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please help me plan my ATIVAN taper (currently very unstable for 3 months)


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With all my heart and being want to come off Ativan (currently taking 0,8 mg - since December 2020 reduced the dosage from 1 mg to 0,8 mg and got intolerable symptoms of everyday stomach serious cramps, diarrhea for 2 months in a row, total muscle stiffness and pain (my neck, shoulder, spine, also burning), vibrating head and whole body, always present pulsatile tinnitus, blood pressure elevated (it is my primal fear), hellish head pressure, squeezing burning, palpitations (every morning upon waking up) and  also during the day (some days the whole day), heart skipping beats, exchanging fever and hypothermia, heat in the head and in the body in the morning, flashing light in my left eye, different pains coming and going away, nausea, vertigo, face flushing with adrenaline, ear pressure, chest tightness (from time to time), breathing ocd (constant unease breathing, squeezing breathing muscles), internal unrest (like akathisia), thumbs numbness and without circulation ...

Been using Ativan on- off for 2,5 years, since September 2020 been taking daily (1 - 1,5 mg, rare times 2x 1 mg) according to needs (for terrible squeezing head pain, panic attacks and blood pressure). Feeling I got some autonomic nervous system dysregulation. Also taking (7,5 mg of Ambien for years for my chronical insomnia). My plan first to quit Ativan, then Ambien.

 

I am probably doing it wrong, I suffer immense agony all day till after 1 - 1,5 hours after I have taken the pill. Then I get some relief.

I would so much appreciate your suggestions how to do a taper, how to divide the doses, because taking it once a day will not get me anywhere.

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You're on two short acting drugs, I wonder if the Ambien is causing you more problems than the Ativan is at the moment?

 

How often do you dose the Ativan? 

 

Would you consider tapering the Ambien first?

 

Is there a possibility of combining the Ativan and Ambien and switching them to Valium then tapering from that?

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Thank you so much for your feedback, Pamster.

 

I think that Ativan is to be blamed for these horrific issues, I know long term I have to come off Ambien too, but right now trying so hard to have at least some sleep (some rest and peace from the symptoms9 as I am a chronic insomniac.

 

I would not dare to taper off both drugs at the same time, so first Ativan, then Ambien. Messing with my already fragile sleep would lead me to sure vicious cycle.

Also extremely hesitant to switch to Valium because it means a new agent that I may not tolerate and already so very unstable now for months. Waiting for an appointment at addiction ambulant (early April) don't expect much there though .... also my prescribing doctor does not see the symptoms as a problem, he is attributing them to my diagnosis (underlying anxiety disorder), which is an additional problem.

 

Currently taking .8mg of Ativan in the late afternoon (suffering the whole day immensely) ... also tried dividing this dose in two (morning and evening), but they were too small to have any relieving effect so I finished taking more in a total that day.

Ambien around 7 mg.

 

Have a blissful day  ;)

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Hi petit-bois, I understand about you needing to take all your dose at once to have any relieving affect, I was a bit like that in my taper. I’m wondering, instead of suffering all day, how about taking your Ativan in the morning. You might then be able to have a more peaceful day then as your symptoms ramp up in the evening you will have your Ambien.  When is your worst time of day? Believe me, Ativan definitely causes anxiety, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise, it’s well documented. Wishing you well and let me know if I can help.
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petit-bois, I was an unhappy Ativan user so I think I know what you're suffering through. I think it's a versiion of interdose withdrawal. I had to dose Ativan 4 x a day to keep on an "even keel". I don't know how you are managing with dosing once a da in the p.m. Can you split your .8 mgs up into several doses? And take one of the doses in the morning? That ought to make your days more bearable. Lordy, why suffer?

 

I crossed over from 1.5 mgs of Ativan to 15 mgs of valium. It was a much smoother taper, but I understand if you don't want to do that. Hmmm . . . you could try it, though. Hand to heart, it's so much easier!

 

It's no surprise that you have insomnia -- your Ambien is no longer working. Mine stopped working also, and I tapered off it after I got rid of my Ativan/Valium. In the meantime it's another pesky drug that you are likely in withdrawal from. I feel for you.

 

You're in a pickle for sure, but you can help yourself by getting some Ativan on board during the daytime imo. Then you can address the insomnia. There's an  insomnia thread (or mabe a few) on here. People try different "fixes" for their insomnia and some of them even work.

 

Hope this has helped,

 

Katz

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Hi PB

I agree with Okatz, crossing to Valium for me was way better. Ativan suffering was horrible for me.

I would consider it if I were you

Joeb

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Thank you beautiful community for your very informative feedback.

I am trying to take my dosage in the early afternoon now but till the evening it wears off and I'm having unstable sleep for that now (nightmares, heart racing, terrible muscle squeezing, suffocating).

Was having a terrible week ... an emotional breakdown from my mother because she thinks that what I have is a kind of ego thing and that I can fix with strong will and talk therapy and she is posing ultimatums ... my BP raised to dangerous levels as usually in such conditions.

 

So I really don't know how to proceed from now on ... the symptoms are extreme and ever-present, so unpredictable.

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I believe stress to be the worst thing for us, it ramps up our symptoms to extreme levels, I'm so sorry your mother doesn't understand what you're dealing with and she sounds unwilling to try.

 

I'm at a loss as to what to suggest, are you able to function at all, are you losing a lot of weight?

 

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Hi Pamster, thanks for your warm words.

 

No, I am not able to function, for the last 4-5 months mostly in my room just listening to yt music, praying, breathing, searching for solutions, meditating, losing ground ... some days I force myself to go to the near woods but suffer like hell while walking (intolerable head pressure, tachycardia, nausea, vertigo, stomach cramps). Yes, due to stomach issues (cramps, diarrhea, hard to eat) for the last 4 months I have lost a lot of weight.

 

And also my long-term sick leave has ended and I just don't have any force to convince doctors that this thing is due to benzo ... and nobody understands (and is willing to) what I am going through (except some long-distance friends who support me via internet messages with lovely words and pictures). My close ones are either sending me to doctors (ad nauseam when I hear this advice) or to work on myself more (talk therapies, changing attitudes ... but I am 110 % sure this is from benzo and z-drug neuro damage). My prescribing doctor is a chemist and he would put me on all kinds of meds lifelong without any doubts (I stopped discussing the dangers of drugs with him because there is no use, just stress for me ...).

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Ah, petit-bois, I feel for you, I really do. It’s bad enough without the pressure of returning to work just at the moment. I’m glad you have some friends who understand even if they are not near. Your symptoms are not your fault, they are due to chemical changes in the way your neuro- receptors work. Don’t give yourself a hard time, be kind to yourself as you would if you were convalescing from a long illness. It’s tough but hang in there.

 

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Thank you so much Hardy for your sympathetic approach ... I can feel your listening ear  :smitten:

Yes, I am acquainted with the effects and consequences of benzo ... have been delving deep into respective literature. Just the general knowledge is so underdeveloped and stereotypical. The hardest thing is to fight with loved ones with arguments about why you don't trust doctors and a simplistic approach.

 

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”

 

- John Joseph Powell

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Wow, PB, love that quote, really full of wisdom. Please continue to feel my listening ear, it is listening! I have some friends who understand and some who can’t, won’t or don’t. It’s up to the. We know the truth don’t we.
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Hardy, how are you going now, post taper? How long were you coming off the lorazepam? Were your symptoms also totally unendurable? How did you manage?
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Hi PB, my taper was about one year. Yes, many day were unendurable but many were just difficult. I managed because I had no choice. I was feeling so unwell before tapering so the only route to good health was to get off the drug. I had massive support from my family which was essential and still is. I am taking Mirtazipine at night which really helps with sleep although I would like to reduce that as it caused big weight gain. Yesterday I did too much and I’m exhausted today, been in bed mostly.

How are you feeling today? Hope it’s a better one for you.

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Hi Hardy! Were you taking your daily dose just once a day throughout your tapering-off journey? You said once that you were similar in this regard? I was always using Ativan according to my need (feeling extremely tensed or in panic attacks or some period during the nights I could not find any rest and my heart was pounding wildly). My system is not used to a planned scheduled taking medication so maybe it is for that I am having problems trying to divide my daily dosage into smaller sections and take them at least 2 a day (but smaller than my current 0,8 mg won't give any relief from symptoms). I figured out that the general idea for tapering off of Ativan is distributing the daily dosage into 3-5 intakes.

 

I'm having constants sx, every day is slightly different, but neck, shoulder, and head muscle spams, total stiffness, terrible head pressure, arrhythmias, tinnitus, and some kind of GI issues are ever-present (chronic).

 

Currently, my idea is to read and process all the posts on the Ativan support group thread (1049 pages ;)) to be able to extract the impression on the most effective approach that works in the long run.

It is such a pity so many people have to deal with this sad area instead of researching something where our passion draws us (for me the area of artificial intelligence and decision making). so frustrated ... months, years passing by in this impotent state

 

Take care, may Beauty be your guide ...

 

 

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Hi PB, I also was taking Lorazepam as required but mostly 2-4mg per day and usually one of those in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. I cleared all commitments and stuck to 2mg per day to get a bit stable, this took a few weeks. If I needed a pill to do something, I didn’t do it! I then reduced 0.1mg per week or 2 weeks as I could. At this point I was dosing twice a day. I never did need to dose 3 or 4 times a day as I know others have done……we’re all different. Once I got down to 0.4mg I dosed just once a day at lunchtime and I did feel the effect. I was taking Mirtazapine which helped tremendously with sleep so didn’t need the night dose of Lorazepam. I carried on reducing by 0.1mg every 2 weeks until it got a silly amount to weigh on the scales! At around 0.2mg, I no longer craved my dose and I no longer felt any effect from taking it.

Hope that’s helpful but you must do what suits your body and your life.

I saw much beauty on my morning walk, sending it to you…….

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Hardy, thank you so much for the details. I am so cheerful for you because I can feel how your freedom feels  :smitten:

 

As far as my situation ... I really don't know how to proceed from this point. I started taking my daily dose around 2 pm, after my morning nervousness calms a bit and before head pressure and muscle stiffness become unbearable. Some days it was better while doing this, but now I feel I just don't get the same relieving effect as before (when I was taking the evening dose). I have terrible vertigo and dizziness going on for a week (maybe connected to pms period when cortisol levels because of this state of w/d spike). I also suffered a great amount of stress after my check-up appointment with the psychiatrist - I told him I am dependent on Ativan and that I probably reached tolerance last year, because Im having w/d symptoms (like head pressure, tachycardia, arrhythmias etc. etc.) for the last 2 years. He was laughing and making jokes, like you can't get dependent from 1- 1,5 mg.

He wrote a strange medical report for which my personal doctor said won't convince the medical insurance commission to extend my sick leave. She said like this is not going anywhere, did your pych suggest hospitalization (for what he thinks is anxiety and depression because of his simple logics that I don't have energy - how could I be energetic being in such terrible agony for so long????)? I said I was benzo dependent and she just didn't care.

So the same day after these events just before taking my daily dose I was sitting while talking to a friend on a phone and I experienced very severe dizziness with involuntary head movement (one movement) and I felt like I was not present for 2 seconds. And with total muscle stiffness in the neck, shoulders (this is always present for the last 3 months). I was terribly afraid this could be like a small seizure??? Was reading articles on seizures after that and sometimes they look like some kind of vertigo. In the evening I called around trying to get some advice from psych emergencies on what to do, where to get valid medical proof I am benzo dependent. One doctor (she was just from this addiction center) said I have to wait till my appointment in the center for addictions and confirmed that this is being in a severe tolerance crisis. But in the meantime, I may lose my job because of careless doctors.

So striving with a dreadful spine, shoulder, neck stiffness (feel like a disabled person), constant head pressure, dizziness, stomach cramps, sweating, changing temperature, driving me crazy tinnitus, electrical vibration in my head and legs, exhaustion, ears pressure, pain.

 

(...) "Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul." (W. E. Henley, INVICTUS).

 

To all the Invicti out there ....

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Hi PB,

 

You obviously aren’t feeling stable so it might be wise to hold on this dose until you feel more in control. I don’t think I ever really felt well at all during my taper but I sort of got used to feeling grim and acceptance was a key factor. I was willing to give up a year of my life to suffering if it meant I could be healthy afterwards! I am retired so it was so much easier to make this choice.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to deal with all this and worrying about losing your job and your income.

If you have been on 0.8mg each day for several weeks, it’s unlikely that you are at any risk of seizures. All these horrid symptoms are due to the chemicals in your body trying to normalise without the help of the drug and it takes time….and then more time……..until we are totally fed up!……and then more time……

Time is your friend.

 

Yes, you can become dependent on a dose of 1-1.5mg. Don’t forget that is equivalent to 10-15mg Valium.

Hugs and Prayers

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I second Hardy66's opinion that it's unlikely you had a seizure, I've read many members experience this symptom, please don't add a seizure to your list of fears, this process is all about fear so we have to push back on it to stay sane.

 

I'm so very sorry for how you've been treated by the medical community, the lack of compassion by the doctor who actually laughed at your situation makes me incredibly angry.  Please know we understand what you're going through.  :therethere:

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I am tapering Ativan as well, 2mg to 1.25 mg so far and I suggest splitting your dose into 4 doses per day as Ativan wears off at 6-8 hour intervals (no doc tells you this). But I was told bu a nurse that I was having inter-dose withdrawals because I was taking my doses too far apart.

 

I also take magnesium aspartate 400 mg which is clinically proven to alleviate w/d and dependence on benzos.

 

I also take CBD 20MG AM and 20MG PM which is helping me tremendously with anxiety as I begin move closer to and past this last MG of Ativan.

 

UPDATE: My attempt at switching to Valium was unsuccessful! Yuck  - my body said NO!

 

 

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petit, you said this a while ago:

 

My system is not used to a planned scheduled taking medication so maybe it is for that I am having problems trying to divide my daily dosage into smaller sections and take them at least 2 a day (but smaller than my current 0,8 mg won't give any relief from symptoms). I figured out that the general idea for tapering off of Ativan is distributing the daily dosage into 3-5 intakes.

 

What happened to this idea? Why not dose several times a day? When I was on Ativan I had to do that. (Eventually 4 x a day -- not saying you'll have to do exactly that . . .just pointing out how frequent dosing helps). What's holding you back? Why not try this to see if you get relief? Experiment a little. imo discount what the docs have to say. It sounds as though none of them are helping you. If it were me (and it was me) I'd  take charge of my own taper. Figure out what to do with the help of sensible buddies on here, Hardy and freefrom have good advice for you.

 

Then, once you get stable, you can plan a taper.

 

Best,

 

Katz

 

 

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Hi ladies, thank you so much for your soothing words. You are an incredible source of Light and experience.

 

Every day in this situation has a new scenario so it seems and unfortunately, all are dark. Yesterday all of a sudden I felt a really strange heart rhythm as if it had stopped several times, my face flushed and something clicked in my head. I know what skipped beats look like, but this was different. Then was reading about potentially dangerous arrhythmias that benzo w/d can cause ... better even not to think about that. I am taking a beta-blocker for my tachycardia ... but don't know if it is helping ... I just tell that the heart anxiety is one of the worst there is.

Today with a tummy rigid like a stone and severe cramps (also pms) and totally stiff head, neck, and shoulder muscles (Mg does not seem to help with this). During the night thirsty like a hermit and had to pee several times (diabetes, anemia?) What comes next?

 

Pamster, I am also very angry at unsympathetic doctors, who should be there to help not to play superior. But I am not expecting anything from them anymore like Katz said (discount what they say). It is just to get my justified sick leave and the only way is through the medical system.

 

Hardy, as a matter of fact, I am holding at this dose since Dec 2021, the only change was trying to distribute the daily amount to at least two doses, but could not succeed. And feeling extremely frustrated because it is not moving anywhere.

 

Katz, I tried to do that (first, slowly going to two, then maybe to three), but my body did not feel like a reduced dose was worthy for relieving the sx ... it was like taking no drug, and at the end of the day, I finished taking more in total sum. So after 3 days, I switched to taking the main dose around 2 pm and small dust (left after cutting off the pill) in the evening. Don't really know how to successfully switch to multi-dosing from one time only? The divided amount of substance per dose is just too small to have any effect and for my body feels like decreasing the total amount.

 

Freefromfear, good luck with your yourney, may it be as smooth as possible ... stay in touch, please. Thanks for stopping by. I am also taking Mg in the form of Mg l-threonate (supposedly the more absorbable form, crossing the blood-brain barrier), before I was taking Mg glycinate (also good absorption). CBD does not give me any relief now, at the begging I felt something for some minutes. Later less and less.

On my list there is also l-theanine (3x daily) and a strong probiotic (at least two pills after meals) - I need that for my sensitive gut and probably contributes to building a better microbiota (so I hope at least).

 

It is a season of dandelion green (for salads) and wild garlic in Slovenia, so I try to eat these healthy season greens daily ...

 

May your days be happy and your thoughts light  :)

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

Hi.

 

I managed to come down to 0.44 mg of Ativan since March 2022. Going very slowly, reducing about 2 % every 2 weeks.

This way it will take sooo long. Is there any way to get faster? The symptoms are all time present, squeezing head, nervous system dysregulation, muscle stiffness, and many others. The drug has no effect anymore, Im doing once per day.

 

Any suggestions maybe?

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I don't know how you can speed up your taper without inviting more intense symptoms, I'm in awe you're only dosing once a day, what time do you take it?  Do you feel any interdose at all?
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Hi Pamster. So lovely to hear from you again.

 

Actually, I am reducing more than 2 %, because going lower by 2 % means more, but I always cut like 0,01 (my precision scale cannot grasp values under 1/100, so the pattern is like 0.45, 0.44, 0.43 every 2 weeks). Taking it only once per day in the evening, along with my Ambien dose (I will taper that one later because I have chronic insomnia and cannot afford not to sleep at all and still have to study for a new career (professional rehabilitation).

 

I don't notice any relief concerning symptoms or any effect of taking Ativan nor can I say intermittent symptoms, it is all the time the same and very bad (the worst part is this ever-present muscle squeezing in the head, neck, shoulders to the extreme, some kind of heat in the head and body, inability to think clearly, to focus (brain fog), total exhaustion, not being able to sleep more than 6 hours (while having to attend demanding lectures every day and working on assignments, projects all the time (no free time).

 

And also have an additional problem, since I have told my doctor about my taper plan, he won't prescribe the drug anymore, and he said I should use my outdated stock (which of course has less active substance within).

 

I don't want to be a prisoner of this drug for another year, it is making me depressed.

:-\

Warm greetings from Slovenia

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