Will Ativan to Valium make me feel better?

Currently I'm on Ativan 1.25mg a day, .5 morning and night, .25 bump during the day. I feel, for lack of a better word, EXTRAORDINARILY awful. Definitely side effects, tolerance, interdose withdrawal and craving constantly, the whole nine yards. It may also be contributing to my extreme debilitating sound sensitivity, ear pain, migraines, motion/light sensitivity, etc. My mother and doctor want me to dry cut over eight weeks in .25 reductions every two weeks, which seems insane given the time, my dose, my sensitivity, and my health.

 

I want to find a psych who will oversee a valium microtaper. Stop all the up and down rollercoaster, the interdose, maybe even the tolerance, and taper down with steady daily dry cutting (I have a scale).

 

I'm scared of the cross though. I feel like my last two days of feeling so awful is partially because of my new prescription which is different pills than my previous one, I don't know if that's even a thing but it feels like it. How often does the cross to valium result in worsening symptoms or w/d symptoms? Is it possible the valium switch will make me feel BETTER by making me feel the way I do right now when I take my Ativan dose? I always feel ok for a couple hours before crashing hard and struggling to my next dose. If I could start my taper from a place of when I feel alright similar to right after my A dose but all the time, I think I might have a lot better success.

 

Please let me know your experiences and your advice, whether it's worth trying to find a psych/doc to do a valium switch or if daily dry cutting (recently started 1% a day, on day 3) of the original drug, rough as it feels, is the best way forward. Thanks.

I switched, but NOW ...to be honest......I wish I would have continued HOLDING with Ativan.  Ativan does not take as long to get off of that's why I wish I had not switched.  Valium takes longer to taper from and you can't feel it for a week after you began then it hits you.  Better to have deal with the rough part with Ativan and/or Holding till I could taper more slowly and get off faster.  That's just my opinion.

By my recollection your sig says you tripled your equivalent dose when switching Ativan to Valium? Seems crazy, maybe you feel that way because all the time spent tapering down from 30mg was just spent getting back to where you were on the Ativan? I would plan to switch over to 10-12mg Valium stepwise from the Ativan.

Yes, I think the doctor GP gave me too much, it should have been 15 mg, but he did not know what he was doing and either did I when he prescribed it.  However, I did get off it fast and that part was good but yes, I did hit the wall hard and had to be on 10 mg Hold for 3 months.  Starting a Liquid taper again, but going slow right now till my CNS adapts.  No tapering for 1 week and then try to taper 5% for another week then If all is good, I'll up it a little more to see how I do  until I can sustain 10% taper.  That is my hope and my prayer.  You can still get off Ativan faster because I have done that in the past.  Valium is much harder.