Help needed to taper 10 MG Ativan/day-10yrs. Large dose schedule help needed

Hello, I’ve been on lorazepam for 10 years. I’m at the huge dose of 10 MG’s a day. I take it five times a day 2 mgs x 5xs every day. I have been at 10 mg a day since April 2016, but started in 2013 at a lower dose.

I’m very confused how I should taper because it’s such a large dose and how many years. Right now I tried to create a schedule that is four years long. I go down .25mg every 2 weeks until it becomes 5%.

Then I do 5% every two weeks unit the taper is very low. I figure they should take me about four years. Anyone else have experience with very long tapers with very high doses of lorazepam/Ativan?

I really wish I had someone to brainstorm the perfect schedule, but I know there’s nothing perfect.

I do wanna go extremely slow, but not so slow I keep myself in misery for a longer amount of time. I have two kids and that’s why I didn’t start earlier because they were babies.  They are now 10 and 12. I’m wondering if I should start when they are teenagers so they could take care of them self in case I’m very sick. I am a single mom and have to do this alone.

It looks like you have a decision to make but I’m glad you’re aware that you could have trouble functioning while you’re tapering. 

Just so you know, many members on high doses can taper faster in the beginning so I’m predicting you won’t need to taper for 4 years. And really, its impossible to predict how long a taper will last because if you’re tapering according to your symptoms then that schedule will need to be changed.  Tapers need to be adjusted from time to time to account for life events, there may be times when you’ll want to hold in order to attend an event with your kids and other times you may be able to speed things up.

Let us know if we can help you plan your taper, we’ll help you get started then you can take it from there by recording your reductions and noting your symptom severity so you can decide how much to reduce the next time.