Need help: HUGE back pain while on 2 mg Ativan (lorazepam)

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Hello again Teologul!

It does sound like the combination of clonazepam, mirtazapine and zolpidem are helping on the short-term to get you more time asleep. To me, Lexapro sounds like a reckless addition to this med cocktail. Were you this dysfunctional before dropping the diazepam?

 

I'm not sure how medical care works where you are or in your circumstances, but in my life I hire my medical providers. I have federally subsidized health insurance so I'm not talking about out-of-pocket care, but doctors are still my hired care providers and while they may have medical experience and professional opinions, it's my body I've hired them for and I think it's my choice what I do based on their suggestions. And if I don't like how they're handling my care, I change doctors.

 

Reports I've read from other Lexapro users online indicate it's very common to experience significantly increased anxiety when starting or when increasing in dosage on this drug. It's my opinion that it is reckless to start a patient on a drug that triggers anxiety when they're already experiencing being "non-functional on Ativan", then rapidly crossed to clonazepam while ignoring the lapse in blood serum levels that then further impairs the patient's functionality.

 

From where I'm standing, you doctor doesn't seem to have made progress improving your functionality ever since they yanked you off of diazepam and started throwing more medications at you. It's up to you, of course, how you assess this care but if you ever decide that your doctor is making things worse instead of better I hope you will do what you can to protect yourself.

 

I'm of the opinion that medications don't treat mental health issues, they only cover them up at potentially huge long-term costs. I guess it goes without saying, I'm pretty disappointed in the care that you are receiving.

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What should I do? Stop the Lexapro? Go back to Ativan X3? After 4 days on Clonazepam and Lexapro? Try to taper everything very slow? PLEASE...

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What should I do? Stop the Lexapro? Go back to Ativan X3? After 4 days on Clonazepam and Lexapro? Try to taper everything very slow? PLEASE...

 

I understand how much confusion can be caused by both the complexity of these medications, their effects, their side-effects, their interactions, and their dosage adjustments. It's ideal to have a medical provider that understands all these things and is helping you to improve your health. Unfortunately, for many of us our medical providers have failed to offer us this quality or efficacy of care. However, no one on this forum can or is acting as your medical provider.

 

It would unethical, illegal, and negligent for myself or anyone else on this forum to tell you what you "should" do. Even doctors, in my opinion, would be wise to refrain from giving prescriptive instructions unless absolutely necessary. We all have health options, some of which are experiments involving medication such as to trial new drugs or adjust dosages, and I believe the final decision in all these situations should be that of the patient.

 

How can we make these decisions when we're not medical professionals? This is a very important question IMO, but maybe the better question is, why are we being solicited medical options that we cannot understand or manage? It's like being offered stock investments we don't understand; Warren Buffet, considered one of the most successful investors in the world, said his personal rule for investing is "only invest in things you understand".

 

I offer the same advice to you Teologul; I suggest, if at all possible, only accepting medical treatments that you understand. For example, do you understand the short and long-term risks of using a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor like Lexapro? Because if you dose it, you're betting that it will help more than it will hurt. Is that a good bet? Many antidepressant tapering resources suggest that it might not be. Of course, like with stock investing, this will depend entirely on your individual situation.

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/

 

My suggestion is to stabilizing your nervous system with the best long-term options you have available, while prioritizing short-term functionality and well-being. This can be difficult to do, and IMO why drugs like benzos are so dangerous when prescribed generously and adjusted recklessly.

 

I like clonazepam more than lorazepam for more stable blood serum levels. I personally would not start an SSRI while unstable during benzo tapering, and I would cease using one immediately if I'd started it recently and was experiencing decreased functionality.  I would hold on everything I was on, contemplate the decisions of myself and my medical care team which got me in this mess, and do whatever I could to avoid making these kinds of mistakes going forward.

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"SIX Mistakes I've Made in Withdrawal"

https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/topic/919-six-mistakes-ive-made-in-withdrawal/