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[Mi...]

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When I was 19, I was in a very bad accident that nearly killed me, and left me a paraplegic.  At 20 I was put on Ativan for panic attacks.  Now at 51 I am taking 4 mg a day and finding not much relief...not even struggling with panic attacks often, but addiction to this horrid pill, yes.

Any suggestions on where/how to begin to get off of these?  I had a wretched year.  Tried to save my brother from drinking himself to death, and failed...he's gone.  My mom died at 62 years old of depression and anxiety that wreaked havoc in her life between the pills and the sadness.

I'd truly love any advice I can get to climb off of this increasingly frightening roller coaster of Ativan.  Thanks in advance, Michele.

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[8e...]

I don't mean for this to sound like a recording, but we suggest that individuals wishing to stop their benzo use do so via a slow taper.  There's more than one way to do your taper.  I'd suggest spending some time in the forum looking for how people are doing their tapers and how it's working for them.

 

Personally, I like the idea of the daily micro-taper the best.  Each day you reduce your dosage by a tiny amount (less than a percent).  You can do it by weighing out pill fragments or by diluting the pills in an appropriate solvent.  There are good instructions in the forum for doing it either way.

 

Slow down your taper if/when withdrawal gets nasty.  Hold if necessary.  Try to avoid up-dosing.  I found counseling useful to help find non-drug approaches to deal with the mental stuff that would come up.

 

(don't do what I did - I'd never had an actual panic attack until I c/t).

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I would second that advice. Read a lot. Try something that resonates. If that doesn't work, try something else. By "something else" I am talking about also just changing the amount to reduce and so on. It can take some tweaking.

 

The first thing I did was taper rapidly (including breaking pills) and then went ct for two weeks. I do not recommend doing that. It probably works out for some, but I found it absolutely devastating.

 

After stabilizing and reading more and asking for input, I decided to go with daily liquid micro taper with what some here call a home brew where I mixed a 1:2:8 ratio of benzo:vodka:water. That worked out for me, and I've been off Xanax for over two months now.

 

Again, I'd recommend learning as much as possible to make an informed decision and then be willing to adjust as needed. Being flexible seems pretty important, because this is a very hard journey.

 

You can do this!

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