Tapering off Ativan Support Thread

[[Di...]]

Still at .625 mg Lorazepam...anxiety is horrible don't know what to do.  I'm taking .25 mg at 9:00 a.m., .125 mg at 2:00 p.m., .25 mg at 10:30 p.m. I sleep pretty well.  Not many windows lots of waves!  Need help.  Thinking about titration.  Thank you.

[[...]]

Hey Diane.

 

I can speak to my experience in the last few weeks.  My titration is similar to yours.  I was really stuggling first on 1 dose a day then on 3 doses a day.  It wasnt until i split the dose 4x a day (upon waking, lunch, before dinner and at bedtime) that I finally got over the severe anxiety part.  For me it seemed to be interdose withdrawal.  Once I fixed the interdose issues I was able to start tapering with much less symptoms. 

[[Di...]]

Thank you JBen that gives me hope.  Good luck to you.

[[Gi...]]

JBen,

Thanks for sharing your experience.  Tomorrow I will split my daily dose into four.  I'm hopeful it will help. G

[[Ha...]]

Hey buddies,

 

Today was day 2 at my new dose of .285 mg.  So far (fingers firmly crossed!) I am feeling a little clearer, a little less muddled and foggy.  What a gigantic difference it makes! Even though I barely slept last night, I feel okay today.  I'm praying this is a window that will last a while, or maybe even the beginning of things easing up as I get lower.  Not too much to hope for, is it??? In any case, I'll take this moment gladly.  I walked for an hour tonight.  I'm tired now, but it's okay.

 

Sending support and encouragement and well wishes to all of you, 

 

Haimona

[[2c...]]

Well I’ve got my first reduced (3%)dose measured out for  at least 14 days. I’m going to start with morning dose and tomorrow is day 1! 

 

Even though I feel pretty bad, I feel a big relief to actually start.  I’ve been preparing, gathering info, deciding I’m what I think is the best way for me for the past few months and I feel ready.

 

Thanks to many people on this site.  It’s been an invaluable resource both for the help with taper plans etc and also gearing up mentally and emotionally.  I know I can depend on continued support.

 

Here we go!

[[Ha...]]

Good luck, 2 cats! I have found it very helpful to weigh my doses and make the 3% reductions.  We can support each other in this journey to healing.

 

Haimona

[[2c...]]

Haimona

Thanks!,

Yes, please!  I have been keeping up with you.  It was your thread asking for tapering schedule that I latched onto and got me going on the specifics of a taper.

 

I am trying to get into a mindset of self-care and self forgiveness.  I have always beat myself up for not realizing what was happening to me or I should say, allowing it to happen. I know it wasn’t my fault. That part is done.  I’m also trying to be as positive as possible and look forward. :)

 

 

[Guest [...]]

So I'm new to tapering off Ativan!

 

I'm a short time user, only used consistently for a few weeks in July until Trazodone worked.

Then I dropped quite quickly (3 weeks) and didn't realize what I was feeling was wd symptoms.

 

I reintroduced a daytime dose a month ago, which seems to be keeping some symptoms at bay.

 

I ordered and finally got my liquid Ativan today and took my daytime dose.

 

My question for those who use the liquid, which suspension agent do they use?

I had them use MCT oil, as I have so many food intolerances, since I had antibiotics in the spring.

I'm finding that this oil gives me some symptoms of feeling "revved up".

 

Does anyone else feel this?

 

I can't use olive oil, as that's worse.

 

Any thoughts, suggestions?

 

thanks

WinnieDog

 

 

[[Ap...]]

Hello everyone, I had to take a 4 months break from benzobuddies but I am still here. It has been an extremely rough time for me. I have updated my other thread with what I have gone through.

 

Here is that thread:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=247876.0

 

I miss you all and hope you guys are holding strong. This is the most insane thing by FAR that I have ever dealt with. I ended up jumping at .165mg of A on July 10th which was unplanned.

[Guest [...]]

I'm so sorry for everything you've been through these last few months!

 

For what it's worth, what you wrote could have been me!!

 

I tried most of those drugs and have experienced most of what you wrote!

 

I find that a small dose of melatonin (< 1 mg) around 8 pm helps get me tired.

 

I hope that you find something that helps.

 

WinnieDog

[[sm...]]

Hello everyone, I’m new here.

 

My daughter passed away in 2019 so my obgyn prescribed me 1mg of Ativan before bed. I was cutting my 1mg of Ativan into 1/2 every night and took that for about a year, year and a half. My panic attacks were becoming much worse and increasing as time progressed, so my PCP decided to put me on Prozac about two months ago, she also cut my dosage of Ativan down by 1/2 to 0.5 since I was already taking that dose anyways, which in turn caused me to cut my dosage down by 0.25mg because I wanted to take less of the medication.

 

This was when my withdrawal symptoms began, but I had no idea what was happening. My panic attacks were still increasing, which was causing me to take more Ativan during the day just to get through. I was cutting my pills into 1/4’s. I was also experiencing (recently) severe brain fog, hot / cold sweats, increasing panic attacks, feeling like I’m constantly on a boat, some nausea, and severe muscle and joint pain. I found a group on Facebook and later realized I was going through withdrawals.

 

After being obsessive and doing extensive research on the Ashton manual, I decided to do a micro water taper after stabilizing myself on the 0.25mg dosage. Tonight was my third dose and I am already feeling so much better as the dizziness / boat like feeling is subsiding. I also lasted reasonably well until about 5pm when my withdrawal symptoms progressively got worse, so I took my water mixture and finished it between 5-7:30pm. I am planning on asking my pcp / psychiatrist if they can switch me to a liquid Ativan so I can taper slowly, as my pcp recommended I taper 25% every two weeks which I KNOW will be too quick for me. I have been following my body and it’s cues so I know when to begin my taper.

 

For my taper, someone helped me come up with a taper plan that I feel comfortable with and I would

Like to run it by you guys since I have no idea what I am doing lol. I will dissolve a 0.5 tablet into 100ml of water, then split that up into two separate dosages which makes 0.25mg per night before bed. Once I begin to taper, I was going to remove 1ml of water / day. Do you guys have any suggestions? I’m terrible at math. I don’t know exactly when to stop my taper or

whether I am going too fast but I will make sure to listen to my body with this one. I refuse to take any more pharmaceuticals after this horrible experience. Thank you for reading my story and it makes me feel less alone knowing I’m here with all of you.

[[Ap...]]

Update, Pamster moved my detailed update to here:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=247876.0

[[su...]]

Hello everyone, I’m new here.

 

My daughter passed away in 2019 so my obgyn prescribed me 1mg of Ativan before bed. I was cutting my 1mg of Ativan into 1/2 every night and took that for about a year, year and a half. My panic attacks were becoming much worse and increasing as time progressed, so my PCP decided to put me on Prozac about two months ago, she also cut my dosage of Ativan down by 1/2 to 0.5 since I was already taking that dose anyways, which in turn caused me to cut my dosage down by 0.25mg because I wanted to take less of the medication.

 

This was when my withdrawal symptoms began, but I had no idea what was happening. My panic attacks were still increasing, which was causing me to take more Ativan during the day just to get through. I was cutting my pills into 1/4’s. I was also experiencing (recently) severe brain fog, hot / cold sweats, increasing panic attacks, feeling like I’m constantly on a boat, some nausea, and severe muscle and joint pain. I found a group on Facebook and later realized I was going through withdrawals.

 

After being obsessive and doing extensive research on the Ashton manual, I decided to do a micro water taper after stabilizing myself on the 0.25mg dosage. Tonight was my third dose and I am already feeling so much better as the dizziness / boat like feeling is subsiding. I also lasted reasonably well until about 5pm when my withdrawal symptoms progressively got worse, so I took my water mixture and finished it between 5-7:30pm. I am planning on asking my pcp / psychiatrist if they can switch me to a liquid Ativan so I can taper slowly, as my pcp recommended I taper 25% every two weeks which I KNOW will be too quick for me. I have been following my body and it’s cues so I know when to begin my taper.

 

For my taper, someone helped me come up with a taper plan that I feel comfortable with and I would

Like to run it by you guys since I have no idea what I am doing lol. I will dissolve a 0.5 tablet into 100ml of water, then split that up into two separate dosages which makes 0.25mg per night before bed. Once I begin to taper, I was going to remove 1ml of water / day. Do you guys have any suggestions? I’m terrible at math. I don’t know exactly when to stop my taper or

whether I am going too fast but I will make sure to listen to my body with this one. I refuse to take any more pharmaceuticals after this horrible experience. Thank you for reading my story and it makes me feel less alone knowing I’m here with all of you.

 

smoOthi3z,

 

I am so sorry for the loss of your daughter and that you are now in this position.  The good that I see here is that you recognized the withdrawals and have been doing research to help you begin this taper.  Unfortunately I was not in that position and ended up a bad situation before understanding that a slow, patient driven, symptom based taper is the way to go. I was already crashing hard with my Dr's taper before I found this site.  I did finally slow things down at the end, and I can say that once I really listened to my body, the rest of my taper, albeit almost near the end anyways, went much smoother.   

 

Although I did get a Rx for the liquid Ativan and got help here figuring out how to dilute my solution, I was already so far down in my dose and afraid of switching and adding another unknown to the mix so I continued dry cutting all the way down.  However, there are other Buddies here that have been successful crossing over to a daily liquid micro taper.  I hope one of them will chime in with some advice on your taper plan.  I ended up stopping at .05 and the few weeks post jump were no different in symptoms.  I know a few here who DLMT'd went even lower before jumping.  You definitely will have the advantage of controlling how much you cut and in smaller, more exact increments doing the liquid taper. 

 

You've found a good place here to use as a sounding board during your taper.  Wishing you luck as you progress down!

 

Amanda 

[[...]]

Hello everyone, I’m new here.

 

My daughter passed away in 2019 so my obgyn prescribed me 1mg of Ativan before bed. I was cutting my 1mg of Ativan into 1/2 every night and took that for about a year, year and a half. My panic attacks were becoming much worse and increasing as time progressed, so my PCP decided to put me on Prozac about two months ago, she also cut my dosage of Ativan down by 1/2 to 0.5 since I was already taking that dose anyways, which in turn caused me to cut my dosage down by 0.25mg because I wanted to take less of the medication.

 

This was when my withdrawal symptoms began, but I had no idea what was happening. My panic attacks were still increasing, which was causing me to take more Ativan during the day just to get through. I was cutting my pills into 1/4’s. I was also experiencing (recently) severe brain fog, hot / cold sweats, increasing panic attacks, feeling like I’m constantly on a boat, some nausea, and severe muscle and joint pain. I found a group on Facebook and later realized I was going through withdrawals.

 

After being obsessive and doing extensive research on the Ashton manual, I decided to do a micro water taper after stabilizing myself on the 0.25mg dosage. Tonight was my third dose and I am already feeling so much better as the dizziness / boat like feeling is subsiding. I also lasted reasonably well until about 5pm when my withdrawal symptoms progressively got worse, so I took my water mixture and finished it between 5-7:30pm. I am planning on asking my pcp / psychiatrist if they can switch me to a liquid Ativan so I can taper slowly, as my pcp recommended I taper 25% every two weeks which I KNOW will be too quick for me. I have been following my body and it’s cues so I know when to begin my taper.

 

For my taper, someone helped me come up with a taper plan that I feel comfortable with and I would

Like to run it by you guys since I have no idea what I am doing lol. I will dissolve a 0.5 tablet into 100ml of water, then split that up into two separate dosages which makes 0.25mg per night before bed. Once I begin to taper, I was going to remove 1ml of water / day. Do you guys have any suggestions? I’m terrible at math. I don’t know exactly when to stop my taper or

whether I am going too fast but I will make sure to listen to my body with this one. I refuse to take any more pharmaceuticals after this horrible experience. Thank you for reading my story and it makes me feel less alone knowing I’m here with all of you.

 

Hey there.  I am on the liquid Ativan taper, 0.1mg/1.0ML.  Worked with my doc and a compound pharmacy to get the right dosage/ML.  The math is really easy with this formula and I dont have to mix myself. 

 

At first I was taking 1x a day then 2x a day.  It wasnt until I split the dose to 4x a day that my wd symptoms went away.  The liquid and 4x has been right for me. It is only when I try to go to fast - like this weekend - that the wd comes back and strongly.

 

I am only a month new at this too so learning every time I make an adjustment.

 

[[su...]]

So I'm new to tapering off Ativan!

 

I'm a short time user, only used consistently for a few weeks in July until Trazodone worked.

Then I dropped quite quickly (3 weeks) and didn't realize what I was feeling was wd symptoms.

 

I reintroduced a daytime dose a month ago, which seems to be keeping some symptoms at bay.

 

I ordered and finally got my liquid Ativan today and took my daytime dose.

 

My question for those who use the liquid, which suspension agent do they use?

I had them use MCT oil, as I have so many food intolerances, since I had antibiotics in the spring.

I'm finding that this oil gives me some symptoms of feeling "revved up".

 

Does anyone else feel this?

 

I can't use olive oil, as that's worse.

 

Any thoughts, suggestions?

 

thanks

WinnieDog

[/quote

 

WinneDog,

 

So sorry that you are in a situation to be welcomed to the tapering from Ativan club but glad that you were able to find this supportive group.  I was in a very short-term use situation before the benzo went south on me, and it happened quickly--July was a nightmare month for me along with most of August until I got stable.  You sound fairly stable and I'm glad to hear that most of your symptoms are at bay, especially being able to dose only once a day (I had to dose 3xs a day to keep interdose withdrawals at bay because of Ativan's short half-life).  I am not familiar with the appropriate suspension agents, although I did get a Rx for Lorazepam Intensol Oral Concentrate USP which was able to be diluted with water, but I chose to continue dry tapering the rest of the way.  Hopefully some of the other Buddies here can help you out with this one. 

 

Best wishes in your continued taper! 

 

Amanda

[[sm...]]

Thanks guys for your replies! I’m going to speak with my PCP today about ordering liquid Ativan. My question is, if I dosed during the day to avoid interdosing withdrawals how would I split up 0.25 into 3 dosages? I’m already severely sleep deprived becsuse I have an infant, so I’m not super worried about not sleeping haha but I guess anything is possible. I think the mornings and evenings are the worst for me honestly, so maybe I could split the 0.25 into two doses instead. How does one taper down from those though? Do I taper one dose at a time? Do I still taper every day, or do I taper every couple of weeks? It’s so confusing. Thank you! Sorry that we’re all having to deal with this.

[Guest [ba...]]

The timing of doses is a personal decision.  I took benzos solely for insomnia.  If that's what you're taking Ativan for, then you might stick with a single bed-time dose.  It depends a lot on your daytime symptoms.  You may be able to get thru the day without splitting doses.  Only you will know your needs.

[[su...]]

Hello everyone, I had to take a 4 months break from benzobuddies but I am still here. It has been an extremely rough time for me. I have updated my other thread with what I have gone through.

 

Here is that thread:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=247876.0

 

I miss you all and hope you guys are holding strong. This is the most insane thing by FAR that I have ever dealt with. I ended up jumping at .165mg of A on July 10th which was unplanned.

 

April10th,

 

After gleaning through your posted thread, it is not difficult to understand the pain and fear that you must be feeling right now.  I am so sorry that you are in this nightmare, especially after getting off the Ativan (which is a HUGE accomplishment).  It sounds like you have a good support network at home though--which cannot be underestimated.  Your wife sounds a lot like my husband who had to take the reins on everything--including caring for the kids--on top of working a high stress job when I was in bad shape.  It took it's toll on him, and I still have immense guilt over this, but I am sure your wife's strength will persevere like my spouse's did. 

 

I wish I had some insights to give that might help with your current situation, but I don't have any experience with antidepressants; however, I have come across other BB's who have shared their stories with antidepressant use prior/during/after benzo withdrawal.  I truly hope that you get some good advice or reassurance from those who have experienced something similar as you.  What is evident is your own strength when you say you are not giving up the fight.  That focus and mantra will get you through this--and your family. 

 

Take care and healing thoughts,

 

Amanda

[[2c...]]

Day 3 of taper and all my positivity is waning. 

I woke up today with severe headache, diarrhea, throbbing gut, all over pain, nausea and of course this crazy back pain. 

 

I didn’t think I’d have this severe of symptoms so quickly. Only doing 3% cut. 

 

Not so positive at the moment.

[[Ha...]]

Hi 2Cats,

 

I had most of those symptoms a couple of weeks ago, and it turned out to be a stomach bug (white rice, applesauce, bananas, and plain toast helped, along with lots and lots of tea).  I have heard that those can be related to benzo withdrawal, but I try to remember that we can still get other things while in withdrawal.  Hang in there! I have mostly felt better since the most recent reduction ... We will get through this together!

 

Haimona

[[2c...]]

Thanks Haimona

 

I appreciate the encouragement 

Just set up some more Physical Therapy with a wider scope of therapy to maybe address the back pain.  I realize some of it or most likely from withdrawal but I still believe the basic problem was there first.  Hoping to get at least some relief. 

Also my 2nd appt with acupuncturist today might calm my system down a bit. 

 

Thanks again .  Hope you are doing ok today.

[[Bi...]]

Hello Buddies,

 

I have not been on as much the last two weeks. I think it's because I am doing well and I am keeping very busy. I've been feeling like I've turned a big corner towards healing over the last week. I'm feeling good more often and my symptoms have been consistently less intense since I switched to liquid ativan. I've also taken on a leadership role in my local Celebrate Recovery fellowship, and have meetings now two nights a week.

 

I'm spending 1.5 - 2 hours every morning doing a "power mix" of listening to worship music, breath work, qigong, and mindful meditation. I am clearest and consistently feel my best, and usually symptom free in the early mornings. But hands down, the one thing that has helped me the most during this journey is my Celebrate Recovery fellowship. I highly recommend breath work, qigong, meditation, and fellowship if available. I think they have made a huge difference.

 

I am praying for 100% recovery for everyone here on this thread. I think about all of you often.

 

-Bibs Jo

[[...]]

Wonderful to hear Bibsjo. So glad you are doing well.  There is hope for the rest of us!!

[[Ha...]]

Wow, Bibs Jo, that is so encouraging to read! I'm so happy for you.

 

Wondering how all the buddies are doing ...

2cats, I hope you are feeling a little better than when you last posted.

 

Anyone else?

 

I think I had a bit of a window and now I'm in another wave but I plan to make another cut tomorrow night anyway.  Praying I have more windows as I go lower ... trying hard to keep the faith.

 

Haimona