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Stuck on tumultous lorazepam taper


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Hello all,

 

I have joined BB for some advice and support regarding my taper situation. I am also specifically seeking info from those who have experience coming off of lorazepam specifically.

 

I have been taking lorazepam for 4.5 years total. Highest dose was 3mg, and currently have gotten down to 2.5mg. I began my taper last April, reducing my afternoon dose in 0.25mg increments over those first 2 months. Then I stopped, held my dose until now and have developed so many issues. I realize now I'd been following some poor taper advice (those previous tapers were pretty rapid and unbalanced), and now I just want to do whatever I can to manage through this.

I currently take 0.5mg @ 5pm, 2mg at 11:30pm.

 

I am unable to continue tapering because my symptoms are so bad I feel like I am in withdrawal, with intense symptoms. Not sure if it's interdose, tolerance, rebound (I recently updosed a little bit twice, now to 0.75mg afternoon, due to how disturbing my symptoms are), but I feel it bad. I feel trapped and don't know what to do. I'm terrified that I'll give up and updose myself, or start other psychiatric meds because I can't take what I'm going through-feeling very guilty.

 

I feel really scared on this journey and would like to hear others' experiences that may be similar to mine. Thank you!

 

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Hi geminidivine

 

Welcome to BenzoBuddies!

 

I am glad you're here, but I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much. If I understand you correctly, you made your reductions last year April and May and have been holding since then right? If so, then I think you should've been stable by now - at least stable enough to continue tapering. This makes me think you're likely experiencing tolerance withdrawal. Especially if you say you've updosed and it still didn't help. I think you have two options at this stage: 1) you can updose even more to try and gain more stability and then try tapering or 2) you start reducing your dose. The decision is up to you. But I should just mention, finding the right dose to updose to might be tricky and then you have a much higher dosage to taper.

 

Generally we recommend cuts of no more than 5-10% of your total daily dose every two weeks or so, but it's best to let the severity your symptoms guide your taper. This helps you to better manage your withdrawal symptoms and try to maintain some functionality. I know this feels overwhelming, but you've got our support and you're going to get through this.

 

Here are some links to get you started:

 

Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidance

 

Planning Your Withdrawal (Taper)

 

Withdrawal Support (during your taper)

 

Add your history/signature

 

Please look around and let us know how we can help you!

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Dear Geminidivine,

 

Sorry to hear you are having a bad time with the weaning off process. On top of what Jelly Baby has mentioned, I would also like to propose that you look after yourself throughout this stage. Time and time again (learning from my own experience with many different benzos), we need to create a safe and loving space to help with this tumultuous experience.

 

I can't stress this enough - easy does it. I know you are frustrated, I know you are afraid and all your symptoms are driving you up the wall. Believe me we all have been through it and you will prevail. When it gets too much, seek help, have a good support system in place.

 

With every cut in dose, be prepared everything to endure a  quite messed up week or two. When I mean "prepare", you should make preparations in terms of changing your job responsibilities, stocking up food provisions (I could barely function at times, thankfully my girlfriend and mom helped me out), creating a peaceful home environment (I had horrible noise and light sensitivity that kept me in a constant state of panic), drinking plenty of fluids and getting some much needed exercise. I meditate quite a bit (it requires practice) but I believe, in the long run, it is the single most important habit that keeps me grounded.

 

My thoughts are with you. Take care!

 

MM

 

 

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jelly belly,

 

Thank you for your warm welcome and advice. Yes, I was definitely stable in the summer last year and I was too scared to continue..it has led me to get more and more sick. I really regret holding for so long :( I posted another thread with more detail about my timeline:

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=276663.msg3447032#msg3447032

 

I agree with you, I've definitely hit tolerance and nothing I do seems to help. Since the small updose didn't help anything, I feel like adding more will just add to the taper. Regardless, I feel like I may have to 2 immediate changes to try and help:

-dosing more frequently throughout the day to stop interdose withdrawals (I'm nervous to do it because I take the majority of my dose at bedtime, and I'm afraid of what'll happen when I lower that...but I hope it would help the overall situation)

-switch my sublingual tablets to the regular oral at least...if not transitioning to a liquid for more accurate and easy taper (the dry/scale method really intimidates me with making calculations while my head's not good)

-maybe in the first reductions, I want to try to keep them under 5%, hopefully gain some confidence about what I'm doing. I'm afraid that I may feel this way the entire way down? Is it possible that I could stabilize again somewhere on the way down?

 

MM,

 

Thank you for your kind words. I agree with you, and it has been really difficult to really look after myself and create that loving space...I appreciate the reminder and the words of encouragement! Also, great idea about prepping...although I am already totally bedridden and unable to function but hopefully I can apply this maybe to my journey as I go. Thanks again :)

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You could definitely try and add a third dose to see if it helps with the symptoms. If that's something you want to try, I would do that first before changing another variant like switching tablets or changing to liquid. We always advice only changing one variant at a time as that way, if you have an increase in symptoms, we're not guessing what has caused it.

 

Please don't stress about the method of tapering. We have lots of people here who can help you with it and the maths, so you're not alone. Do you want first want to try and add another dose?

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You’re absolutely right about making one change at a time.

One question I’ve been thinking is since I’m so used to this current dosing (getting everything towards the end of the day, 5pm & 11:30pm), do I need to gradually change the timing or would it be okay to just split? My doses are very disproportionate: 0.5mg and 2mg. Also 2.5mg is hard to divide in general, even harder with sublinguals because I can’t cut the small pills with any accuracy.

So would I do maybe 0.5mg 11:30am, 1mg 5pm, 1mg 11:30pm?

I think I mentioned before I was nervous about taking away from my bedtime dose, but I understand that I will never know if I don’t try! And I also don’t want to keep myself from something potentially helpful.

I have about 4 days left of my current script, so if I’m able to apply those changes, I wonder if I can request my next script to be the oral tablets so that my divisions can become easier?

Please let me know what you think about the splitting, if it’s ok to just try a full divide at once.

Thank you for all your help!

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Yes, most people just do a full split if they add an extra dose, they don't " gradually taper" their split if that makes sense. I would like to make a suggestion though and that would be to first try adding a 0.5mg dose instead of 1mg. I think cutting 1mg from your existing evening dose might be a bit too much. So you'll have 0.5mg, 0.5mg and 2mg. But ultimately the decision is up to you.  If you do decide to go with this do you still need oral tablets for this or how are you currently dosing the 0.5mg?
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So you are suggesting to add an extra 0.5mg back to my dose? I’ve been taking 2.5mg, so that would bring me up back to my original dose at the beginning of 3mg. I feel bad to start all over, and it seems like my mini updose didn’t even help me so I’m wondering what another full 0.5mg would do. If ideally it would help bring some stability, then obviously coming down would be easier now that I have better info and tools. But I am quite afraid that the updose will not stabilize things. I’m afraid that after the holding I did, that ship has sailed.

Is this a common thing to recommend to someone who has gotten to a confusing and difficult part in an improper taper? To try and correct the mistake and do it again more regimented? Will there be consequences to updosing, like harder withdrawals?

I would do it if I didn’t just experience not feeling better on the slight updose, but I understand that what you’re proposing is slightly different, especially with hopes of not disturbing the nighttime dose.

Please let me know what you think about my concerns and thanks again for weighing in!

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No I'm not suggesting an updose. Sorry, I made a mistake in typing. I'm suggesting only taking 0.5mg away from your evening dose. So you'll have 0.5mg, 0.5mg and 1.5mg.
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Ah okay thank you for clarifying it! I do agree with this, keeping most at bedtime and trying to space out a bit more. I will try it starting today and hopefully it may help a little bit more. Thank you so much :)
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You're welcome. Let's see how it goes and let us know if you think a third dose is making your symptoms a bit better.
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jelly baby,

 

I was doing so well today, I took 0.5mg in the morning (and was quite drugged feeling and off), then did the 5pm 0.5mg…and then just now I accidentally took the full 2mg dose. I was not paying attention, maybe it’s due to the overwhelm and just doing it in autopilot *facepalm*

Making this mistake one day, isn’t going to hurt me tremendously, right? It may just feel extra druggy but then within a few days if doing it properly I should be ok, right?

I have a weekly pill organizer and I will put my doses in there so this doesn’t happen again. I feel guilty though and nervous since today I took a total of 3mg ugh I can’t believe I did that! :-[

The last few days with the updose (2.75mg, not counting yesterday because I resumed 2.5mg to not have more to taper off) I’ve been suffering from feeling drugged and some really bad stomach issues. I feel nervous that I will have more from this dosing today.

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It shouldn't affect you too much long-term. Please don't stress about it. This kind of thing happens often. Just resume your normal schedule tomorrow.

 

And it's good to have a pill organizer. That way you know you've got the right pill and you know whether you've taken it or not. Many times people can't remember whether they took their dose or not.

 

You'll be okay.

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