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Water titration on 5 mg of Ativan (taken once)


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:oI am on 5 mg Ativan taken once at night. I take one pill 2.5 mg and the other pill of 2.5 mg I dissolve it in water. Any tapering instructions, schedule?
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Ativan will not dissolve in water. It will break into tiny pieces. The Ativan mixed into the water is called a suspension. You can shake up the water but the tiny pieces will sink to the bottom again very quickly. Water is very bad at suspending medications. Pharmacies do not use water to make suspensions.

 

You want to truly dissolve the Ativan. That will make a solution. When you shake up the solution, the Ativan will stay dissolved and evenly distributed and will not sink to the bottom of the liquid. Most people here make a solution to use for tapering.

 

Builder gave you advice on another thread about how to dissolve Ativan in a tiny amount of alcohol and then dilute that with a large amount of water to make a solution. You can also use propylene glycol, but most people use alcohol (such as vodka.)

 

If you cannot use alcohol or PG, you can dissolve in full fat milk. (EDIT: ATIVAN IS POORLY LIPID-SOLUBLE. DON'T USE MILK. USE PG OR ALCOHOL.)

 

Once you decide which you want to use, builder or one of the other math guys can give you a schedule for tapering.

 

Gard :)

 

P.S. To find your old posts, click on "profile" and click on "show posts." To find out if anyone has relied to your posts, click on "show new replies" above.

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:oI am on 5 mg Ativan taken once at night. I take one pill 2.5 mg and the other pill of 2.5 mg I dissolve it in water. Any tapering instructions, schedule?

 

Your ativan will NOT dissolve in water.

 

You can dissolve it in a tiny amount of vodka or propylene glycol, the dilute it with water.

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Actually it can dissolve in water. But this water titration hit me hard as if I made a big cut. I only make cuts of 1ml...
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Actually it can dissolve in water. But this water titration hit me hard as if I made a big cut. I only make cuts of 1ml...

 

No, the tablet will breakdown and disintegrate, but the ativan will NOT go into solution.

 

The fact that the tablet deconstructs is NOT an indication that the active ingredient dissolved.

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Alcohol with benzosdon't match aren't they? In the past I was on xanax. Whenever I drank at night a beer a small glass of it, guess what. I couldn't sleep. A friend of mine who was on xanax along with some antidepressant told me that this happens every time he gets a drink. Keep in mind that we were not heavy drinkers.
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electra, don't be scared. I dissolved (and it did dissolve) my valium in 2 ml of vodka for the 3 years of my taper. Do you know how little 2 ml is? Get a tiny syringe and measure it. It's miniscule. I don't think any of us advocate mixing alcohol and benzos, but this is a tiny amount. You get more alcohol than this in your mouthwash. 

 

Be brave, electra. Dissolving your benzo in alcohol will make your taper so much easier. It was what saved my bacon.

 

Good luck,

 

Katz

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And where the active ingredient goes?

 

Oh, its in there, it's just not evenly distributed.  It might be laying in the bottom, it might be floating in top, it may be around the perimeter because of the vortex created when you stirred it.

 

But if you make a true solution of say, .1mg per ml, then every ml will contain exactly .1mg of active ingredient.  If you draw up and drink 5ml, it will be exactly .5mg of benzo.

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Alcohol with benzosdon't match aren't they? In the past I was on xanax. Whenever I drank at night a beer a small glass of it, guess what. I couldn't sleep. A friend of mine who was on xanax along with some antidepressant told me that this happens every time he gets a drink. Keep in mind that we were not heavy drinkers.

 

You're not going to drink the vodka, your going to use a tiny amount to dissolve your benzo so you can create a dilute liquid.  Alcohol is the worlds most commonly used pharma solvent.  Thousand of liquid med use alcohol as a solvent.  Roxane/West Labs makes an Rx liquid diazepam with 19% alcohol.

 

If you switched your 5mg to liquid, you would need 10ml of vodka, or 4ml actual alcohol.  That's less than a teaspoon. (.13 oz)  There's more alcohol than that in a glass of fruit juice.

 

And If you're really hung up on alcohol, just use propylene glycol  (the 2nd most common pharma solvent)

 

Just FYI, I'm a recovering alcoholic, more than 30 years sober.  My doc wrote scrips for my liquid V, but if I hadn't had access to Rx liquid, I would have had no reservations about the vodka solution.

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When I explained my system for dissolving and diluting my benzo, my doctor asked me how much alcohol. I said 3ml of 80 proof vodka for each dose, 3 doses per day. He said that was so little alcohol I didn't need to worry about it. It would not affect me at all.

 

I do not drink alcohol at all. The alcohol I use to dissolve my benzo does not affect me at all.

 

If you are still worried, you can buy propylene glycol. It will also dissolve benzodiazepines. And so will full fat milk. (EDIT: ATIVAN IS POORLY LIPID-SOLUBLE. DON'T USE MILK FOR ATIVAN. USE PG OR ALCOHOL.)  Water will not. It will break the tablet into tiny pieces but it will not dissolve the drug.

 

Gard :)

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When I explained my system for dissolving and diluting my benzo, my doctor asked me how much alcohol. I said 3ml of 80 proof vodka for each dose, 3 doses per day. He said that was so little alcohol I didn't need to worry about it. It would not affect me at all.

 

I do not drink alcohol at all. The alcohol I use to dissolve my benzo does not affect me at all.

 

If you are still worried, you can buy propylene glycol. It will also dissolve benzodiazepines. And so will full fat milk. Water will not. It will break the tablet into tiny pieces but it will not dissolve the drug.

 

Gard :)

 

Ativan (lorazepam) is the exception to milk tapers.  Unlike other common benzos, lorazepam is poorly lipid-soluble.

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When I explained my system for dissolving and diluting my benzo, my doctor asked me how much alcohol. I said 3ml of 80 proof vodka for each dose, 3 doses per day. He said that was so little alcohol I didn't need to worry about it. It would not affect me at all.

 

I do not drink alcohol at all. The alcohol I use to dissolve my benzo does not affect me at all.

 

If you are still worried, you can buy propylene glycol. It will also dissolve benzodiazepines. And so will full fat milk. Water will not. It will break the tablet into tiny pieces but it will not dissolve the drug.

 

Gard :)

 

Ativan (lorazepam) is the exception to milk tapers.  Unlike other common benzos, lorazepam is poorly lipid-soluble.

 

Thanks, builder. I didn't know that. I edited my posts.

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OK then. I'll go with the vodka water benzo solution. Builder what will be my schedule then. I don't like the idea of dissolving 50!! Mg lorazepam in the solution. What's the plan. Currently I am on water titration 2.5 dlmg dry + 2.5mg in water reducing by 1 ml. Awkward but it hit me hard as if was a big cut! I mentioned that before. When in liquid form the drastic ingredient wore off more rapid?
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I am trying to understand your dosage. Is this correct:

 

  • 2.5mg taken as a dry tablet.

 

  • 2.5mg mixed with water. How much water?

 

  • 1ml of water removed. For how long have you been doing this?

 

Builder will need to know the exact details to help you make a taper plan.

 

You will not be dissolving all your tablets. Most people make a week's worth of solution at a time. But you can make less than that if you want to. Tell builder if you want to make a whole week's worth of solution or a smaller amount.

 

Gard :)

 

EDIT: This is not correct. See the next post.

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I'm doing this for 5 days.. Tonight I'll take 2.5 +1.25 mg dry and the rest half 1.25 in 125 ml of water. I don't divide doses  I use this as a sleep aid which is my main issue.
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I'm doing this for 5 days.. Tonight I'll take 2.5 +1.25 mg dry and the rest half 1.25 in 125 ml of water. I don't divide doses  I use this as a sleep aid which is my main issue.

 

Did you only remove the 1ml of water only the one time? Or for 5 days? Either way, I would suggest you don't do that again. You may have been removing a different amount of drug each time. Wait until builder tells you how to taper using a solution.

 

I suggest that, for now, drink all the water so you get your full dose. Then put more water in the empty cup, swish it around, and drink again. This will make sure you did not leave part of your dose clinging to the empty cup.

 

If you are still feeling very bad from trying to taper with water, I also suggest you wait until you feel better before you start to taper. This is called stabilizing. You don't have to feel wonderful, but you have to know you can function and take care of yourself.

 

This may take time, but don't worry. You will be able to do this. :thumbsup:

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OK then. I'll go with the vodka water benzo solution. Builder what will be my schedule then. I don't like the idea of dissolving 50!! Mg lorazepam in the solution. What's the plan. Currently I am on water titration 2.5 dlmg dry + 2.5mg in water reducing by 1 ml. Awkward but it hit me hard as if was a big cut! I mentioned that before. When in liquid form the drastic ingredient wore off more rapid?

 

OK-

 

1)  I would go back to 5mg from tablets for about a week.  You are apparently are already symptomatic from the uncertain dosages you were getting from the water mix.  This will get you back and a stable dose and give your system a chance to normalize.

 

2)  If you don't want to make 50mg, then do 25.  Take half your dose (2.5mg) from tablets and the other half (2.5mg) from your liquid.

 

3)  Combine 25mg + 50ml 80 proof (or more) vodka + 200ml water.  This gives you a .1mg per ml solution.  Store at room temp in a coverred glass jar.  BTW, you don't "remove" anything, you just pull up the appropriate dose and drink it.  Just like you would with any liquid medicine.  For your 2.5mg dose, you drink 25ml.

 

4)  I don't really know what kind of taper schedule you want to do, but lets assume you want to 5%/10 days

 

5mg X 5%  = .25mg

.25mg/10 days = .025mg daily reduction

 

Your daily schedule would be:

 

2.5mg tablet    25ml (2.5mg) liquid

2.5mg              24.75ml (2.475mg)

2.5mg              24.5ml (2.45mg)

2.5mg              24.25ml (2.425mg)

etc...

 

If that rate doesn't suit you, choose whatever % and time frame you want, and just plug it into the formula I used.

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OK then. I'll go with the vodka water benzo solution. Builder what will be my schedule then. I don't like the idea of dissolving 50!! Mg lorazepam in the solution. What's the plan. Currently I am on water titration 2.5 dlmg dry + 2.5mg in water reducing by 1 ml. Awkward but it hit me hard as if was a big cut! I mentioned that before. When in liquid form the drastic ingredient wore off more rapid?

 

The sxs you experienced were NOT because you were using liquid, they were because you were not using an evenly distributed solution, and you actually had no real control over your actual dose.

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I feel terrible and I need a little break. When I begin maybe the day after tomorrow I want to taper up to 10% in a month. I still wonder if liquid solution wore off more rapid tan the solid pill and maybe that's why I sleep only 3-4 hours. Feeling excausted
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It sounds like you need a break from tapering. Go back to your whole dose. You can just take the tablets as builder suggested. That would be easiest. Or you can keep doing what you're doing but take the whole amount of the water. Don't remove any of it. Be sure to drink all of it.

 

I agree with builder that using water only to taper probably caused your problem. You probably removed way too much Ativan from your liquid.

 

I think it will take more than a few days to recover. I think it will take at least a week, maybe longer. Wait until your symptoms improve. There's no hurry. People who hurry have the most painful tapers. It's good to learn and plan and take your time. Let us know when you are ready to start.

 

Gard :)

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