Ativan withdrawal worse or in my head

[[Mo...]]

Hi. I am new to this and am looking for some guidance or anyone else's experiences...not sure what is 'normal' during withdrawal which is a funny statement in itself.

 

My story isn't too long I don't think...I was taking for night time anxiety and over 6-8 weeks was up to 2 mg daily (between September and November) usually 1.5 at night and MAYBE .5 during day. It was sporadic at first. In the meantime I found out my thyroid was not controlled and was giving me anxiety and heart palps. So. I thought ok I don't need the ativan and stopped cold turkey...well for 2 days I was a mess and realized why. I reinstated the ativan, saw my primary doc for a taper plan, and here I am.

 

The doc is on board and has me tapering 1/4 every 2 weeks and stated 'This is not set in stone. We can adjust.' GREAT. So I did my first cut to 1.75 11 days ago and I felt better symptom wise in beginning than 11 days out! Is this normal?!? I have mild anxiety, jittery, and nausea in the morning ESPECIALLY!!! Also I have divided my 1.75 dose into 3...hate taking it during the day...but wanted to keep my levels somewhat even.

 

Will this get worse with each cut? Will I be this miserable all thru this taper?  I'm also mad because I am tapering longer than I was even on it!!! Should I speed it up seeing that I'm experiencing symptoms well after my last cut? AND...is it the ativan making me actually sick? What confusion!!!

 

Any experience/withdrawal relief/advice would be helpful. I've done Epsom salt baths and heating pads...which are great! No caffeine. I have 3 children and MUST function...can't sit in a bath tub all day.

 

Thanks so much in advance. MooseMom

[[We...]]

Welcome!

 

Ativan is a short acting anxiolytic that falls under the class of drugs called benzodiazepines. This short half life can lead to interdose withdrawal, meaning, by the time you take you next dose, you are effectively in a state of withdrawal. If this state of withdrawal is bearable for a few days, I would assume from your short use, it's about as bad as your withdrawal will get.

 

If you stay on the drug longer your body may continue adapting to the extra GABA in the system and begin shaving back your receptors to normalize what the brain deems unbalanced. As well, your glutamate system will begin to rise to offset the increase of the anxiolytic. This is why when you take the drug out of the equation the GABA/Glutamate system is tilted towards high glutamate (excited state) and you'll feel jittery, restless, sleepless and just plain out of sorts. The GABA system needs to normalize and the glutamate system needs to normalize as well, and this is anyone's guess on how long.

 

Here's a good article explaining it better than I can ...

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=66397.0

 

If you have no prior history of seizures, delusions, schizophrenia than I would assume there is no risk of the scarier symptoms and you'll feel heightened anxiety, loss of appetite and general malaise. Just a guess from my own experience.

 

Perhaps think of it as alcohol withdrawal. When people stop, they are anxious, sweaty, chills, trembling, inconsolable.

 

Generally the insomnia is the worst symptom, because as you taper it's harder to sleep, and lack of sleep just compounds the issue and slows healing.

 

As far as getting physically sick, yes, that is possible. Just as a drinker gets a hangover and pukes, it happens the same with this class of drug.

 

*Consult your doctor prior to changes!!!

[[Tr...]]

Moose,

 

I know you are anxious to get off this stuff, we all are.  But, cutting at 25% holding 2 weeks, is too fast and too high a cut.  Remember, as you reduce and you keep cutting at the same rate your percentage of reduction is higher.  So, when you get to .50 mg and you cut .25mg, that's a 50% cut.

 

You may do better to slow down and make smaller cuts.  Just a suggestion.

 

All the Best,

Tryq

[[je...]]

My doctor told me to simply break them in half every couple days & I'd be off them in 2 weeks.  That's after over a decade of daily Ativan use.  Luckily I found this forum which saved me from going crazy, because I was crawling out of my skin.

 

I recommend cutting no more than 10-15% per cut, which means the cuts get smaller as you go.  To do this I bought a .001 mg scale online for $30 or so.  Works great.

[[Ki...]]

Moose - our stories are almost parallel.....I've been tapering for 11 months after 2 years very sporadic use followed by 2 weeks of daily use while in hospital for a leg injury (Ativan prescribed as muscle relaxer). Anyway....there is no way to tell how this will go. Withdrawal is as u inquest as a fingerprint.

 

I was a mess from big cuts and tapering too fast at the beginning before finding this forum. It took me months to stabilize. Then I was pretty functional from about .60mg to .40mg and have been finding now the lower doses are giving me some trouble.

 

I think regardless of the amount of time you've spent on Ativan, you can only taper as fast/slow as your body will allow. If you can manage your symptoms then keep going. If you can't, then scale back. I base my taper/cuts on how well I function as I have young kids at home as well and they are my main priority. I also work full-time (in sales) but have had to scale back a little.

 

You may want to come over and join the Ativan thread. You can find it under Support Groups and it's called Tapering off Ativan Support Thread. There is also a support group called Moms Cafe where we discuss the difficulties of parenting through withdrawal. Please come over to those threads for support if you'd like.

 

Good luck, this is a tough job.....but everyone recovers