Success Story for folks just starting/thinking about starting their taper

Hi everyone,

 

My story isn't very dramatic and is really meant for those of you that came to this site in anticipation of starting (or potentially starting) your taper.

 

The punchline is this: I took 1MG of Ativan every night for a year and successfully did a dry cut taper over the course of about 3 months, with the only withdrawal symptom being a worsening of my insomnia for a short period of time a couple weeks after my final dose.

 

The lesson is that not everyone goes through a brutal (and heroic) withdrawal and recovery journey, although those that did deserve to bask in their success and soak in the congratulations! But the fact is reading some of those success stories can be scary for folks that have not embarked on the process yet. And I want those folks in particular to know that some of us had a relatively drama-free withdrawal experience.

 

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My benzo journey started like so many others on here. I started waking up in the middle of the night and could not fall back asleep. Of course I started to worry that something was wrong with me and then the anxiety spilled over to sleep onset, so now I was having problems going to sleep too! The anxiety/insomnia spiral had commenced!

 

This is when I was first prescribed Ativan by my GP. It worked well at first with sleep onset, but didn't really address my early morning awakenings. Eventually it stopped working with sleep onset too. So then I was prescribed 12.5MG of Ambien to take on top of the 1 MG of Ativan every night! This "fixed" my sleep onset, but I still kept waking up most nights after only about 4-4.5 hours of sleep and not being able to get back to sleep. It was at this point that I began CBT-I with a psychologist.

 

The good news is that I tapered off of the Ambien relatively quickly (I was on a full dose for about a month and it took two months to withdrawal), but kept my Ativan dose steady as by now I had read how careful you want to be when coming off benzos and z-drugs and not to just take it one step at a time.

 

After coming off the Ambien, I really focused on applying CBT-I practices. Some worked, some didn't. I was hoping to get my sleep 100% on track before starting my Ativan withdrawal, but I realized that with early morning awakenings in particular, these can be nagging, long-term issues with sleep as we get older. May be I just need to accept it and move on. So I did just that and began tapering off of Ativan in August of 2018.

 

The taper went relatively well...I was still only getting 4-5 hours of sleep most nights, BUT it wasn't getting worse as I tapered and I wasn't getting any other withdrawal symptoms. I jumped in October of 2018 and was SOOOO thankful that I got through it relatively symptom-free.

 

About two weeks after I finished tapering, I got hit hard with a worsening in my insomnia. I think that might be when I first posted on here. I received re-assurance from the fine folks here that yes, it is possible to see a delayed effect like this and that one can't really predict these things. That helped me just go with it when I could have easily fallen back into a rescue dose on some nights. Sure enough, after a couple of bad weeks, including multiple nights with 0 hours of sleep, things stabilized again to my "normal" 4-5 hours. Boy, 4.5 hours of sleep or so when you've experience 0-hour nights gives you a whole new perspective!

 

I'm now about 6 months out and my sleep has improved, albeit in fits and starts. I probably average around 6 hours a night. My "bad" nights are around 5 hours and my good nights can be as many as 7 hours. This is better than the sleep I was getting on a full does of Ativan AND Ambien, which I attribute to implementing a number of the CBT-I practices and sticking with them.

 

I hope some of you find this helpful! This is a great community of support and I know it helped me a ton. Thank you!!!

 

 

Congratulations, Lilac001!  Thanks for sharing your story.  Stories like yours are really important - providing more balance to the possible outcomes. 

 

Wishing you all the richness life has to offer!  Enjoy your freedom!

 

xo,

sierra 

Congratulations Lilac001 and thanks for sharing your story as it will encourage many that are hesitant about coming off the Medications.

Thank you, I needed this. I'm going to 1/8 mg. in a few days, have been dry cutting. My brain right now just can't handle trying to figure out the liquid method. 

Greetings!❤

Hi everyone,

 

My story isn't very dramatic and is really meant for those of you that came to this site in anticipation of starting (or potentially starting) your taper.

 

The punchline is this: I took 1MG of Ativan every night for a year and successfully did a dry cut taper over the course of about 3 months, with the only withdrawal symptom being a worsening of my insomnia for a short period of time a couple weeks after my final dose.

 

The lesson is that not everyone goes through a brutal (and heroic) withdrawal and recovery journey, although those that did deserve to bask in their success and soak in the congratulations! But the fact is reading some of those success stories can be scary for folks that have not embarked on the process yet. And I want those folks in particular to know that some of us had a relatively drama-free withdrawal experience.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

My benzo journey started like so many others on here. I started waking up in the middle of the night and could not fall back asleep. Of course I started to worry that something was wrong with me and then the anxiety spilled over to sleep onset, so now I was having problems going to sleep too! The anxiety/insomnia spiral had commenced!

 

This is when I was first prescribed Ativan by my GP. It worked well at first with sleep onset, but didn't really address my early morning awakenings. Eventually it stopped working with sleep onset too. So then I was prescribed 12.5MG of Ambien to take on top of the 1 MG of Ativan every night! This "fixed" my sleep onset, but I still kept waking up most nights after only about 4-4.5 hours of sleep and not being able to get back to sleep. It was at this point that I began CBT-I with a psychologist.

 

The good news is that I tapered off of the Ambien relatively quickly (I was on a full dose for about a month and it took two months to withdrawal), but kept my Ativan dose steady as by now I had read how careful you want to be when coming off benzos and z-drugs and not to just take it one step at a time.

 

After coming off the Ambien, I really focused on applying CBT-I practices. Some worked, some didn't. I was hoping to get my sleep 100% on track before starting my Ativan withdrawal, but I realized that with early morning awakenings in particular, these can be nagging, long-term issues with sleep as we get older. May be I just need to accept it and move on. So I did just that and began tapering off of Ativan in August of 2018.

 

The taper went relatively well...I was still only getting 4-5 hours of sleep most nights, BUT it wasn't getting worse as I tapered and I wasn't getting any other withdrawal symptoms. I jumped in October of 2018 and was SOOOO thankful that I got through it relatively symptom-free.

 

About two weeks after I finished tapering, I got hit hard with a worsening in my insomnia. I think that might be when I first posted on here. I received re-assurance from the fine folks here that yes, it is possible to see a delayed effect like this and that one can't really predict these things. That helped me just go with it when I could have easily fallen back into a rescue dose on some nights. Sure enough, after a couple of bad weeks, including multiple nights with 0 hours of sleep, things stabilized again to my "normal" 4-5 hours. Boy, 4.5 hours of sleep or so when you've experience 0-hour nights gives you a whole new perspective!

 

I'm now about 6 months out and my sleep has improved, albeit in fits and starts. I probably average around 6 hours a night. My "bad" nights are around 5 hours and my good nights can be as many as 7 hours. This is better than the sleep I was getting on a full does of Ativan AND Ambien, which I attribute to implementing a number of the CBT-I practices and sticking with them.

 

I hope some of you find this helpful! This is a great community of support and I know it helped me a ton. Thank you!!!

 

Thanks for posting Lilac, we need more stories like this on this site! I hear Ativan is no joke so congratulations to you.