Natural Remedies

Hi Guys,

 

I'm about to embark soon on my withdrawal journey for Ativan. Anyways I'm currently doing research on pros and cons for natural supplements/medicines. Can anyone tell me from personal experience if they've had luck with the following:

1) Melatonin

2) CBD and/or THC (in legal states of course)

3) Magnesium

4) Any other natural supplements not listed.

 

Any advice on the pros/cons of these would be wonderful.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

My advice is to not take too much stock in these natural remedies early on during your withdrawal if you end up having bad insomnia problems. They are just not strong enough to overcome the effects of benzos on your healing brain. It is a process that just has to run its course and unfortunately there are no short-cuts. If you decide to take any of the supplements, they probably will do you no harm. You might find that on some nights they seem to help a little bit, but you might just be experiencing recovery sleep due to exhaustion that you would have had without them.

Sage advice from Aloha.

 

I searched high and low for other non Benzo drugs, OTC sleep remedies and natural supplements.  Nothing will knock you out like a Benzo will.

 

Be careful as some supplements are Gaba agonists and can make symptoms more intense and withdrawal worse.

 

Good luck.

Lavender, I'm not sure how long you have been on Ativan, but if you read my sig line, I was on the same amount of Ativan. I took 1MG every night, as it was originally prescribed for sleep anxiety, for about a year. By the time I decided to taper, it had long ago been ineffective and I had found natural ways to manage my anxiety, although my early morning wake ups persisted (and still do to this day).

 

My experience was that when I first started tapering, my sleep actually improved a bit! I think there was some relief that I was finally heading down the road toward being drug-free, so don't just assume that your sleep will deteriorate when you begin to taper. I also did a fairly rapid withdrawal with dry cuts. Relative to some of the horrors others here have experienced, my withdrawal went relatively smoothly. If you take it really slow and steady, may be leave open the possibility that you may not need anything to help you sleep. Things may go smoothly for you. If not, well, that's what this forum is for! Lots of support and good advice here.

Lilac, what great comfort to know that you were on the same dose and were able to successfully withdrawal from a dry cut. That's amazing! CONGRATULATIONS. I think the most important piece of advice you just said was to not assume the worst. You're right, then I'm simply asking for a self-fulfilling prophecy! And like you said there is support on this forum every step of the way. Thanks again:)

I had the same experience as Lilac with sleep - it actually improved the lower I got and improved more when I jumped.  I'm hoping you have the same experience...sleep is a good thing.

Lavender, I'm not sure how long you have been on Ativan, but if you read my sig line, I was on the same amount of Ativan. I took 1MG every night, as it was originally prescribed for sleep anxiety, for about a year. By the time I decided to taper, it had long ago been ineffective and I had found natural ways to manage my anxiety, although my early morning wake ups persisted (and still do to this day).

 

My experience was that when I first started tapering, my sleep actually improved a bit! I think there was some relief that I was finally heading down the road toward being drug-free, so don't just assume that your sleep will deteriorate when you begin to taper. I also did a fairly rapid withdrawal with dry cuts. Relative to some of the horrors others here have experienced, my withdrawal went relatively smoothly. If you take it really slow and steady, may be leave open the possibility that you may not need anything to help you sleep. Things may go smoothly for you. If not, well, that's what this forum is for! Lots of support and good advice here.

 

Lilac, how are you doing now?  Did you have any symptoms after the jump?  If so what were they and how long did they last?

Horizon, I'm doing pretty good. I am thankful every day that I didn't get the array of wicked withdrawal symptoms that you often read about here.  And that's my main point to Lavendar....not everyone has major issues during or right after withdrawal. I think it's important to know that so that one isn't just bracing for this nightmare of an experience, which may in fact stir up unwanted anxiety! If one goes slowly enough, there may be hardly any issues at all (again, I realize there are others that have suffered terribly, even when proceeding with caution, so I don't want to minimize their experience either!).

 

The ONLY symptom I got was a worsening of my insomnia about two weeks after I jumped. It was really bad between weeks 2 and 4 post-jump. Multiple nights with zero to 3 hours of sleep in that timeframe. But....I held it together and eventually stabilized back to my pre-withdrawal baseline of about 4-5 hours per night.

 

Then in December I actually took a nice step up to about 5-6 hours per night. I have more recently been at the low end of that range, closer to 5. It's far from ideal, but I'm functioning and doing all the things I need to do at work and at home.

 

Keep in mind I have done a TON of work to manage my anxiety about sleep and create better conditions for sleep, all before I even began withdrawal. My main issue now is early morning awakening, with very broken sleep at best for an hour or two after. This was my baseline condition before I started benzos, so I do not believe this is withdrawal-related. I think I've been over the benzo withdrawal since I recovered from that two-week low point shortly after jumping.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the info Lilac!

Welchie and Lilac, both of your responses are so inspiring! And I couldn't agree more, if I'm going into it bracing for the worse, I'm bringing it on. Especially since I have sleep anxiety. When I expect to get no sleep, I just amp myself up.  Lilac, thanks for the tip, I think I should start practicing sleep hygiene and acceptance now before actually commencing tapering process.