Reducing faster than I expected

[[It...]]

13 days ago I realized I wanted to start a taper. I was hoping to work on reducing from 10mg Ambien and 2mg  Ativan to 5mg ambien and 1.5 Ativan quickly (within a week) then do a slow taper from there. Now almost 2 weeks later it has gone a bit differently. I'm pretty happy with what has happened but I would like feedback about my situation.

 

I have taken ambien 10mg for 2 years and Ativan 1.5 mg for 5 months but upped to 2mg in the 5th month. I sleep for about 4 hours naturally from 10pm to 2am so that's good. I take 10 mg ambien at 2 am which puts me to sleep until 6 am.  I then tried to go from 10 to 5 mg ambien right away which was pretty easy. Did it for 3 Days and the fell into a pity party one morning and dosed back to 10mg ambien. I have stayed there.

With the Ativan taper I went from 2 mg on february 8th to 1.5mg within a few days and stayed there for 7 days. I mostly  just felt some withdrawal in the last few hours before the next dose. That was very tolerable

And then a unique moment presented itself.

My 3 usual doses every 8 hours (.5 Ativan) were working but today I forgot my morning dose at 10am and ended up taking it at 2pm -twelve hours between doses (should have taken after 8 hours) I felt good extending the dose and still had just minimal withdrawal effects. I waited 12 hours again for my next .5mg dose which I took last night at 2am and it went well again. I feel good this morning so far.

 

1 mg total daily from 2 mg total daily in about 12 days

So far so good. Some interdose withdrawal but that's really all that's happening of note

To recap: 2 mg Ativan to 1 mg Ativan in 12 days with very minimal side effects.

Am I screwing up? What do I need to look out for? At the moment this plan is going easy on me. I would love some feedback

[[Pa...]]

If it feels good, do it!  Tapers are individual things, no two tapers are exactly alike so if you've found something that is working for you, keep it up.  I'd hold a bit longer before making another reduction of the Ativan and probably not attempt the Ambien until you're done with the Ativan. 

 

Just pay attention as you're already doing and keep up the good work.  Hold if you need to, cut when you feel you can and press on. 

[[RS...]]

I am a male, age 52 and I took 10mg Ambien as needed and 1mg Ativan daily for many years.

 

When I tapered, I was off the Ambien.  But if I had to do it over, I would have kept the Ambien until after I was free of the Ativan, just like Pamster suggested.

 

I did cheat once after jumping off Ativan and took an Ambien.  But it was my last pill and I did not refill the Rx.  I knew I wanted to focus on recovery and develop good sleep habits.

 

Take your time while tapering and mentally prepare for making a jump.