Tapering off Ativan Support Thread

[[Do...]]

Hey guys not sure if I'm posting in the proper place here but I'm desperate for an ativan taper and need some help.. Please take the time to read my story...

 

 

Hey Benzo Buddies, i need some guidance! What is the best way to get off this stuff for my situation?

 

Ill start by saying I dont take pills and I am very sensitive to them so I think this is why it has taken a hold of me so fast.

 

Im 31 and have never taken any anxiety pills before in my life and I know absolutely nothing about them, and i have never needed them. a few weeks ago I started getting chest pains from stress or a virus. Decided to go to the urgent care to get it checked out because I didnt want to take any chances with my heart. everything checked out ok except for a little fluid around it (nothing to worry about). The Dr. gave me a heavy duty anti inflammatory and some ativan. I asked her what the ativan was for and she said "it will help loosen up your chest".sounds good but Little did i know. The pharmacist wasnt any help either when asking. he said it will relax you and to take 1mg tablet twice a day for 12 days. I dont take pills and I figured the Dr. knows best and i should just take my Rx so the sack around my heart will heal.

 

These pills mixed with the Anti inflammatory naproxen were putting me out cold. falling asleep everynight with no problems. I was also waking up really groggy and i was a zombie for a week and a half. I had finally finished my RX and i was excited to get back to normal.

 

Thats when it started, withdrawls and every day my sleep was getting worse, from 5 hours broken, to 3 to 2 to none. In the last 72 hours ive had zero sleep. I feel like im losing my mind. I saw another doctor who just refilled the prescription and wanted me to keep taking it. He also added an anti depressent called "remeron" (i havent taken them yet and Im unsure if it will help) why the heck would i need all these pills?? i was just fine before, I just went in for chest pains!

 

So I tried to not take anything for about 3-4 days. I needed this stuff out of my body.. I drank a lot of water, excercised as much as possible, but then once night hit I couldnt sleep. Its terrible. I tried taking .5mg to help, nope. now im experiencing more anxiety than i HAVE IN MY WHOLE LIFE! these pills really did a number on me. I had my first panic attack yesterday. So i decided to cave in and take 1mg in the day and then 1mg at night, finally got decent sleep but it was still broken, 2 hours here, 4 hours there, and then finally 5 hours. 11 hours in one night. I expected to wake up feeling amazing, nope, cracked out grinding my teeth, and worrying if i should take these pills again. Please help guys, I really want to get back to how I was. What is the best method to come off this? Is it too late? Save me! I had no idea 2 weeks of thee pills would do that. I wish I knew what they were bfore i took them. I thought they were for my chest like a vicodin or something =(

 

 

 

taken so far: Ativan 1mg. twice a day for 14 days

 

stopped taking for about 5-6 days: crazy withdrawls and insomnia (I think i mightve been able to quit cold turkey if i couldve just slept I feel like i couldve handled the withdrawls. It made my mind go loopy and panic, sleepless nights.

 

taken again for sleep: last night only 1mg in the morning and one at night

 

now im here..

 

How do I get off these in my current situation? It is possible yes? do i keep taking these? Im lost and have God on my side but a few extra soldiers wont hurt.

 

Kindest Regards,

 

 

ps. After reading a bit on here I have decided that this is the best community I have ever come acrossed. Ive been on all types of car, sneakers, electronics forums and The love and motivation on here is amazing. You guys give hope to everyone. Some really great recovery stories as welp. Keep doing what youre doing, Youre making a better place for everyone. God Bless.

[[Ch...]]

I just wanted to thank Mairian33 and Anu for suggesting I change my dosage to 1.5 mgs 4x/day. It's only been four days but my quality of life has improved. I'm real steady now and  my right hand has stopped shaking ! So I will get used to this schedule and then begin another taper. Again, Thanks so much.

 

Charliev123

[[...]]

Excellent! Kudos to all! 

[[ce...]]

Long time no see everyone! I'm sure most of you may not remember or came after me. But I spent a year in here.  Just saying hello and  letting everyone know that  despite how it felt at times,  I healed. Finished my taper 9 months ago. Crazy. It's hard to remember what exactly was so bad about it now. I guess that's a good thing. I hope everyone here is doing alright. Good luck to you and have an awesome day.

 

BDL

FANTASTIC!!! Congrats BDL. I was hoping you were doing well and free of this finally.  Great to hear from you.

 

Best of luck in your new health and freedom!!!

 

Cedar   

[[Ma...]]

Hi Charlie,

 

I am glad to hear that dosing 4x a day has helped.  I think it is wrong for people who have been on ativan for any length of time to only be dosing once a day, espcially at the high dose you are on.  I really hope you can get your script in the 1 mg tablets, that will help a lot with cutting, and I would really suggest cutting .25 every two weeks.  This is going to be a long haul for you, but the weeks and months do pass and after a while you find yourself on a much lower dose.  You will get there.  Please don't cut 1 mg at a time though anymore, it was probably ok to do the first cut but I would not keep doing that.  Cut low and slow!

 

MM, I don't think there is any point in stretching out the days, I know some people have done that but I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense.  Just taper down and off.  I think it could actually be bad to skip two and three days and then take it again.  I have also had that irritable feeling lately.  It was bad for a few days, not now.  I started taking more magnesium, and I think maybe that is helping, with the irritabliity and also the heart palps.  Sometimes I use a product called Calm.  I would recommend it.  My doc really keeps telling me to take that, and when I do, I really do feel better.  It is just a powder that you pour hot water in and sip it like hot tea.  All it is is a magnesium drink.  I think it works fast because it is liquid.  I usually feel better fast when I drink that.  You can get it online or in a lot of vitamin stores.

 

I think the best we can do is just follow Ashton's advice of a slow steady decline in blood levels.  That really seems to be the only and best way off this drug.

 

 

[[Al...]]

I am new to the group and have not started my going off of ativan. I currently take 3 Mg around 5pm everyday. I have been taking this does for 9-10 years. I have noticed that I am a slave to this medication. I have been irritable, forgetful, actually I just plan do not remember things that have happened. I have been having medical problems that end up coming out negative, dizzy. I can not enjoy much of anything and have become a hermit. Work and home only. I want to start tapering down. What do you guys recomend to start with. Like I said I only take once a day. Also has it been hard to stay working during your journey? 

[[An...]]

Hi Alove,

I am sorry for loosing your beloved child .. Also that you have to deal with this ..It will be fine ..Do not loose hope ..

This is a good place to be, with lots of knowledgeable, caring people.

I think the first thing that needs to be done, is to split your daily dose of 2 mgs into 4 equal doses, to be taken 6 hours apart. This is a good thing, to avoid Interdose withdrawal. Hold this change in dosing for about 10 days or so.

While you are doing the dosing, you can read all the taper plans available.

There is dry cutting, liquid titration, etc.

I hope this will help you ..To not hesitate to post again, with any concerns or worries.

Hang in there ..

Love, Anu

 

[[Co...]]

Alove...so sorry for your pain...I am just at the end of my ativan taper. I strongly back up Anoushka's advice. I had great difficulty with interdose s/x due to the fact that ativan is a short acting benzo. When I began dividing my daily dose into 4 equal doses and took it every 5-6 hours my taper turned around and became tolerable. I might add ..go slow slow slow...I did a direct dry cut..( no cross over to valuim, reduced my dose by no more than 5%-10% by cutting the pills ..) ..staying at the reduced dose for 10-14 days before moving to next cut. If you choose a dry cut method don 't become confused about halving the cut and only cutting by 5%-10%...a 50% cut will be harsh...think of your tablet as quarter divides...and 1/2 of a quarter divide is pretty close to 10%....I am sure one of the admins. will have a much better explaination. Some BBs really prefer a crossover ( using valium as a buffer to s/x. because valium has a much longer half life and shelf life)...Reading the Ashton Manual was vital to me in understanding taper approaches and possible w/d s/x...Listen to your body...find 4-5 distractions that can.              help you focus outside of your s/x...find as much face t o.face support as possible...come to.        BB.    as often as you need to ( I was on it ever. y single day during mid-taper). You will find.    awonderful.  support and good information on BB. Having said that...when you have concerns...always have them checked out....no one on BB is medically trained...but you can benefit greatly from fellow BB experiences and support. You CAN successfully w/d from ativan..just stick with it...for me it was kind of one step forward and two steps back...fl not let set backs throw you off the track.It was very helpful to me to start a progress journal so I could look back and see how far  I had come ( sometimes it feels as though you are stuck ..or that a particular s/x has been lasting forever...but when you look on your journal you can see that maybe it is really only 3-4 days that the  s/x has been present....and that some have dropped off) I also read everything I could find on benzos...loved Bliss Johns books ..( Renewal and Recovery)...google for more. Good luck Alove

[[Co...]]

Good luck Alove ....we are all here for you...read a lot of the success stories...take really good fof yourself...eat healthy...try to learn some calming breathing and cognitive strategies..they are helpful. The best advice of all that I got was...DISTRACTIONS..DISTRACTIONS...DISTRACTIONS. Cooper...

[[Ho...]]

Hi, maybe someone can help me. I have been on Ativan for over a year.  Well I started out at 3 mg and slowly.been weaning off since, wasn't on 3mg that long at all. I just recently cut from .75mg to .625mg. I'm having.horrible anxiety, every little thing is making me anxious, I'm scared of seizures, etc.

[[An...]]

Hi Holly,

If possible, can you please create a signature? It will make it easier to understand how you have tapered the Ativan so far.

It seems that you have been cutting too much, without any holds ..Holds are necessary after a cut, to allow your system to catch up ..

It is a good idea to split your daily dose, and take it 4 times a day to prevent interdose withdrawal, but I am not sure what your daily dose is ..

I know that you are going through a bad time, but can you please make that a bit more clear?

Thinking of you Holly ..Please hang in there, as more buddies with knowledge are sure to offer help to you.

Love, Anu

 

[[Ho...]]

I don't know what you mean by signature..

 

I started out with 3 mg of Ativan October 2011 but I don't have the exact dates. I always cut back .25 mg at a time. I waited awhile to cut back.. The last time I cut back was July. Now I'm trying to get.off of it so I just went from .75 mg to .625mg. I always took it twice a day.. So that's how I take it now. 0.5 in the morning and half of a half 0.5 cut in a 1/4.

[[An...]]

Hi Holly,

You will find your signature if you go to profile, than modify profile, than forum profile.

I am hoping that someone with more knowledge will come help you ..

Your situation is beyond my capabilities

So just hang in there ..

Thinking of you, and sending you love 

Anu

[[Al...]]

Do you guys recomend working during the tapering as a distraction?  Or did you go off work for awhile?  I am think about having my dr take me off for a bit especially cause I am. It use to taking ativan during the day and it looks like I am going to have to change to every 6 hrs.

[[An...]]

Hi Alove,

It depends about work ..It is up to you ..It will be good to concentrate on your taper, and deal about any WD without having to go to work ..Then when you see how it is going, you can return to work to distract as you say.

Have you decided on a taper plan yet?

Thinking of you ..

Love, Anu

[[Ma...]]

Hi Alove, 

 

I agree it would probably be helpful to split your dose into 4x a day.  For you that would be .75 mg every 6 hours.  I don't think it's necessary to be extremely exact with timing, as in you don't have to get up in the night to take it or anything.  Just 4 times a day reasonably spaced out.  The reason why is because ativan's duration of action is approximately 6 hours.  I've seen lots of people come on here taking ativan only once a day, and that usually winds up causing problems.  Splitting the dose up into 2x, 3x or 4x is usually helpful.

 

Hi Holly, it sounds like you are doing the best you can and you sound like you are cutting down sensibly.  I cut by .25 for a long while and then switched to .125 and now I am cutting by .0625 using compounded pills.  I am sorry about your anxiety, that is the big reason a lot of us wind up on ativan in the first place.  It can either be two things, 1. it is your normal anxiety that is now not really being treated by the drug because you are not taking enough to kill the anxiety, or 2.  you are experiencing higher anxiety as a result of you central nervous system being out of whack because the ativan has suppressed the CNS for the time you were on the drug.  It's often hard to tell which one it is but it is probably some of both causes.

 

Because ativan or any benzo works to reduce anxiety by suppressing the CNS, what it does is cause the CNS to become dependent on the drug in order to feel calm.  So when the drug is removed, the body is really out of whack and cannot calm itself.  That is why it takes a lot of time for the body to heal so that you do not feel so anxious, because the drug has kind of hurt your natural abilities to be calm.

 

I can really only suggest waiting for at least two weeks before you cut your dose again, or even a bit longer.  That gives the body time to get used to the cut.  You can also try magnesium, which has a calming effect, meditation or other non-drug methods to try to help your body be calm.  There is also hydroxyzine, which is an anti-histamine that a lot of people on here use when anxiety gets really bad.  It is a drug but not an addictive one.  However, it can really make you sleepy and kind of non-functional, but if anxiety is really bad, it is worth taking, in my opinion.

 

Hugs.

 

Mairin

[[ak...]]

I finally got my supplies to titrate!!!

 

So I need to split 4 doses. I plan to dissolve the pill in the fridge the night before.....and then split in the morning.

 

I just watched a video that said only to use the syringe to pull out the cut, not the dose. I don't think that makes sense. Anyone else?

 

So I draw out my cut......and then draw out each dose into separate containers for the day - as I understand it. Is that how you all do it? Or is there a better method?

 

Thanks for walking me through this!!! I appreciate everyone that is so helpful 

Emily

 

I posted this is the Titration section also...but wanted to try to get more exposure. Please help if you can!!

[[Al...]]

That's good advise thank you. I haven't started tapering yet and I am scared to death. I have major anxiety now almost all day. So I am assuming that is because I hav became tolerant to my dose. I am having a hard time understanding how I can cut back when I have such a hard time at the does I take now. My memory has gotten horrible also I am not wanting to go or do anything lately. I have no desire to clean or anything. Is this all normal?  And will I feel better taking my does 4x a day compaired to whole does at once?

[[aw...]]

Hi, Alove:

IMO, it's a bad idea to start a taper when you are very anxious and "scared to death". Your feelings about "having a hard time understanding how I can cut back when I have such a hard time at the does I take now" are entirely appropriate. Mairin 33s suggestions are appropriate, too. With symptoms as severe as you describe, I might even take a rescue dose (one time only) and then no tapering until you feel a lot better.

I think this will happen when you stop dosing 1X day and start 3 or [better] 4. I just went from 3X day to 4 myself. I took Ativan once a day for 9 years, and the improvement after I changed to 3X day was quite dramatic.

 

Good luck,

 

Aweigh

[[Al...]]

Thank you all so much

[[mo...]]

Hey Mairin , How are you doing on the lower doses ? I have found that there is not much of therapeutic use of the drug at the lower doses .Compound dosing is the best thing I have done to improve my taper . I do think Bart is right about that we do heal as we taper down . My cognitive thinking has improved as I taper down . I mostly have a feeling of being disconnected  and some depression . But over all not too bad. Tylenol PM has been great for my insomnia sleeping well now . Hang in there all it does get better ! MM 

[[La...]]

Another week another cut. In one sense, I really look forward to each cut as I inch towards zero. On the other hand I fear each cut for the possible misery it might bring or worse, for the possibility that I may not tolerate it and have to updose and lose ground. Last night I cut from 0.205mg down to 0.170mg, a -0.035mg cut and so far things are going well. Dosed at 11:00pm and went to bed at 12:00 am; in that one hour post dosing, I didn't notice my body screaming out at me for giving it less benzo, so that seemed like a good sign, and I did get a good nights sleep (7.5 hr), another good sign. And this morning, while my CNS does feel revved up (drug related), I feel pretty good.

 

Seeing how many folks have real trouble with the last 2 mg of valum (corresponding to last 0.2 mg ativan), I've been very cautious about dropping below 0.2mg Ativan. Mornings and early afternoon I typically feel pretty good, then mid and late pm, the IDW cranks up. Last night my head littereally felt like a pressure cooker, but I knew intellectually that I was only a few hours from this sx completely disappearing with the administration of my pm dose, so that really helps a lot to know for certain it will disappear in 5, 4, ,3 ,2 , 1...you get the iidea. Still holding on to once a day dosing; if IDW shoots through the roof in these last 170 micrograms, I'll split it twice per day. Avoided that so far, in order to protect my sleep (insomnia), but now that I am getting decent sleep most of the time, I may split the dose.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesnt table 2 of Ashton's "Slow Withdrawal Schedules" prescribed the final two steps to zero in valium taper as 2 mg, 1 mg, then 0, with 1-2 week hold times?

 

Wishing everyone here a good day and a succesful march down the Ativan ladder.

 

 

[[aw...]]

LJ:  I did not get any relief from some pretty severe IDW sx until I split my dose and went from once a day to 3X a day. It made a HUGE difference! In fact, it's what made my taper possible.

 

It's true that everybody's body's different, so resposes to reductions in Ativan doses vary widely. It's also true that the basic pharmacologic properties of drugs are the same in everyone's body. So taking a drug with a duration of action of 6-8 hours [like Ativan] for most people once every 24 hours guarantees that after about 12 hours serum levels will drop low enough to start producing symptoms which will get continuously worse until the next dose.

 

Anyway, that's what I experienced. I got nowhere until I started splitting my doses.

 

Aweigh

[[Ma...]]

Hi MM

 

I am glad to hear you are doing so well.  I am doing pretty ok at .5 at the moment.  Sometimes I stay away from this site.  Just about an hour ago I was struggling with some really negative thoughts.  Then I started reading about benzos, not on this site but some things Matt Samet wrote, and it makes me realize, it's probably the benzos is why I feel and think this way.  Just terrible worries and not being able to see the positive in life.

 

This unrelenting worry about getting off the benzo probably has a lot to do with that.  My mental energy is so drained by this whole withdrawal experience, and for me it has been going on ridiculously long, taper wise.  I sometimes wish I would have been on only 2 mgs or so.  But no I was on such a ridiculous high dose.  I cannot help but feel that was medical malpractice, but really, what good does it do to wring my hands about that?  It doesn't.  Just glad I have gotten this far down now.  At my last appointment, my doctor said "I don't think you are at risk for seizures anymore.  But I did think you were at that high dose."  That was a potent sentence to hear.  How frightening, that just being on this drug could do that to you.

 

I am really ok.  Heart palps are not bad.  Really, my worst symptom is apathy.  I think back to when I was active in life and I am just so NOT right now.  I have to remind myself it is probably this whole benzo thing.

 

I do wonder how much the drug is helping me now at this low dose.  I suppose all it is doing is holding back withdrawals.  I don't think it is in anyway therapeutic anymore.  I am mentally struggling with the thought of whether I really do need benzos or not.  It would be great to be able to take them intermittantly, but that will probably not be possible.  I've been on benzos for 12 years and its hard to imagine life without them now.

 

Anyway, hugs all.

[[La...]]

Mairin:

 

"It would be great to be able to take them intermittantly,"

 

With all due respect, that is some very dangerous thinking about a very dangerous drug. Any problem you were having that led to initially begin benzo use, can, and should be dealt with, using means other than benzos.