Professional Sleeping For Cabin Crew

摘要

"I was the Purser, walking with the crew to the aircraft and we were stopped in the aerobridge for a random drug test. The Captain and I were tested, and we both passed. No alcohol or cocaine, but I was off my face on Zanax, a legal Benzodiazepine. Ultra Long Haul flights killed me. I was a walking zombie. I had been OK flying short haul, but when I started flying across the Pacific, I couldn 't handle it. I was going to have to resign. Then I was given one Zanax tablet, and I slept for 13 hours straight. Just what I needed. Just what the Doctor ordered. Soon I was Doctor-shopping, on a four year downhill spiral. In the end I could only sleep three hours at a time, and was taking Zanax just to "feel normal". I detoxed in hospital for 8 days ... and have been clean for 123." Those were the words of a Cabin Crew member, who, I must add; does not work for my old airline. 27 million Zanax prescriptions will be filled in the USA this year, making it the 23rd most-prescribed pharmaceutical medicine in that country.* And it was announced in Australia yesterday, that deaths from Benzodiazepine overdoses over the last 15 years are averaging 472 a year.