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Hello, I’m gathering information for my taper. I’ve been on 0.5mg Ati every other night for about 7 years. What’s the best way to taper from this? Just follow the regular tapering rules of cutting 3% monthly? Or do I have to take 0.5mg daily instead of every other day in order to taper ?

 

Thank you

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Hello JoJo007

 

I am hopeful you will get some answers here, my benzo was diazepam, I am sure one of our clonazepam members will help you with taper advice.

 

Its suggested, In order to taper, it's best  to establish a steady daily dose and slowly reduce that over time.  It is also generally recommended to taper at a rate of about 5-10% every two weeks, though rates vary, you can slow it down, depending how you feel.  Many need to go slower,  it's up to you, whatever is comfortable.

 

Magrita :smitten:

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Oh my, 7 years taking Ativan every other night, that really surprises me!  I would have thought it’s shorter half life would have caused you problems years ago.  Have you been experiencing any interdose withdrawal?  I believe your answer will help us determine if you can taper still taking it every other day.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh my, 7 years taking Ativan every other night, that really surprises me!  I would have thought it’s shorter half life would have caused you problems years ago.  Have you been experiencing any interdose withdrawal?  I believe your answer will help us determine if you can taper still taking it every other day.

 

I was having some chest pain, chest tightness and air hunger that I thought was related to something entirely different 😞 I had no idea it was the Ativan. Mid April I hit, what felt like acute withdrawals, higher heart rate, higher bp,nausea, can’t stand up for any length of time without feeling like I’m going to pass out.

 

I moved my dosing to water dosing - 0.5mg Ativan divided into 3 doses. Took almost 2 weeks to get adjusted to that. Lots of burning and tingling and limbs jerking as I was drifting off to sleep.

 

Been on this dose schedule for 2 weeks and the heart rate has come down a bit, bp has come down, nausea has lessened and I can eat.

 

I don’t know what to do. I am barely living and I’m so scared. My symptoms are going to get worse and come back as I taper and I don’t know if I can handle that. I definitely have some autonomic dysfunction happening because of this drug but seem to have a lot of physical symptoms so that worried me because many ppl with tons of physical symptoms don’t seem to heal.

 

Any advice. Insight?

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I’m glad you figured out what the culprit was for your misery, the trouble is, the cure is painful but we haven’t figured out any other way to do this. 

 

I’ve never heard of people with a lot of physical symptoms not healing, where did you see this? 

 

I’m glad to hear your symptoms have calmed down a bit, but I don’t see why you can’t keep them manageable by tapering slowly.  Yes, its unpleasant and scary but thousands of members before you have made it through this and you will too.

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The terrible part of this too JoJo is that Ativan can manufacture anxiety. That is what I used to call it. It wasn't my anxiety, it was chemical. And tapering it can make the chemical anxiety worse so just know this is happening and your thoughts about the medication and healing are chemically influenced by the drug. Pamster has been here a long time. If she says people heal then I would take her word for it. I am in the middle of things myself so I cannot speak from personal experience about healing. But I do see many success stories here. 
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I’m glad you figured out what the culprit was for your misery, the trouble is, the cure is painful but we haven’t figured out any other way to do this. 

 

I’ve never heard of people with a lot of physical symptoms not healing, where did you see this? 

 

I’m glad to hear your symptoms have calmed down a bit, but I don’t see why you can’t keep them manageable by tapering slowly.  Yes, it’s unpleasant and scary but thousands of members before you have made it through this and you will too.

 

It seems to be that way as I search through the forum. People on the Facebook groups are working during their tapers. I’m a mess. My thyroid is tanking, my hormones are tanking. I can’t breathe. I can’t walk any distance without paying for it. It’s so very scary to feel like I’m in this alone. No doctors believe me, I feel like I’m dying- they think I need a psych.

 

I seem to be suffering more than others- seeings how I haven’t even pulled a drop from my dose yet 😞

 

This is so terribly overwhelming and I feel like I’m being swallowed completely whole.

 

 

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It takes time to come to terms with what’s happened to you, its similar to the stages of grief but the sooner you can find a way to accept this, the better off you’ll be.  All of these negative emotions have an impact on how you feel, we can make our symptoms worse. 

 

I believe stress to be the biggest contributor to increased symptom severity, do you have any coping skills you can use to calm yourself?  We talk about using our tools here so my suggestion would be to gather the tools that work best for you and employ them to bring your anxiety level down.

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I have been where you are in my own way, so I completely understand. I am so sorry. I am still fighting, but somehow I managed to align with friends and family who are advocating for me. And after the FND and other BS diagnoses from lazy uninformed, biased doctors, I have finally found the support of the right docs. It took a while.

 

It is so so hard to be patient and patient advocate at the same time when you are feeling so ill.

 

Do you have friends or family who can advocate for you with medical professionals?

 

Any friends with health qualifications who can speak with your medical professionals? (One of my nurse friends is speaking with the doctors and they listen differently to the nurse.) 

 

Can your support network start trying to find you a medical professional to support your taper who doesn't think you need psychiatric help? (Shame on these doctors, but that is another story.)

 

I think you said you are in Canada? Did any of the resources I sent you pan out? If not, maybe you can post to BB with the subject line, "URGENT: Tapering help/doctors in Canada who are benzo-wise?" I remember seeing another member in a dire situation in Canada, and others had some referrals for that person. I wish I could find the post, but it was months ago. Maybe if we search "Canada" it will come up. I will go look now and DM you if I find anything.

 

 

 

 

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I have been where you are in my own way, so I completely understand. I am so sorry. I am still fighting, but somehow I managed to align with friends and family who are advocating for me. And after the FND and other BS diagnoses from lazy uninformed, biased doctors, I have finally found the support of the right docs. It took a while.

 

It is so so hard to be patient and patient advocate at the same time when you are feeling so ill.

 

Do you have friends or family who can advocate for you with medical professionals?

 

Any friends with health qualifications who can speak with your medical professionals? (One of my nurse friends is speaking with the doctors and they listen differently to the nurse.) 

 

Can your support network start trying to find you a medical professional to support your taper who doesn't think you need psychiatric help? (Shame on these doctors, but that is another story.)

 

I think you said you are in Canada? Did any of the resources I sent you pan out? If not, maybe you can post to BB with the subject line, "URGENT: Tapering help/doctors in Canada who are benzo-wise?" I remember seeing another member in a dire situation in Canada, and others had some referrals for that person. I wish I could find the post, but it was months ago. Maybe if we search "Canada" it will come up. I will go look now and DM you if I find anything.

 

Thank you so much, oddly enough- I am a patient advocate but for women’s heart health. I have many medical friends and connections. My psychologist believes me. But everyone else when I say “this seems like a withdrawal syndrome” all tell me you can’t have wd from a med you haven’t wd 😩 I’m much tooooo sick to fight and advocate for myself in that matter as I was also nervous my family doctor would pull me off my Ativan if I started making a stink.

 

The sad thing is, I’m a known name in advocacy and the thought of these people knowing I’ve sough crisis support is soul crushing. But I feel like I’m trying to save my life here. I have my Rx and I have a water taper plan - although I will probably go slower than the plan recommends. I’ve reached out to my cardiologist to see if she’d give me a standing req for ECG and basic bloods (since my hemoglobin is elevated, thyroid tanking and hormones tanking- plus A1C going up.

 

But as far as anyone believing me and being able to advise me on what I should do. No. I had a psych appt and he knew about tolerance and wanted to switch me to Diaz. But I really don’t want to switch to a devil I don’t know- especially when I am dosing multiple times a day and have the means to do so because I’m disabled. I just don’t know. 😞 I don’t know what to do when things go sideways - which I’m terrified they will. My legs were so weak last week I could barely stand.

 

What a nightmare

 

Thank you for all your help and any thing you think may help me- please do send along.

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At least they suggested Valium and not Klonopin. I see most people having issues with Klonopin on here. I will send along anything that can help. There is another member you might want to reach out to AnnaMeg. She has a similar experience to yours. Maybe you two can support each other.
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Just my 2 cents.. when you didn’t know what was causing your previous symptoms I would think you were in full “inter-dose withdrawal”, and from what I remember reading when I was here as a member before you might should increase your dose or find a steady dose where your symptoms subside, get steady, then start a slow taper. You might be surprised that your new controlled taper withdrawal symptoms are far more tolerable than the full blown inter-dose withdrawals you were previously experiencing.
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