Tapering off Ativan Support Thread

[[Ha...]]

Luey, I'm so happy for you! That is fantastic news about getting so close to the end of your taper and feeling so good.  It really gives me hope. 

 

For me, the lower I get the harder it gets, but I know this process is different for each person.  I am just looking forward to eventually being free of this poison and hopefully getting myself back. 

 

Every time I try to understand the math for the microtaper it makes my non-mathematical head tired, so I just keep dry cutting and hoping I am reasonably accurate.  I do wonder if that is making the taper harder.

 

Haimona

[[be...]]

Hi buddies,

  I’m sorry to be so sporadic the last few weeks - something about this ‘last mile’ has me really turned inward. I am down to .05mg, and I am feeling pretty good. I do have symptoms, but they are mild compared to earlier in taper. I’m praying this is a good sign for what’s to come. Welcome to all of the newbies - I hope you are finding help and answers here. Please keep asking questions and finding support here and on the forum. I know I would have never made it through taper without this group.

Luey, congratulations! It’s almost time! Thank you for sharing your wisdom. You’ve helped me more than you know.

 

Love and light to all. I’ll check back in again soon.

 

Beauty

 

[[Ju...]]

Hello to all,

So much happy news in here.

 

Luey!!!!!! I am so so excited for you!  If anyone deserves an easy graceful slide at the end it is you.  18 months of incredible courage.  An inspiration.  I will be sad to see pass the baton but well deserved to now enjoy life benzo free.  You have helped so many as you went through your own taper.

 

Lisa-you are soooo close!!!!!!

 

Beauty-You are almost there!

 

Marwegs -Splitting doses can be tricky and for me almost like a cut. Slow and easy.  I have mine in equal doses and it seems to work well for me for now.

Ld-My smooth sailing turned a bit stormy I’m afraid. To be honest the last 4 days have been pretty rough but I am still making it some how. I think my days of cuts have caught up with me too. I have put the brakes on and holding. Hoping for the seas to calm again.  I will be taking the turtle pace from here on out.

Want- you are moving right along.

 

Wishing you all a peaceful evening.

 

JuJuBi

 

[[Wa...]]

Luey,

 

Congrats! How awesome to be close and feeling well. Truly happy for you.

 

Positive thoughts from Big Sky Country😀

[[ld...]]

So happy for you Luey. You deserve this.

 

LD

[[kr...]]

beautyfromashes-

you are coming to the end.. we are all rooting for you and Im right behind you..

[[Ma...]]

Luey - reading your posts just make me smile - you are so close, congrats! I hope my journey matches your, in that it gets easier as I lower.... fingers crossed!

 

JuJuBi, I had a rough day, but I think it's because I evened out my doses to .25 3X a day.... body is adjusting I assume. Sorry to hear you're in a rough patch. I admire that you listen to your body... I am struggling with patience. But realize that quality of life is more important, so trying to let go of the timeline.

 

Haimona - I am struggling with the daily micro taper calculations too, moreso weighing such precise amounts! I am considering the DLMT for this reason, as it's getting so much harder to cut such tiny amounts!

 

BeautyFromAshes - so so close... you must be so relieved.

 

Goodnight from Beautiful BC!

[[Ha...]]

Marwegs,

 

I see in your profile that you bought a scale.  Are you doing precise measurements "dry"? I might try that.  For some reason, in addition to my math struggles, the liquid taper worries me.  I worry that somehow the A would be losing efficacy in the liquid.  It is definitely hard to be precise the way I'm doing it.  I'm tapering gradually from .375 to .312 now (I make the cut twice a week for 2 weeks, then 5x a week for 2 weeks, then fully cut in week 5, or at least that's the idea.  Right now I'm still in week one and have had two nights at the lower dose).

 

Haimona

[[...]]

Thanks everyone!

 

Haimona, Did you read the READMEFIRST sections for Jim Hawk's computer app.?  I had to read it several times and have a friend read it for me to discuss.  That's where I got the best overview and afterwords I did my own simple calculations.  I am doing Daily Liquid Micro Tapering (DLMT) making my own solution using vodka as a solvent.  I got my symptoms under control when I switched thus my bias towards it.

 

http://benzo.alwaysdata.net/

 

Good night,

 

Luey

 

 

[[Ma...]]

Marwegs,

 

I see in your profile that you bought a scale.  Are you doing precise measurements "dry"? I might try that.  For some reason, in addition to my math struggles, the liquid taper worries me.  I worry that somehow the A would be losing efficacy in the liquid.  It is definitely hard to be precise the way I'm doing it.  I'm tapering gradually from .375 to .312 now (I make the cut twice a week for 2 weeks, then 5x a week for 2 weeks, then fully cut in week 5, or at least that's the idea.  Right now I'm still in week one and have had two nights at the lower dose).

 

Haimona

 

Hi Haimona

Yes, I am dry cutting using a scale. It’s definitely a challenge to get exact numbers, but I’ve tried to be pretty consistent. I too worry that liquid will have an adverse effect for me. I’m ridiculously sensitive and have been reading an old poll that Jim Hawk had posted about how people handled the switch... definitely mixed reviews, and made me more nervous to switch. For now I will continue with the dry cuts, it seemed to work for Powerball and beautythroughashes 

Keep me posted on how you do!

[[ld...]]

I know everyone is different, but I am in Luey's camp. Switching to DLMT really helped me in so many ways, especially at low doses.

 

LD

[[kr...]]

I hope I am in the home stretch now..  last night and today I finally feel better.  When I cut from .50 to .25 I had a few bad weeks but did not up-dose, I stuck it out and now on .19 and so far I feel better.  I did get the liquid but its a 2x concentrate and kinda scared to switch at this point. I may ride it out with dry micro-cutting with a scale, I am going to try to reduce .01 everyday and see how it goes.  I only take my dose at night before bed and don't seem to have interdose withdrawals.  I still consider myself a short-termer and still feel my dependency grows even during my taper which is why I want off this nasty med so bad.  I am hoping beginning of Aug I can walk away

[[be...]]

Kry, everything you’re saying sounds so familiar - I know those feelings well. Follow your symptoms and get the heck out of dodge! Very good luck to you on your last mile!!!

[[kr...]]

beautyfromashes

wow .05  Please keep posting how you are doing even after you jump... I am right behind you..  how are your symptoms as you start going very low dose..  I hope my brain is starting to heal the lower I go..  that's why ct is not good..

[[be...]]

I have been fortunate - my symptoms have been less intense (and sometimes non-existent) the lower I’ve gone. I hold when they are strong, and I move as soon as I have a few good days. Everyone is different with this, and I don’t take a moment for granted. I will stay in touch after I walk off, and I hope to be more of a help to others then too. For me, tapering below .2 became a very personal journey, and I had to break from the thread for days at a time this past month. I just found that I did better and had a clearer mind with a bit of separation.

 

Keep going, kry. You’ll be done before you know it.

 

Beauty

[[Ma...]]

Beautyfromashes

 

Can I ask how you managed your doses? Forgive me if you’ve already answered this, my brain is so foggy... I am dosing 3X a day in even doses, but wondering how to do it once the doses are tiny. Any insight would be so appreciated!

[[be...]]

Marwegs, I have dosed in three equal doses for most of my taper. I began my taper dosing twice a day, but I found three helped with the interdose withdrawal symptoms I was having with only two.  I dry cut using the scale - weighing each dose individually - all the way down until all of my doses weighed .03g. Past that, I questioned the accuracy of the scale, so I switched to water titration. See my signature for more details.

 

Best wishes,

Beauty

[[Ma...]]

Thanks Beauty! So helpful 

[[Ha...]]

 

 

Haimona, Did you read the READMEFIRST sections for Jim Hawk's computer app.?  I had to read it several times and have a friend read it for me to discuss.  That's where I got the best overview and afterwords I did my own simple calculations.  I am doing Daily Liquid Micro Tapering (DLMT) making my own solution using vodka as a solvent.  I got my symptoms under control when I switched thus my bias towards it.

 

http://benzo.alwaysdata.net/

 

 

Luey, I'm not sure I did! I will try again.  I blame it at least partly on benzo brain/sleep deprivation, but I think my eyes have always had a tendency to glaze over when things get too "number-y," lol. 

 

Marwegs, thank you for weighing in on the liquid versus dry cutting question.  Which scale did you get? Do you like the one you got?

 

Today was a definite struggle day for me; I was so tired and foggy and jumpy.  But I got through it! Thank you all for the support and suggestions.

 

Haimona

[[Ma...]]

Haimona, I bought this one on amazon:

 

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RZRC78Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I wish it came with a little tray or cup but I have improvised and use a small piece of parchment paper before I hit TARE. There are probably better ones, but it does the job. I just make sure no breeze or fan on because it really affects the reading.

[[Bi...]]

Hello Team A,

 

Just wanted to check in and say hi to everyone. I’m so thankful that I can see us light at the end of the tunnel now. I’m investing a lot of time building my coping skills. Mindfulness, Acupunture, Chi Gong, Breathing exercises, and epsom salt baths. One thing that I have more of in this pandemic is time. I’m using it to focus on my health.

 

I do have difficult symptoms, but I am so blown away by being awake, alive and alert after so many years. Everything about my life except for the symptoms is so much better. The most stubborn symptom I have is fractured sleep. It seems very common in this group. Does anyone know why our sleep is so affected?

 

Encouragement to all. We can do this!

Bibs jo

 

[[ld...]]

I just watched this and thought it was very powerful and validating. I would recommend.

 

 

LD

[[Gi...]]

I just watched this and thought it was very powerful and validating. I would recommend.

 

 

LD

 

I'm afraid to watch this.  While I'm sure it is validating I fear it may affect me psychologically and make withdrawal worse. Sometimes knowing the worst case scenarios is not good for me. G

[[po...]]

Good evening all. I thought I check back in with My Ativan (poison buds). I am in day 23 of my Xanax cut after the first three days I have been sailing. I was going to stay on my first cut dose, but things have gone so well, I am going to do the same cut after 30 days. Hi Beauty I see you are almost there. I dry cut all the way down to 0.01 and was trying to go to 0.005, but the crumbs made it ridiculous. So, like I said, I never jumped at all. The dose just went away.

 

Kry, there have been very few of us here who only took Ativan for sleep. According to my messy diary, it looks like at 0.22mg I began micro micro cutting 0.01mg every 4th day, I cut so slowly because I was horrified of having any symptoms return. I had gone months with no symptoms. My Xanax group is so small but I am working with it. This Group is very lucky. Others got split up in the reorganization and lost a lot of dynamic support (my Xanax group for one).

 

One benzo down, one to go. Since I am going to Zihuatanejo Mexico Christmas week (if still alive from Covid) I will not be tapering December. My tentative dose to have 1 mg of Xanax just disappear is February. I hope all is well. And you Luey? Good night all. Powerball.

[[ho...]]

I am currently beginning my tapering from ativan and was wondering if anyone has experienced what I can only describe as brain zaps? Also what about phantom smoke smell? Does this sound familiar to anyone withdrawing from ativan?