I am going to take a 30% cut and will keep you all updated (hopefully)

[[Le...]]

Well I'm down to .3725mg daily of Ativan and I cut my next liquid doses to .25mg daily. I know it doesn't sound like much. I considered dropping it all because I am so sick of this. I don't know how this will affect me. I just want to start this post and I hope to be able to update what happens because it has always been so helpful to me to have support from those who actually experience this incredible journey. If I do anything besides change cat litter and pay bills, I'd like to update this post. And best case, I won't go through much. Keep fighting! and thank you all.

[[li...]]

Good luck. I hope it works out well for you.

[[Ca...]]

Best of luck...

-let us know...

-20% wasnt much fun, -but early days for me...

Hope u sail through it...

[[Le...]]

Thank you for the support and encouragement! I have taken 17-20% cuts in the beginning and went down HARD. So I'm not sure what might be coming. I started at 6 a.m. this morning so it's still early and I still feel alright. I had to do this for myself because I seemed to be getting paradoxical effects and going into tolerance w/d after a week with small cuts. So I figured hey lets see what this does. I am posting updates for information only. I know we are all different and not much is known about why benzo tapers have the effects that they do. If one person finds this helpful or interesting, that's good enough for me. Will be checking in again soon!

 

Lemonpez

[[...]]

Good luck hope you will just sail trough it and keep us posted

 

[[be...]]

Keep us posted and good luck. Expect the best which really helps me a lot and I'm doing better the lower I get so trusting you might as well. Not anticipating trouble before it hits sometimes is the best approach.  B

[[be...]]

The lower I got in my Klonopin taper the better I felt. So good luck to you although I had to slow my taper down towards the end. To me a daily MT was the key, I believe.

 

Betsy ❤️

[[Le...]]

Well I'm 36 hours in and don't feel too much different. I slept all day today, which was weird. I have some twitching and a good amount of mental fog, but I'm very much OK. Glad to hear many of you had it easier at the lower doses. I cancelled all my appointments for January and just plan to rest and get the basic chores done and if I can jump earlier than I planned, that would be fantastic! 

 

-Lemonpez

[[Ca...]]

Good to hear ur ok!!!

Rest up, dont over do it at all...

Good luck...

[[be...]]

Well I'm 36 hours in and don't feel too much different. I slept all day today, which was weird. I have some twitching and a good amount of mental fog, but I'm very much OK. Glad to hear many of you had it easier at the lower doses. I cancelled all my appointments for January and just plan to rest and get the basic chores done and if I can jump earlier than I planned, that would be fantastic! 

 

-Lemonpez

 

  glad you are doing great!!!

[[Fe...]]

Good luck! 

[[wa...]]

Hi Lemonpez,

 

What made you think you had paradoxical reactions to your med? I often feel that way with mine. Almost 1 hour and 30 min. after my dose I get the worst anxiety and it lasts for a long time. I start to feel better then my next dose is due. This is typically when I am holding dye to synptoms.  But if I cut too fast I get muscle tremors and my sleep suffers. Its a freaking conundrum.  Plus my mind races like crazy. Looking forward to your next update.

 

Thank you for the support and encouragement! I have taken 17-20% cuts in the beginning and went down HARD. So I'm not sure what might be coming. I started at 6 a.m. this morning so it's still early and I still feel alright. I had to do this for myself because I seemed to be getting paradoxical effects and going into tolerance w/d after a week with small cuts. So I figured hey lets see what this does. I am posting updates for information only. I know we are all different and not much is known about why benzo tapers have the effects that they do. If one person finds this helpful or interesting, that's good enough for me. Will be checking in again soon!

 

Lemonpez

[[be...]]

Lemonpez terrific. B :thumbsup:

[[be...]]

Hi Lemonpez,

 

What made you think you had paradoxical reactions to your med? I often feel that way with mine. Almost 1 hour and 30 min. after my dose I get the worst anxiety and it lasts for a long time. I start to feel better then my next dose is due. This is typically when I am holding dye to synptoms.  But if I cut too fast I get muscle tremors and my sleep suffers. Its a freaking conundrum.  Plus my mind races like crazy. Looking forward to your next update.

 

Thank you for the support and encouragement! I have taken 17-20% cuts in the beginning and went down HARD. So I'm not sure what might be coming. I started at 6 a.m. this morning so it's still early and I still feel alright. I had to do this for myself because I seemed to be getting paradoxical effects and going into tolerance w/d after a week with small cuts. So I figured hey lets see what this does. I am posting updates for information only. I know we are all different and not much is known about why benzo tapers have the effects that they do. If one person finds this helpful or interesting, that's good enough for me. Will be checking in again soon!

 

Lemonpez

 

I had the exact reaction to my Klonopin. It revved me up and then I knew it was paradoxical to me. Then the lower I got the better I felt. When I got off it I was pure calm.

 

Betsy

[[be...]]

I'm clearly this way on 9 mg only left of Valium. Tomorrow thinking not a .5 cut but 1 mg. I really need to get off it. All revved up then crash. Ok for about one hour in 4. We'll as close to  normal as possible but still very symptomatic. Just not as bad. Then repeat, repeat repeat. Im seriously contemplating jumping from 5 mg if necessary. I'm better the lower I go. No idea if this is actually a true paradoxical issue but the stuff after each dose feels like poison. hate it. B

[[Ca...]]

This sounds horrid... way worse than my 'a bit yuck' which might have eased now i take it in the evening... (not sure yet)

Barb, -to make u consider jumping from 5v, it must b hell indeed... but u hide it so well with all the support and encoaraging words so full of wisdome and compassion...

All of u have helped me so much to start climbing out of a hole, and done while u have so much to contend with yourselves...

You are teaching me -if at first u dont succeed, -then try again...

A Huge thanks to all, and i so hope u can find a smooth way through such a tormenting thing as having to take a med that is so unwanted and loathed...

Best wishes, -you all are so strong.

 

 

[[Ge...]]

How are you doing Lemonpez ??

[[wa...]]

Benzogirl thank you for your response. I just keep tapering because regardless of my reactions that is what I need to do to get off. I had genetic testing and my results showed I was an ultrarapid metabolizer of Valium. Clonazepam showed that I metabolize it well based on liver function but it would not show if I would react to it negatively.  Don't want ro risk a crossover. I am so sensitive that I am afraid I would not respond well to it, then what? Somedays I just feel stuck. Ugh.  Hope you are getting some sleep. My sleep suffers already and I am not even halfway off. I hate this drug.

 

Warrior

 

Hi Lemonpez,

 

What made you think you had paradoxical reactions to your med? I often feel that way with mine. Almost 1 hour and 30 min. after my dose I get the worst anxiety and it lasts for a long time. I start to feel better then my next dose is due. This is typically when I am holding dye to synptoms.  But if I cut too fast I get muscle tremors and my sleep suffers. Its a freaking conundrum.  Plus my mind races like crazy. Looking forward to your next update.

 

Thank you for the support and encouragement! I have taken 17-20% cuts in the beginning and went down HARD. So I'm not sure what might be coming. I started at 6 a.m. this morning so it's still early and I still feel alright. I had to do this for myself because I seemed to be getting paradoxical effects and going into tolerance w/d after a week with small cuts. So I figured hey lets see what this does. I am posting updates for information only. I know we are all different and not much is known about why benzo tapers have the effects that they do. If one person finds this helpful or interesting, that's good enough for me. Will be checking in again soon!

 

Lemonpez

 

I had the exact reaction to my Klonopin. It revved me up and then I knew it was paradoxical to me. Then the lower I got the better I felt. When I got off it I was pure calm.

 

Betsy

[[wa...]]

Benzobarb,

 

I understand your frustration. It's so hard to know if we are truly paradoxical because these drugs make some of us feel extra awful. Just keep tapering and listening to your body. I get a lot of mental symptoms,  they are the worst for me. I pray we all find peace and the strength and courage to continue this battlle.

 

Warrior

I'm clearly this way on 9 mg only left of Valium. Tomorrow thinking not a .5 cut but 1 mg. I really need to get off it. All revved up then crash. Ok for about one hour in 4. We'll as close to  normal as possible but still very symptomatic. Just not as bad. Then repeat, repeat repeat. Im seriously contemplating jumping from 5 mg if necessary. I'm better the lower I go. No idea if this is actually a true paradoxical issue but the stuff after each dose feels like poison. hate it. B

[[Le...]]

Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting in a few days. I had really productive day on Tuesday and maybe I over did it, because for the past few days I've been foggy and for some odd reason very sleepy and not walking.

 

warriorforlife - To answer your question about paradoxical effects, I seem to get worse nerve pain and muscle twitches about 60-90 minutes after my dose and if I dose and fall asleep, I almost always wake up exactly 90 minutes after I dosed. The medication should be calming my nerves and helping me sleep. So, I feel like I'm getting nothing from taking it and that's why I'm trying this larger cut at the end. At the beginning, I could feel when my dose would hit and could judge how "stable" I was by how many hours of peace I would get in between. When I started taking smaller cuts in October, I started slowly going downhill... couldn't seem to hold at all and was symptomatic all the time.

 

GeorgeVI (and everyone else) - Thank you for thinking of me and for all the support!

 

So far, it's been about 5 days and I don't feel a whole lot different. I already was having a lot of mobility issues from the smaller cuts the past few months so being in pain and sitting here with my feet locked up just can't bother me right now.  My other symptoms flared up slightly and I got extremely foggy and tired but if this weekend goes well and things don't get worse I'm going to drop down again. 

[[me...]]

Lemonpez, are you still on Ambien?

[[Le...]]

Yes, I am still taking Ambien, unfortunately. I cut them into quarters and take them throughout the night and try to only take 2 or 3 quarters.

[[me...]]

You might want to consider holding on the Ativan for a while and getting rid of the Ambien first. I know it seems counter- intuitive, but most find it much easier to get off Ambien while they have a longer-acting benzo in the background to "cushion" it. Also, as you probably can feel, Ambien causes wild swings in your blood levels that can make it really uncomfortable, and this will not improve as you pull off the Ativan, it will get worse.

 

Yes, you can cold-turkey Ambien, but if you are multiple dosing, this may not work so well. Multiple dosing creates more dependence than a single dose with this drug. Ambien is pretty much impossible to taper on it's own. You will have horrific insomnia and other side effects on the way down. The longer-acting benzo will enable you to taper it, often quite rabidly. In fact you might consider a bit of an updose on Ativan as you drop the Ambien.

 

If you are interested I could give you a few names of others who have had this situation.

 

[[Le...]]

Thank you meowie! I would love that information! I just heard of Ambien referred to as a "baby benzo" last summer. And then, I saw it listed as a benzo when I started using this site. I don't hear many talk about it so I am thankful for whatever you can help me with when it comes to Ambien.

[[me...]]

 

GABArecptors and gardenlady both got off Ambien, tapering Ativan, try this thread at about page 166:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=97331.0

 

Grapejuice crossed to Valium from Lunesta (similar z-drug) and dropped, is tapering Xanax:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=130265.0

 

Some of the others did cold-turkeys off a z-drug with a benzo back up--such as alabamwerle, workinitout, bennijets. In your case (multiple dosing), I don't think that is a good idea, but a fairly rapid taper is likely possible.