Ativan 1mg plan

Hello,

 

I am wondering how to do a liquid taper off 1mg ativan. I've been trying to switch to valium and was planning to then taper off of that this way, but the switch does not seem to be going very well at all. I was stable on 1mg ativan when I started taking regularly (instead of nearly every day). I feel like I should go back to that for a week or so till I feel stable again, and dc the valium, then do a slow liquid titration taper off of ativan. It's really got a hold on me. I thought the valium transition would go better. Meh.

 

I tried 25% reduction before that was horrible, which brought me to BB.

 

Then I went to 5mg valium 0.5mg ativan, also terrible. Trying the switch to 10mg valium today but I'm doubtful this is going to work.

 

So If I go back to just 1mg ativan, what would it look like to do liquid taper for 10% (0.1mg) per week. I'm really not sure how long I should draw it out, would two weeks be better (5% per week). I seem to be pretty sensitive. Oh, and no milk, can't tolerate it, would use alcohol to suspend.

 

I am super impatient about all of this, freaked out, and I think a lot of that is due to wd symptoms and realizing how much the ativan destabilized me and caused all kinds of problems these past months. Hard to stay logical in this state.

 

Thanks

Be patient with the crossover.  It takes a couple of weeks to get the valium levels to a proper level in your body whenever you change your dosage. 

 

If 10mg valium doesn't work for you (again, be sure to give it sufficient time), then you can certainly do a liquid taper using Ativan.  I'd probably want to get stable on pills of Ativan first before beginning a liquid taper.  Again, give it some time.  Impatience and benzo withdrawal don't go well together.

Thanks, it's hard to deal with the crossover I'm going to try and stay at 10mg valium for a couple weeks instead see how it goes. If I can't handle it though I will stabilize back on the ativan and do a liquid taper, which is why I am curious what that would look like. I'm just not sure the valium is even helping at this point.

You'd probably want to dose liquid Ativan 2-3 times a day to even out the amount in your body a bit.  You'd have to dissolve your pills into alcohol, then dilute with water.  A lot of people that switch to liquid tapers find that they need to up-dose slightly when they switch to liquid.  The bioavailability of liquid formulations seems a bit lower for many people.  It's only a small up-dose, usually 5-10%.  There's a very active liquid taper group here: http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=135284.0;topicseen

Thanks, I ended up trying 10mg and was still having severe WD symptoms, so I worked it out with my doc to go to 15 for now and I feel alive again and just a little bit of symptoms that are tolerable. So I don't need the ativan taper at this point. It makes sense because I did occasionally need 2mg ativan before stabilizing at 1mg per day from tolerance. Thanks for your encouragement.

fwiw (and I don't mean to sound cruel) - I think it's good that you are still having a few symptoms.  It gives you a sense of what you will need to work through later on when you begin your taper.  With no symptoms, it's difficult to develop coping skills (since you feel fine).  With overwhelming symptoms, it's difficult to do anything.  With minor symptoms, you can work on coping approaches.

Yeah I hear you. I'd say I crossed over to the valium much too quickly. But I really don't want to go backwards. My symptoms are more moderate than minimal but I keep telling myself just make it through a full week on the 15mg valium. Every morning at this point I want to just quit and go back to ativan. I'm doing walks twice a day and that's probably the most helpful thing. Starting to have gi problems and that's no fun. I keep reminding myself I really did need the ativan. I probably wouldn't be alive without it, it was essential to my survival at the time. I tried like 15 other psych meds to deal with what I was going through and had horrific and even full on allergic reactions. I feel totally nuts rn but I've certainly dealt with much worse before, mentally and physically. I just have to keep constantly reminding myself and going easy on myself. At least I don't have to work rn. I don't know how people deal.