Ativan and Ambien

[[Buddie]]

I'll tell you my story, I took Ambien for about 7 months and quit it cold turkey and while I had insomnia for a few days, I didn't get the horrific symptoms I got when I quit Klonopin cold turkey, and I've seen other members report this as well.  I'm not advocating a cold turkey, most of our members will use the 10% rule but I'm telling you this because just like everything else around here, no two of us react the same.

[[Buddie]]

Yeah ive been using a lot longer and higher dose but i would LOVE that to be the case!!!

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...],

Ok i decided to go down the transition to Diazepam route. I cannot tolerate Ativan. Even at .5 3x a day it makes my heart race and just makes me feel bad. There is no way I can taper down on this. The past few nights i have been following Ashton on crossing from 1.5 mg to Ativan 15mg Diazepam (schedule 8 but modified for half). It's just the night dose right now but already I feel a little better and stable and my sleep was better last night. I wonder if you were right about there being a bit of dependence still in my system from starting and stopping the diazepam sporadically in the recent past. I am still taking 20mg of Ambien when i go to sleep and 10mg in the middle of the night. I need to figure out how to taper that while all the rest is happening. I am seeing a new addiction Pdoc today so hoping she will have some insight (she is aware of Ashton). Any thoughts/help appreciated.

Thanks,
S

[[Buddie]]

I'm happy to hear you've seeing some improvement since starting the Diazepam, and I hope your new doctor will listen to your needs.  Are you planning to cross the Ambien to Diazepam as well?

[[Buddie]]

I wasn't planning to. I don't want to be on that much Diazepam. I was hoping to slowly taper it while I am crossing over from Ativan to Diazepam. Ugh. Such a mess.

[[Buddie]]

I understand, but I'm not sure tapering it while crossing is a good idea but this is your taper and you should be able to determine your path.

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...],

I don't disagree with you. What would you suggest as an alternative path? The diazepam does make me tired, which is good, but I guess i need to worry about the actual withdrawl from high dose Ambien. I haven't really worried about that before as I have always felt more emotionally dependent on it than physically and thought withdrawls would just be lack of sleep (which diazepam helps with) but that may be naive. Would love any and all input on a path as you all know so much more about this than me.

thanks,
S

[[Buddie]]

You could very well be like me, I didn't experience withdrawal symptoms when I quit Ambien cold turkey, I actually felt better except for the insomnia and that resolved in a matter of days.  However the big difference between our situations is I'd been Klonopin free for 14 months so we're apples to oranges here.

You may be onto something though, if the Valium is helping you to feel tired it might be the right time to reduce your dose of Ambien.  I guess the only thing you can do is experiment, it would be great if you could get off of it and only have to worry about the Ativan cross.

[[Buddie]]

Hi [...],

Even if I can get the Ambien down to half in the next few weeks I feel like that would be a victory. The biggest concern is not knowing how that dropping down will effect me as i cross over to diazepam. But honestly at full dose of Ambien and .5 Ativan 3x a day i feel like absolute shit,. Shaky, tired/wired, major hypoglycemia and intense anxiety. The one symptom i am thankfully over (for now) is nausea and vomiting, I went on a PPI and that seems to have stopped that in its tracks.

S

[[Buddie]]

The fact that you're familiar with Diazepam is on your side, some who don't have experience with it have a difficult time adjusting, just because it's such a different feeling.  I wish I knew how this will go for you but I can see you're looking to make a change so I guess the only thing to do is to give it a shot.  I wonder what your doctor will say?