Am I considered lucky to be only on a small dose of ativan ON & OFF for 3 years?

[[cn...]]

I don't know if this may help me in the long run with withdrawal.

 

But is it possible that since I was on (what people tell me is considered a low dose .5mg to 1mg when needed) over the course of 3+years... that my chances of a faster recovery is possible?

 

I was VERY careful when taking it.. b/c i too was afraid of physical addiction/tolerance w/d. etc. Well I guess it ended up happening anyways...

 

But a lady on the phone last night told me I'm lucky my Dr. didnt have me taking it EVERY DAY at 1mg or more. B/c she said that that would have made me tolerant so much faster and I'd probably be on like 3-4mg a day.

 

So my Q. is: Since I was an occasional user (and I should say, I'd take it for like 2 weeks at a time .5mg then wean down to nothing then a month or 2 would go by and if I had anxiety again I'd take it til my anxiety spell was over, then taper down.) Do you think my chances of recovery/healing should be expected to be faster?

 

Am I in the 30 days to 6 months range? of feeling better/healing completely?

 

I guess it's a dumb question? B/c we are all different huh?

[[Sc...]]

There's never a dumb question...don't worry about that. 

 

I think it is hard to say though.  I was an occasional user (under doctor's care) for 15 years before I took it for 2+ years on a regular basis.  I am now 2.5 months off and seeing signs of healing...and I had a VERY rough 10 month taper.  So I am sure you'll see improvement pretty soon after jumping.  Just keep in mind that it CAN take time to heal and that the healing process from Benzos is not linear.  And no 2 people are the same.  Try to remain as positive as possible...there's something to be said for waking up each morning and making yourself smile and tell yourself you ARE healthy.  I know it's helped me (at least i believe it has).  We are always here if times get rough...but I think you'll do fine. 

 

Patience is the key during healing and yes, it's hard to stay patient at times, but the less upset you get over it the quicker things seem to go in the right direction.

 

All the best to you,

Schatje

[[St...]]

From what I've seen, there's no rhyme nor reason for this. I've seen some suffer for many months that only took it for a few weeks to people that have quit cold turkey that healed up in a short time.

 

Somewhere here there is a link to a study that was done on time frames, I'll see if I can find it.  

[[cn...]]

Thank you BOTH for your responses! Great information! =)

 

Starbird, I'd love to see the link. That would be awesome.

[[St...]]

This is the link I was thinking. You can click the link in the post and look at a fairly recent survey, I'm not sure this will help you but it's interesting.

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=26324.0

[[cn...]]

Thank you! That is inspiring! I'm in the 20-29 range! So it gave me hope I can look forward to feeling good sooner! It says my average is 7.5 months. Hope that statistic is true for me! =) We'll see!

[[sh...]]

As you can see, I was a short term user---very short for this forum, and I am 4 months out now.  Truthfully, my ear is still clogged and I have lots of headaches and pains and some anxiety and fatique, but for the most part I am functional and able to enjoy life--mostly in the evenings when I feel pretty good. 

I think it is hard to say how long it will take us, I thought I would be better by now completely.  But I do see that the low dose folks didnt have to suffer through long difficult tapers and that is worth something.  Also, I notice that we seem to have windows sooner even if some of our symptoms linger. 

Even though I have had some setbacks when I thought things were getting better and new symptoms emerged, I never was a sick as I was in the early months.  Hopefully, I will continue on this easier path.  Hopefully, my ear will unclog (that is annoying)

Keep hoping for the best and know that you can handle it.  Time doesnt fly through this but it does trudge along if you focus on each day as it comes.

Shell