Help with taper plan

[[Buddie]]

Hello,

I was on Xanax 1 mg per day from March of 2022 through end of November 2022 which was when I was switched to Ativan 1.5 mg (learning more about benzos, that was not the right calculation, should have been 2 mg.) Anyway, they increased my Ativan to 3 mg when I was having bad akathesia (I now believe it was made worse because I was tapering off a benzo too since they didn't calculate correctly). Been on the 3 mg of Ativan since end of Nov./beginning of December.

I was at a center that helps you get off medicines and they tapered me .5 mg on a Tuesday and it was pretty awful, so the following Tuesday they did .25. It got really bad. I asked about switching to Valium and the switched me immediately to 15 mg, no cross over time. Things got ugly. I raised the Valium and then they ended up switching me back to the 3 mg of Ativan, what I came in on.

Currently, I got the liquid Ativan from a compound pharmacy and went from 3 to 2.95 and it was painful. I am 3 weeks out from that drop and it isnt as bad as it was, but I am not in good shape either. The size of pills I have are 1 mg and .5 mg and then I have the liquid. We heard some people dont do well on the liquid, so wondering if water titration or dry cutting would work better for me. Any suggestions/recommendations appreciated!

[[Buddie]]

I'm sorry you've had to try so many different methods of tapering, it takes too long to get stable after all of that. Some members have mentioned the liquid takes a bit of getting used to so they'll switch to it but won't reduce until they've acclimated to it.  Also, Ativan comes from the manufacturer in liquid form so if you wanted to save money and get the real stuff, you might try that if your doctor will write the script.

Are you going to use your pills and the liquid to reduce, many members have good luck using both. 

[[Buddie]]

Yes I am using both currently. I do 1 mg tablet in the morning and at night and for my mid-day dose I do a .5 tablet and .45 in liquid. Went to the doctor today and we are going to try .02 cut weekly. Do you think that's a good idea?

[[Buddie]]

I'm glad you're going to stick with the liquid for now, as I said, some members have noticed a difference in the liquid compared to the tablets, maybe not so much a difference in dose but how its metabolized.  Anytime you change methods, dose size or time you take it will have an effect, so it's good to give yourself time to adapt.

.02 weekly sounds good, just be sure to record your reductions along with your symptom severity so you can use this information to determine your next reductions.  Its nice to have a plan but tapering according to your symptoms may be what keeps you functional.