumental acheivement personally for the author, as well as an important read for anyone who's life has been shadowed by depression and the myriad traps set by our mental health "system" has set for the unsuspecting patient for whom a brief slip from the well-lit path of normalcy can become a nighmare slide into a lurching ocean of terror and isolation.Read this one, share it with a friend. Death Grip deserves reckoning as one of the most significant non-climbing narratives by a climber, and has potential to spread awareness about issues that are very likely to become more common as benzodiazepam prescription rates continue to climb.

The writer is very narcissitic and whiny, self-pitying to the worst degree. The prose is extremely flowery and well, just, BAD. As Mark Twain said, "Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” We get it, Matt, you got an 800 on your verbal SAT.But the worst part is the way the story is framed. The author blames the medical community for all his problems, for his anxiety and his addiction to Klonopin, shaming an industry and a drug, that when used responsibility, has helped many people. BUT THEN, audaciously, he goes on to describe years and years of illegal drug abuse (Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, and all mixed with binge drinking) and extreme dieting that predated his psychiatric treatment, not EVER acknowledging that any of that could have been the cause for his downward spiral, rather than those oh-so-evil doctors who stepped in later when he finally thought to get help. When the doctors do not treat him exactly how he thinks he should be treated, he becomes a whiny know-it-all, despite zero medical training. He blames everyone else for his problems without ever taking any personal responsibility, and seems to crave applause just for writing about what a truly horrible human being he is. There is not a shred of humility in the whole book, actually, most of his descriptions of his low points come across as him bragging about how much awful stuff he went through.The author paints himself as a "guilty, broke and uninsured thirty-something leech" (his words!), relying on his wealthy father to pay for inpatient treatment, therapists, private yoga sessions and a massage therapist all to deal with his self-induced drug addiction. If you are interested in reading a book written by such a person, go right ahead, but I would not recommend it! Save your time and money, there are plenty of better reads in the mental health department. The book is the opposite of uplifting, in fact, many of his long-winded descriptions of his travails were very stress-inducing.Also-I would not recommend this one for rock climbers, as 99% of the book relates to mental health and drug abuse rather than climbing. The parts that are about climbing mostly involve the author bragging about what a hotshot he was in 1990s Rifle. There are so many climbing memoirs out there please do not waste your time with this one!

Matt's account of Big Pharma, doctor's overt lack of benzodiazepines unfortunately describes the truth in modern medicine, because I've experienced similar experiences, albeit I've never had to take an anti-psychotic like Seroquel because when my last doctor suggested using it during a dose taper with diazepam using a perverted form of the Ashton Method, I fired him on the spot because these doctors do not know how to adequately titrate someone who is physically dependent on benzodiazepines. Hell first primary GP stated as long as I paid he would prescribe. Tranquilizers in the modern age are engineered to really make you a life long patient as he explains and for a lot of other medications as well such as SSRIs and the treatment of heroin with methadone. But benzodiazepines are nothing to play around with and I wish too I had never touched them 15 years ago when they were and still are being given out like candy without informing the potential patient of the serious side effects with long term usage. I'm happy to see people like Matt write books like this to make people aware of the serious side effects and they also provide a ray of hope that I too can survive in a post-benzo world.

So good. I saw myself on every page. A book full of hope.

so scary, don't start on these drugs if you can help it. Try everything else before drugs.

Thank you for this book which is for me the most interesting autobiography for benzo withdrawal .It pût me on hold till thé end and it could be such a good info on this subject , where innocent person are trapped and manipulated by ignorant psychiatrist .I whist it would be translated on frénch because thé style is not easy!