need help with my new taper

I started my taper from ativan on Jan.29th doing a direct taper from 5mg per day and have tapered down to 4 mg per day in four divided doses at 6 hr intervals.  I have been experiencing some difficult inter-dose withdrawal and managed to find a doctor here in Canada close to where i live who is familiar with the Ashton method since my own family practitioner would not help me.

This new doctor gave me a prescription for 30mgs. of valium which is not quite as much as I have read to be the equivalent but it is harder to get them to go as high as recommended because of data published here by the Clarke Institute( the canadian addiction experts)  stating that 1mg ativan = 5 mgs valium.  He also said given the low?? dose that I am on that I don't need to do a step cross over - just to start directly on the valium.  I am wondering if this is going to be OK or not.  I still have about about 120 mgs of ativan left over - should I try to do a step cross over and how often should I take the valium?  He said all in one daily dose would be OK - but is that best? Could someone advise me on how to develop a schedule to cross over and then to taper.  I don't know why but I am a little nervous - I've never taken valium before.  Also should I give up on the 7.5 mg dose of immovane that I am currently taking for sleep?  He says yes I don't need it with the valium.  I want to go off of the immovane too but is it OK to do all this at once.  Sorry for so many questions, but I really want to succeed at this and do it in the best way possible.  Thank you for your help and information, it is so important to me!

Hi, glengair.

Personally, I think a substitution crossover is a better idea than just dropping the ativan and starting the valium.  For one thing, the valium half-llife is much longer than ativan so it could have a week or more of withdrawal symptoms before the valium kicks in.  As long as you have enough ativan, I think a crossover makes a lot of sense.  You might want to check out Prof Ashton's sample schedule for crossing from 3mg ativan to 30mg valium over a period of weeks.  I know the amounts aren't the same, but it is based on 3x/day dosing and I think you can work out a modified schedule based on it.  You'll find the table here:

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s8

Good luck.