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Cant tell what is Ativan withdraw or is it Panic Attack....


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So I am having a bad morning on my second day of tapering.  I've taken .25mg of Ativan and hour ago.  My symptoms are less severe than when I woke but having a hard time.  Usually by this time I would have taken .5mg in the morning and often would have gotten through the rest of the day without.  And sometimes not... another .5mg before bed.

 

My face is tingling and head feels compressed.  I am light headed, dizzy and my tinnitus is ringing very loud.  I do not need to drive or leave the house, which is good since I now have agoraphobia that triggers attacks.

 

Is my dose high enough?  Should I go to .5mg in the morning and .25 at night?  Or should I ride this out and work really hard to not have an attack with breathing exercises?  This could go on all day it seems.  Is this normal?

:'(

 

 

 

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So I am having a bad morning on my second day of tapering.  I've taken .25mg of Ativan and hour ago.  My symptoms are less severe than when I woke but having a hard time.  Usually by this time I would have taken .5mg in the morning and often would have gotten through the rest of the day without.  And sometimes not... another .5mg before bed.

 

My face is tingling and head feels compressed.  I am light headed, dizzy and my tinnitus is ringing very loud.  I do not need to drive or leave the house, which is good since I now have agoraphobia that triggers attacks.

 

Is my dose high enough?  Should I go to .5mg in the morning and .25 at night?  Or should I ride this out and work really hard to not have an attack with breathing exercises?  This could go on all day it seems.  Is this normal?

:'(

 

 

 

 

Hi, Eve.  ;D

 

I'm so sorry you are getting all these annoying symptoms.  It does sound like w/d and not that unusual with ativan since it has a pretty short half-life.  Do you have the .5mg tablets?  If so, you could increase your morning dose to .375mg by adding 1/4 of a .5mg tablet (.125mg).  Dropping .25mg might be a bit much.  Having said that, there does come a point when you just have to tie a knot and hang on.  And it never hurts to use the breathing exercises, listen to whatever calms you down, etc, to keep it from getting worse.  If you start getting upset and breathing shallowly, you can get a lot of the same symptoms, including the tingling.  I'm glad you don't have to go anywhere but you may need to find something enjoyable to distract yourself from how you are feeling.  If you have too much unoccupied time it can be tougher to ride it out.

 

Good luck.

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Hi, Eve.  ;D

 

I'm so sorry you are getting all these annoying symptoms.  It does sound like w/d and not that unusual with ativan since it has a pretty short half-life.  Do you have the .5mg tablets?  If so, you could increase your morning dose to .375mg by adding 1/4 of a .5mg tablet (.125mg).  Dropping .25mg might be a bit much.  Having said that, there does come a point when you just have to tie a knot and hang on.  And it never hurts to use the breathing exercises, listen to whatever calms you down, etc, to keep it from getting worse.  If you start getting upset and breathing shallowly, you can get a lot of the same symptoms, including the tingling.  I'm glad you don't have to go anywhere but you may need to find something enjoyable to distract yourself from how you are feeling.  If you have too much unoccupied time it can be tougher to ride it out.

 

Good luck.

 

My tablets are 1mg so it would be hard to cut.  I was thinking to go to either .5mg in the morning and .25 in evening OR .25 x3 a day.  I do need to work at home on pretty technical stuff so I can get distracted if my eyes will just work properly.  I could not get my day off the ground with the .25 on this second day of trying to get on a schedule.  Maybe I'll see what happens tomorrow.  It could have been just a bad day.  :sick:

 

I do have a pill cutter so maybe I can cut to .125 and try for a .375 morning dose.  That would be better. I'll see if I can.

So if I "just tie a knot and hang on"... can you tell me how long I would have to hang on until I can get to the next step.  Or how long until I see some kind of improvement in my withdraw symptoms.  Estimate and I will Psyche my brain out and make it true...if you can't say.  :D

 

Thank you sooooo much for the support!!!  :angel:

Eve

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Hi, Eve.  ;D

 

I'm so sorry you are getting all these annoying symptoms.  It does sound like w/d and not that unusual with ativan since it has a pretty short half-life.  Do you have the .5mg tablets?  If so, you could increase your morning dose to .375mg by adding 1/4 of a .5mg tablet (.125mg).  Dropping .25mg might be a bit much.  Having said that, there does come a point when you just have to tie a knot and hang on.  And it never hurts to use the breathing exercises, listen to whatever calms you down, etc, to keep it from getting worse.  If you start getting upset and breathing shallowly, you can get a lot of the same symptoms, including the tingling.  I'm glad you don't have to go anywhere but you may need to find something enjoyable to distract yourself from how you are feeling.  If you have too much unoccupied time it can be tougher to ride it out.

 

Good luck.

 

My tablets are 1mg so it would be hard to cut.  I was thinking to go to either .5mg in the morning and .25 in evening OR .25 x3 a day.  I do need to work at home on pretty technical stuff so I can get distracted if my eyes will just work properly.  I could not get my day off the ground with the .25 on this second day of trying to get on a schedule.  Maybe I'll see what happens tomorrow.  It could have been just a bad day.  :sick:

 

I do have a pill cutter so maybe I can cut to .125 and try for a .375 morning dose.  That would be better. I'll see if I can.

 

You suggested .25mg 3x/day and since you have 1 mg tablets, that would be good, too, in my opinion.  Ativan is so short acting, it's usually prescribed for 3x/day.  If you don't always take .5mg at night, that new total of .75mg/day should be adequate.

So if I "just tie a knot and hang on"... can you tell me how long I would have to hang on until I can get to the next step.  Or how long until I see some kind of improvement in my withdraw symptoms.  Estimate and I will Psyche my brain out and make it true...if you can't say.   :D

 

Thank you sooooo much for the support!!!  :angel:

Eve

 

I'm afraid I don't know how long it will take to see some kind of improvement.  Could happen today or could be another day or two.  I tried to hope for the best but tried to practice acceptance of whatever happened.  Not always easy but still a good strategy.   :thumbsup:  If by the next step you mean the next time you make a reduction, I'd wait at least a week after you feel at least somewhat better.  I reduced my ativan (lorazepam) dose every 2 weeks more or less; I might have been able to go faster but after nearly 20 years, I wanted to be cautious and allow enough time for my body (and mind) to adjust.  

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I'm afraid I don't know how long it will take to see some kind of improvement.  Could happen today or could be another day or two.  I tried to hope for the best but tried to practice acceptance of whatever happened.  Not always easy but still a good strategy.   :thumbsup:  If by the next step you mean the next time you make a reduction, I'd wait at least a week after you feel at least somewhat better.  I reduced my ativan (lorazepam) dose every 2 weeks more or less; I might have been able to go faster but after nearly 20 years, I wanted to be cautious and allow enough time for my body (and mind) to adjust. 

 

I'll adjust to the regular schedule (as opposed to as needed) and accept these symptoms.  I never knew I had inter-dose withdraw and always thought it was panic attacks coming on.  Now that I have more knowledge and know what I'm dealing with, I can deal with it better. 

Thanks for your help...  :smitten:

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