update on my ativan taper

I was on .5 Ativan for a little over 3 years.

I lowered my dose to 3/4 of a tablet on October 28, 2018.

I lowered my dose to 1/2 of tablet (.25) on November 25th, 2018.

I tapered too fast.

My symptoms included anxiety, depression, crying, severe muscle cramps, headaches, neck pain, and intrusive thoughts.

Things that helped- epsom salt baths, supplements for specific symptoms, gel patches for migraines, heating pad for my neck, and massage. I tried to stay active but some days I just couldn't leave the house.

I had mostly stabilized by the end of December and was much improved by mid-January.

My doctor has agreed to let me taper using liquid ativan but she wasn't quite sure how to order it or how I should do it. Can someone help me with that?

Thanks!

Hi marigold7,

Congratulations on having made the decision to get Ativan out of your life.

The initial cut rate was definitely brutal. But I totally get it, the pills look so small and it seems to make so much sense to just make what appear to be reasonable cuts. I learned the hard way as well and the symptoms are punishing, as you have very unfortunately experienced. I'm very happy to hear that you were able to somewhat stabilize.

I've stayed away from supplements, but some others on here will tell you that they've worked wonders. My advice would always be... if it's working.. keep it going.

On the days you can't leave the house, do you find your heart rate to be very high?

If I understand correctly, you are presently at 0.25mg Ativan at the moment right?  Liquid Ativan is certainly one option and some pharmacies could create a suspension liquid for you. There are some threads here that actually talk about how to create your own, from what I've gathered, there's an art to it but it's not too complicated.

If I may, I've been using a micro scale and razor to do dry cuts and it's working very well. The scale (0.001g) was $30 or so from Amazon and a pack for 10 razors was something like $2 or $3.  With the 0.5mg ativan pills it's very easy, 0.5mg on the scale is 0.050g. 0.25mg is 0.025g on the scale, so you could quite easily just slowly chop your pills down by cutting and then using the razor to chip away at the bulk till you get the required weight.  As long as you understand the +-0.003 sensitivity and learn the art of getting accurate by using other pills as calibration weights, it's actually very doable.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to help you with your original question of how to get a liquid version to taper from, but a few good things. 1. You appear to have a sympathetic doctor, when it comes to benzos this is remarkably rare, 2. You've cut down to half your original dose already!

I sincerely wish you the best and if you have any questions please just let me know.

I got the liquid today and am cautiously optimistic. The pharmacist was also super supportive and helpful. I won't start my taper again until after this weekend and am planning to go very, very slow.

I don't recall my heart rate being very high but I was kind of out of it by the time I went to see the nurse practitioner (who was not helpful at all. She wanted to do a CAT scan for my headache which was obviously from withdrawal.). I did have elevated blood pressure though. Thankfully, my doctor was much more sympathetic when I finally got to see her.

I wish you the best as you continue your journey. Thank you so much for your response.