Ativan to Valium 4 weeks? Wait to stabilize before crosssover?

I believe I am lucky to have found a doctor familiar with the Ashton method. She wants to do the cross over in 4 weeks? Is this normal? I could not find in the Ashton Manual a cross over for 1mg or 1.5 mg lorazapam to Valium. Higher doses it looks like a 6 week crossover. I have been struggling to hold at 1.25mg for almost a week I dropped to fast from 1.375 to 1.25 and had to up dose to 1.25. Does it matter if one has stabilized before starting crossover? Interdose withdrawal extreme. Any advice would be appreciated. I would try to drop more on lorazapam but it has become to brutal. Any advice an input would be of great help.

That seems a little fast to me. Some people find valium really helps with the interdose withdrawal, but the best way to find out is to do the crossover in stages and wait to see how you are feeling. Could you try as a first step switching the current 1.25 ativan to 1 mg ativan and 2.5 mg valium? You can then plan the crossover from there in stages with help from your doctor. I dont see a reason to rush.

Take care,

JKS

4 weeks is how long it took me to crossover from K to V in stages and it was ok 👌🏽.

It took me six weeks to cross from .75 mg of k to 15 mg of v. I did it in .125 increments. It was pretty smooth except for the one week with no clonazepam, but it was mostly benzo belly and nothing compared to what I have been through during the prior four unsuccessful tapers. Just hold if you feel you need to.

I was at 1 mg Ativan when I started the crossover to Valium. It took me 4 weeks to gradually decrease the Ativan and increase the Valium, and then once I was at the equivalency, stayed on the Valium for an additional two weeks. I weigh my pills on a scale that is precise to the thousandth of a gram. I took the Ativan down to .001 gm weight before stopping it. When I stopped, I didn't even notice it.

 

So to answer your question, the crossover took 6 weeks, and although you think that's only for the higher doses, the lower doses need the same time, in my opinion.

 

I cannot go as fast on the valium taper as Ashton recommends. Too many withdrawals. I am reducing by 4% per week. That is the most I can tolerate and still function. I tried to do 2  8% cuts in one week, and ended up feeling really lousy and couldn't get out of bed, with the usual withdrawal symptoms. 

I went immediately from Ativan 6mg a day to Valium 40mg a day and it is working for me.

It took me 6 weeks to do the crossover and I felt well. If you feel rotten, I would do smaller substitutions, perhaps. It's important to feel as well as you can during the cross, and during your taper. Feeling unwell is your body telling you that you are going too fast.

 

I, too, found Ashton's withdrawal schedule to be too fast, and had to do a daily microtaper to allow myself to have any quality of life. This may not happen to you, but it's an option. There's no need to feel totally rotten!

 

Hope things work out for you.

 

Katz

I crossed in 10 days with no difficulty. Since Valium is more sedating and has a longer half-life, the cross immediately relieved my issues with interdose withdrawal and with insomnia. The insomnia came back later once I tapered to lower doses.

 

CP

The table at the link below shows a Lorazepam to Diazepam crossover completed in five weeks, along with subsequent Diazepam taper.  You can adapt this table to your own beginning dosage of Lorazepam.  Just maintain the same ratios.

 

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s8