Tapering off Ativan Support Thread

[[be...]]

Yeah you'll be alright. Just take it slow. Keep the doses even and take them at te same time every day. Those are the keys for me. If you find that you need to slow it down even more at the end you can create your own liquid solution. A lot of people find that tequnique very helpful. Good luck.

 

BDL

[[aw...]]

I have often thought that a jewlers scale would be the most acurate way to go. The only problem is that you would be tied to the scale and crushing pills. It seemed time consuming, messy and inconvenient.

The compounded liquid has allowed me to travel, go to work, go on day long hikes etc. I just have to have a little cooler bag with my liquid and oral syringes. When its time for a dose i just measure and swallow. It's over in 10 seconds. This had been valuable because it has taken me almost a year. I had to have the mobility.

 

Marquee, I split .5 pills with a razor blade all the way down to .375 or so. The slight inaccuracies in doses didn't cause me much trouble and I am what I consider in the sensitive side.

 

BDL

 

BDL:

I'm going with liquid if I can get an Rx from them, and maybe if I can't. The dry cutting scenarios are just as an alternative and for my own curiosity. I'm getting the equivalent of a jeweler's scale that happens to be on sale. I think you could measure powder accurately enough by calibrating a set of micro-spoons with a fancy balance--you'd only need access one time.

 

Hope your taper's going smoothly,

 

Aweigh

[[Ma...]]

ha ha ha ha

 

What the freak are micro spoons?  And a fancy balance?  <<<<

 

God help us!

 

They should put that on the warning label.  "At some point you might start thinking about micro spoons.  Please call your doctor if this occurs."

 

I'm j/k with ya Aweigh

[[IG...]]

OMG Mairin33,

That's the most I've laughed today.   

[[aw...]]

You guys are too much! They do sell tiny spoons along with the balances; not the fancy ones with the gingham smocks, just the plain Janes. They are not advertised as "micro-spoons", but I couldn't resist. I don't know what they call them. There's a whole set with labels like [you couldn't make this up] pinch, smidgen, taste, etc. One could in fact calibrate them and use them for measuring; probably work fairly well.

 

A fancy balance is anything that costs more than I can spend. I hope you laughed so hard you... j/k with me? Does that mean jake?

 

Aweigh

[[In...]]

Well,

 

I could not resist this because I have this set of spoons. They are the dash (1/8 tsp), the pinch (1/16 tsp), and the smidgen (1/32 tsp).

 

Bought them at local "fancy" cooking store just before last Christmas.

 

So, yes, they are out there for sale.

 

Intend

[[Ma...]]

Aweigh, maybe you could start your own trademarked Benzo Withdrawal System, The Microspoon Method .

[[ce...]]

Hello all!

 

Helpful Ativan tip of the day.........

 

Take the largest dose at bedtime.

 

Remember this whole clock-watching business (3 or 4 times a day) is temporary.  You'll be home free, just stick to the plan!  Don't updose. 

[[aw...]]

Cedartree:

As my sig shows, I changed over from 6 mg/day A to 2 mg 3X day. Although the bedtime dose was the hardest to equalize, melatonin helped with sleep and I find my sx are better when I take the 6 mg in equal doses. So that's me.

 

Now for the taper...

 

Aweigh

[[ja...]]

Hi folks,

Yesterday I started at 2 mg down from 3mg. It took me a month to taper down to 2mg (started on November 1). I always notice that it is very difficult the first couple of days after a cut no matter how small. Lots of depression and joint pain.

 

Have decided to stay at 2mg during the holidays and begin another cut, providing all goes well, around January 3.

 

can't tell you all how much it means to me to read your posts and know that there are others going through this. May we all heal completely!

 

Love and peace to all of you

James

 

[[Ma...]]

Hi Jarow,

 

I'm glad you joined this thread.  Also glad you are giving yourself a break for the holidays.  I think it would be good if you went a little slower, you dropped a 1/3 of your dose in one month.  I hope it the depression and joint pain get better after a few days?

 

Yes, may we all heal completely.

 

Hugs to you,

Mairin

[[aw...]]

Hello, Jarow:

Welcome to BB! That's quite a cut; holding over the holidaze sounds like a good plan. Depression and arthritis...add in cog fog and that's the Big 3 for me 

 

I have an old friend whose name is also Jarow; in his case, it is an anagram. Is yours? It would be quite weird if they were the same!

 

Aweigh

[[ja...]]

Hi folks,

I thought I was actually cutting pretty slowly - .25 mg every 10 days. Am very willing to take it slower, any ideas?

 

went to bed at 5 pm last night and dragged myself out of bed at around 9:30am. It's not that I am so tired it's that I don't want to face the depression and pain and withdrawal symptoms. This is a tough one. Need to get out and get some fresh air.

 

warm regards,

James

 

(Jarow is an anagram for my first middle and last names  - James, Robert, etc.)

 

[[ce...]]

Let me just say that cutting by .25 mg's in the beginning may or may not work. Those really are large cuts. Believe me, I did this too and it was not easy. But here is a plan I followed. It was necessary for me to go even slower near the end of the taper because the wd's were so severe.

Also, I made cuts every 14 days, not 10 days. 

 

Possible Ativan taper:

 

.50          .50        .50        .50                  Total:  2 mgs

.25          .50        .50        .50                  Total:  1.75

.25          .25          .50        .50                  Total:  1.50

.25          .25          .25        .50                  Total:  1.25

.25          .125        .25        .50                  Total:  1.125

.25          .125        .125      .50                  Total:  1

.25          .125        .125      .375                Total:  .875

.25          .125        .125      .25                  Total:  .75

.125        .125        .125      .25                  Total:  .625

.125        .125        .125      .125                Total:  .50

.125        .0625      .125      .125                Total:  .4375

.125        .0625      .0625    .125                Total:  .375

.0625      .0625      .0625    .125                Total:    .3125

.0625      .0625      .0625    .0625              Total:    .25

.0625      .0312      .0625    .0625              Total:    .2187

.0625      .0312      .0312    .0625              Total:    .1874

.0312      .0312      .0312    .0625              Total:    .1561

.0312      .0312      .0312    .0312              Total:    .1248

                .0312      .0312    .0312            Total:    .0936

                                .0312    .0312            Total:    .0625

                                            .0312            Total:    .0312

                                                                  Off!

 

 

[[ja...]]

thanks, this is helpful. How do you measure less than .125?

James

[[Ma...]]

Hi Jarow,

 

Yeah I know, it does seem slow.  It is slow.  But perhaps not slow enough. 

 

I just finished re-reading the taper plan on this site.  There is a table called "Pill splitting Taper Plans". 

 

The cutting every 1-2 weeks is reasonable, but more important than that time frame is how you feel.  Withdrawal effects should diminish after a cut.  You should really wait until you feel better from the cut before you cut again.  Its what people mean by "listening to your body."  Not everyone is going to fit neatly into the 1 to 2 week time frame.  It seems a lot of people run into trouble when they cut without letting there body adjust to the previous cut.  The only place that gets you is frustrated, in a lot of uncomfortableness, and I've seen many examples on here where people wind up updosing because they just simply went too fast.  Then they have to retrace and backtrack, which takes even more time.  Its better to go slower and avoid having to go through that.

 

But I know how hard it is to wait to cut.  This is one heck of an exercise in patience.  I'm going to try to get to 3 by .25 cuts.  After that, I'm going to get the .5 tablets and cut them in quarters and reduce by .125.

 

I believe Cedar had her ativan compounded, which made her able to cut smaller amount.  A compounding pharmacy can do that, make smaller pill doses.  You can also make smaller cuts with liquid titration.

[[ce...]]

thanks, this is helpful. How do you measure less than .125?

James

I had my doctor prescribe me the small doses, then I took the script to the compounding pharmacy and they made up the dosages.  It worked out. Maybe wasn't the smoothest taper plan, but it did work and I was able to get off benzo's forever. I haven't looked back.  No more pills. 

[[aw...]]

Hi folks,

I thought I was actually cutting pretty slowly - .25 mg every 10 days. Am very willing to take it slower, any ideas?

 

went to bed at 5 pm last night and dragged myself out of bed at around 9:30am. It's not that I am so tired it's that I don't want to face the depression and pain and withdrawal symptoms. This is a tough one. Need to get out and get some fresh air.

 

warm regards,

James

 

(Jarow is an anagram for my first middle and last names  - James, Robert, etc.)

Hi, James:

Damn! I've been there. OW!! I just hope it goes away soon.

 

My friend Jay's first name is an anagram for Jewish Armed Resistance of Warsaw. His parents

survived the Warsaw Ghetto.

 

Aweigh

[[ja...]]

Hi Jarow,

 

Yeah I know, it does seem slow.  It is slow.  But perhaps not slow enough. 

 

I just finished re-reading the taper plan on this site.  There is a table called "Pill splitting Taper Plans". 

 

The cutting every 1-2 weeks is reasonable, but more important than that time frame is how you feel.  Withdrawal effects should diminish after a cut.  You should really wait until you feel better from the cut before you cut again.  Its what people mean by "listening to your body."  Not everyone is going to fit neatly into the 1 to 2 week time frame.  It seems a lot of people run into trouble when they cut without letting there body adjust to the previous cut.  The only place that gets you is frustrated, in a lot of uncomfortableness, and I've seen many examples on here where people wind up updosing because they just simply went too fast.  Then they have to retrace and backtrack, which takes even more time.  Its better to go slower and avoid having to go through that.

 

But I know how hard it is to wait to cut.  This is one heck of an exercise in patience.  I'm going to try to get to 3 by .25 cuts.  After that, I'm going to get the .5 tablets and cut them in quarters and reduce by .125.

 

I believe Cedar had her ativan compounded, which made her able to cut smaller amount.  A compounding pharmacy can do that, make smaller pill doses.  You can also make smaller cuts with liquid titration.

 

Thanks, Mairin. I think you are right about cutting. I DON'T feel better at the rate I am going. I'm just going to hang out here at 2mg until I have the strength to continue.  I am just so anxious to feel better that I was looking at the numbers and not at how I am feeling.

 

I appreciate your remarks. Thanks alot.

 

[[Al...]]

I had a bad stretch  for months trying get below .7 mgs. I bounced around for many weeks between .7 and .68 I am now comfortably at .68. I have been hit with 2 really bad head colds this season.

 

Anyone else having this experience with repeated colds?

[[Ch...]]

Hi there, Deborah suggested that I post here (thanks Deborah) I was prescribed Larazapam during an ER visit on May 26th which I have been taking 1mg nightly since.  I started tapering down, however, on Oct 20th based on instruction from Pdoc, going down .25 mg every two weeks.  Currently I am in the second week of taking .25 mg every other night with my last night being this Friday, December 14th.  It is becoming increasingly more difficult, especially the day after I don't take a dose at all.  My biggest complaint is burning stomach pain and as a result not wanting to eat and of course, not getting a restful sleep, but I have also experienced muscle twitches, a little tremering, and crawling sensations.  I also am on 15 mg of remeron and 37.5 mg of zoloft.  Like many of you, I have lived a nightmare since this all started, and I'm scared to stop my dose after Friday.  Don't know if it was wise of my pdoc to suggest an "every other night" tapering schedule, but that is what I have followed.  Upon seeing him this week, he was a bit inconsistent now stating that every other night may be causing my body to have a "roller coaster" affect, since the drug gets out of the system fairly quickly. Don't know if jumping off after Friday will cause more issues or if I should consider liquid titration.  I don't want to end up in ER because I tapered too fast, and I know I probably won't be out of the dog house for quite some time, which gives me more fear.  I have fibromyalgia, and am very sensitive to meds in general.  I don't know if I'm strong enough here, but I'm looking for suggestions.  Thank you much.  Charlene.

 

[[be...]]

Hi Charlene. I'm sorry no one got to this sooner. I hope you are feeling a little better.

Generally the every other day dose thing is frowned upon by anyone with first hand benzo experience for the very reasons you suspect. I don't know all of the specifics to your situation but it seems clear that you are having trouble discontinuing lorazepam. For this reason I would say that a slower taper with spread out daily doses would likely have you feeling much better in a relatively short period of time. I personally am tapering directly from ativan using a pharmacy compounded liquid solution. It's not been easy, but its the path I've chosen. I'm finally, after many bumps in the road, at a low dose and doing well (.16mg).

 

There are many options to consider. Switching to Valium seems to help a lot of people. And you are at a low enough dose that this may be relatively easy for you.

You could get .5mg pills and split them into quarters and take 8 quarters a day for a while at even spread out intervals. When you feel well enough you could start dropping .125mg (one quarter if a .5mg) and waiting 2 weeks to see how it affects you.

Or you could move right into a liquid titration plan. I've found it to be very helpful in reducing VERY slowly. But this could be overkill for you. It can draw your taper time out for quite some time. I've been tapering nearly one year and my initial use was about two months. I tried coming down faster but I couldn't stand the withdrawal. I needed to be functional for my life and I have that. But it has been a huge pain. Some people prefer to suffer and be done more quickly.

Good luck in whatever you and your doc decide. I will keep checking in here to see how you are doing. And I'll be available for any questions you may have about my own experience.

But remember, you WILL be fine. So much of this is mental. Try to distract yourself if you can.

 

 

 

BDL

[[Al...]]

Looking over my signature, I just realized I have been tapering (with one failure) for almost 2 years now.

This has to be a record, one I am not proud of. I am still suffering hugely and am losing hope fast. Every little cut sends be in a tailspin.

Is there any hope for someone like me who seems to be destined to either fail or continue this, I don't know.

 

My muscles are killing me right now, my memory is shot, I have high anxiety, intrusive dreams that wake from sleep,brain zaps that scare the hell out of me, fluctuating blood pressure. Zero energy and I could go on.

 

But I wont.

[[be...]]

Hey all tied up. Try not to get too down. You will definitely get there. There are just some walls to climb. 2 years is not unheard of. You are healing all the way down.

There is a bright future for you. I believe that.

 

BDL

[[Al...]]

Thanks BDL,

 

It very nice of you to say and try to pump me up but after 2 years I starting to wonder what my future is.

I'm not terribly depressed or anything like that I just find this time of year particularly stressful and I guess it's getting to me.

I watch people on here come and go through their withdrawal tapers with seemingly little or mild symptoms and then I start to wonder why I am so weak or why I get stung bad by the smallest cuts.

 

I will keep trying of course.

 

By the way I have been watching your progress from a distance and you are doing fantastic. Well done my friend.