Mike F intro. Ativan should be illegal

Hi my name is Mike. I’ve been on Ativan at 1mg a day for about 6 months. It was taking it probably 4 days a week and then it went up to every night for the last 3 months. I stopped taking it cold turkey a week ago. I had no idea what I was doing to my body or what it was in for. I’m looking for support and to get my questions answered. I have never felt so awful in my life than I have the past week. I hope I can find some help here.

 

My taper was one day - I took 0.5mg 7 days ago and then stopped cold turkey. I had NO idea how terrible of an idea that was, but now im here.

Hello Mike Welcome to BenzoBuddies.

 

We're glad you’re here, I can feel your pain. Cold turkey is not a recommended way to come off benzodiazepines, slow taper is the way to go.  What symptoms do you have ?  Stopping abruptly can bring on severe symptoms. You have an option to reinstate and slow taper.  Withdrawal symptoms are temporary but can take a long time to settle down.  You will get plenty of support here to help you through this process, post questions for members to respond.

 

I will leave you a link to the Ashton Manual, it is a definitive resource about these medications. It helps in understanding the effect benzo’s have on our body.  Chapter III helped reassure me that symptoms were temporary.  Here’s a list of common symptoms 

 

I will leave a couple of links to resources:

 

The Ashton Manual

Colorado Consortium Benzodiazepine Deprescribing Guidelines

 

Post-withdrawal is Recovery Support

Cold Turkey, Detox& Rapid Withdrawal

 

Members can respond with the best information if they know your medication history.  Go to the top of the page and select PROFILE then choose forum profile then insert drug history into the text box and remember to click change profile

 

Welcome aboard

Magrita

Hi Magrita

 

Thank you for the support and approval. Now that I know what I do I wouldn’t have stopped cold turkey, but I’m 7 days into this horrendous experience of stopping and I don’t want to go back.

 

A few days after I stopped taking the Ativan my body absolutely freaked out. I poured sweat for 2 days straight, I had such bad nausea and no appetite, I’ve lost like 15 lbs in a week, insomnia, fatigue, and trouble focusing. My anxiety, which I’ve been dealing with forever is bad and I just generally feel awful most of the day. Mornings are the worst.

 

I’ve gone through a few periods of being scared that I’ve broken my body and that I’ll never feel like me again. 😭. I have an increasingly wife and 3 great little boys - I can’t afford to feel like I have the worst flu of my life all the time. I’m just searching for answers, timelines, any advice anyone has. I’m still pretty scared and I just flat out don’t feel well.

 

How long is this going to go on for?

You're not broken Mike, It just feels that way.  Withdrawal is horrendous especially after stopping abruptly.  I do understand you not wanting to reinstate,  If you choose to tough this out, symptoms will ease off eventually,  it will take time for the nervous system to repair itself.  Try to distract from symptoms, I know its not easy but it will help...go for a walk, listen to music, meditation anything to take your mind off the symptoms.  No one can say how long it will take, we are all different.  You will come through this, eat healthy, avoid coffee, sugar etc and stay positive.

 

Magrita

How far out are you? @magrita's post is spot on. I have nothing new to add, except that you'll heal! Check out success stories on this forum and don't get too wrapped up into reading the symptom posts.

My wife was given Clonazepam for a condition known as hypnic jerks that kept her up for 4 nights. We had no clue that it was a benzo, that it was very dangerous to withdraw from, and even if we did get warned of the withdrawal danger, I don't even know it would do this justice.  She took it for 2.75 before we realized what it was, analyzed, planned, and kicked off her taper.  She is now into month four of her taper after only being on this poison for less than 3 months. I agree, Ativan, Clonazepam, Librium, Valium.... it should all be made illegal, or at the very least, more difficult to attain than anything the ATF restricts. I honestly don't even understand why I pay so much for health insurance anymore if all they will do is give you a drug that doesn't treat your symptoms and actually does more harm than good (against the hippocratic oath).

 

If you re-instate as mentioned by Magrita, and if you can stabilize on that dose, you do have a chance at having a more bearable withdrawal from the drug. My wife isn't feeling great, but she is feeling better now that she's more slowly tapering off than she did when she was rapidly tapering off.  You can scroll through my profile and read a bit about the whole experience.

 

I'm not going to be able to tell you what the best decision is between carrying on with your CT since you are on Day 7 versus re-instating and tapering slowly.... Both thoughts have their merits.

- If you asked me early on in my wife's taper, I would probably have said "If it were me, I'd carry on with the Cold Turkey".

- Now that I've seen my wife stabilizing a bit more going a bit more slowly, and having read so many stories of people who cold turkey feeling bad symptoms deep into their withdrawal, I may lean towards re-instating your dose and properly doing a simple direct taper.

Bt I will admit that I don't know what the future holds for either scenario. I do feel a bit more hope with a slow taper, based on what I'm seeing and the stories I've read over the course of 4 months. 

 

Good luck, I'll be checking in on yor posts and will do my best to give you information I've collected over this time.

 

I’ve experienced some relief from taking 1000mg Agmatine Sulfate , would also recommend slow taper over several months. Sorry you’re hurting so badly.