Ativan to Valium incorrectly? Please help

[[gi...]]

Hey everyone, I am really i need of advice, thoughts, opinions. I just saw a new doctor yesterday because I need to wean off of 1 mg ativan that I take only at night for sleep. He agreed to switch me over to valium. He wanted me to stop the ativan completely and switch right to valium. So he wanted me to start with my first dose beginning with 8 mg of valium. However, I did show him the schedule I printed from the benzo.org.uk website. After started the switch to valium last night I realized it seems he has me weaning/switching to fast. He wants me to wean of with schedule like this:

1st week-8mgs valium

2nd wk-6 mgs valium

3rd wk-4 mgs valium

4th wk-2mgs valium

5th wk -1 mg valium

A couple of times during the appointment he kind of chuckled and said this is much slower schedule than we normally do. He is fairly old and does not speak english very well and I am afraid he may not have understood the schedule to well. I did try to call him but no answer back yet. If he says to continue with the schedule as he recommends, what do I do?  Do I just switch to 9 mgs of valium and do the benzo.org website taper schedule see if I can find a new doc? I see some people say they are just adjusting their dosages left and right. Won't I need my doctors approval??? Or do I just adjust my dosage and see if I can get in for a refill sooner? How would you all handle this? Need some expert opinions PLEASE help!

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You may wish to discuss your taper with another doctor.

 

It is important that you are in control of your taper as you need to monitor how you feel and possibly adjust the rater of taper and size of cut as you go along.

 

Here's a link to the Ashton Manual. http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/  It might be a good idea to print parts of this manual and ask your doctor or a new doctor to read some of it.

 

Keep us posted.

 

[[sh...]]

I tapered off Xanax and have little experience giving advice when crossing over so, please forgive me if I'm wrong. I'd let others chime in with their suggestions, as well.

 

Ashton States that 10mg Valium is equaled to 1mg Ativan. It sounds like your doctor cut you 2mgs short when suggesting your starting dose. I'm not even sure why he told you to stop the Ativan without slowly crossing over. If you're not comfortable with this, you can always talk with him about your concerns. Remember, this is your taper. You're allowed to ask questions.

 

He's also making you cut 2mgs every week, which seems a bit much. Ashton suggests cutting 1mg for each cut, with holding 1 to 2 weeks in between. This might cause you problems later down the line but, like I said, I don't have much experience with crossovers or Valium.

 

If you're not doing a slow crossover, I would think you could follow cutting 1mg each cut, until you get down to 1mg. I'm not sure how other buddies go from here. Hopefully others will post with their expertise.