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Please somebody help me! I was here about a month ago in what I now know to be interdose  withdrawal. I’m up to 2.mg Ativan and something is terribly wrong! I’m so depressed,anxious,having tremors; crying,can’t eat or sleep and feeling really awful. I had planned on starting my micro taper in January but I feel like I'm dying. Please someone tell me what is going on!!!!!!!

 

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It is hard to know for sure.

 

You could be having paradoxical effects or side effects.

 

You could be having interdose Withdrawal.

 

Do the symptoms change when you take the dose or when it should be wearing off. Are they constant or do they change, get better or worse when you take the drug?

Hi Lilywhite,

 

I see in your signature that you were on 1.5 mgs daily, and now you've increased it to 2 mgs, are you still taking it multiple times a day, are your symptoms worse in the morning or is it all day long?   

 

Ajusta may be right, Professor Ashton mentions paradoxical reactions to the drug, but we need a little more information.  Help us help you, okay?

 

Pamster

I feel awful if I take it and if I go even an hour past time for me to take a dose it gets worse. When I take it it helps slightly but the past 4 days I’ve been like this with the symptoms I talked about worsening. I went to a  facility 5 yrs ago and they switched me from Xanax to Klonipin no problem. My psychiatrist was tapering me off klonopine , which now I know was too fast and I ended up in the hospital in full withdrawal and they put me on Ativan. I begged my psychiatrist to change and he said no. I have always felt awful on it but this is different, something is wrong terribly wrong. I’m thinking about going to the facility again but that scares me because they haven’t a clue what to do for me and might make matters worse by giving me other drugs I Don’t Want!!!!!!

So I pretty much feel this way all day long. I dose 4 x daily. What am I going to do?

I was reading back through your posts just now and saw how badly your body has been jerked around by the changes in your medications.  It looks like you went from 1.5 mgs of Klonopin to 1.5 mgs of Ativan, when the conversion should have been 1.5 to 3 mg, so you've been in a horrible mess ever since, no wonder you're in so much pain!

 

Is there anyway your Dr would support you going back up to a reasonable dose in order to stabilize?

I don’t think he would. When I saw him after my hospital stay I asked him to please put me back on klonapin and he said no , that’s what they put you on and I’m not going to change it. I won’t be able to see him until Monday and I’m so sick.

If he won't switch you back to Klonopin, can you show him a conversion table stating that they neglected to put you on an equivalent dose?  I don't understand why he won't go against the hospital, he's your Dr!

 

If this is the way it has to be, then maybe it's time to consider tapering off the Ativan, you're miserable on it, might as well be reducing it if you're going to be feeling like this anyway. 

 

Let us know what your Dr says on Monday and we'll try to help you get through this.  In the meantime, try to distract yourself, that was the only thing that helped me, do anything but focus on your symptoms.

I feel awful if I take it and if I go even an hour past time for me to take a dose it gets worse. When I take it it helps slightly but the past 4 days I’ve been like this with the symptoms I talked about worsening. I went to a  facility 5 yrs ago and they switched me from Xanax to Klonipin no problem. My psychiatrist was tapering me off klonopine , which now I know was too fast and I ended up in the hospital in full withdrawal and they put me on Ativan. I begged my psychiatrist to change and he said no. I have always felt awful on it but this is different, something is wrong terribly wrong. I’m thinking about going to the facility again but that scares me because they haven’t a clue what to do for me and might make matters worse by giving me other drugs I Don’t Want!!!!!!

So I pretty much feel this way all day long. I dose 4 x daily. What am I going to do?

 

don't be affraid of other drugs.. there's nothing worse than benzos and you're already on them. so anything else that's non benzo that could help you, you should consider

I will ask him to look at a conversion chart, but when I mentioned the Ashton Manual he would not even consider looking at it. He then pulls out a tapering chart after we discussed the Ashton Manual and says this is what we follow. He was on board with me doing the micro taper but wouldn’t consider C/o to Valium. Although he prescribed it to me when I went into his office jerking, twitching and about to have a seizure. This is when he first started the slow taper. He told me to take 3 Valium to stop me from descending into hell and continue the slow taper. Eventually I did end up in the hospital for four days. I don’t mean to be so whiny and I don’t mean to bad mouth him because he really is a good doctor. I’ve just been through so much this past year and I’m really tired and feel so mentally ill.

As far starting to taper from the Ativan, I totally agree I can’t feel much worse. I will see him Monday and let you know how it turns out. Thank you all so much, I need all the help I can get. Thanks again.

Here is link of more information that your Dr may be more open to than the Ashton manual, but maybe not.    http://www.recovery-road.org/for-professionals/

 

Let us know how it goes, we'll be here.