NEED HELP PLEASE

Hello!

I need help please. I am so unstable with ativan at 0.23. I was taking 2 doses a day and I was fine until I got to the lower dosages. Now they dont last anything in my body. I had to divide the doses in 4x per day. Still not working. im still experiencing gaps of having no medication and had to updose to 0.25 mg and I continue to feel like I need more because of these huge gaps between my doses. I am thinking maybe I need to switch to a 2 mg tablet of Valium. i do not know anything about valium, I do not know how to switch. i never took a medication in my life. Please help, I am so confused I do not understand anything. I read the manual but it doesnt show an example for such a low dose. I really do not want to do cold turkey.

Sorry you are having to go through this...no fun.

My story is a bit different than the "norm" on this subject. I was cold turkey'ed from Ativan 1.5 mg. About 45 days into the c/t I was put back on Ativan...only I was given .5 mg. I felt stabilized instantly!

Thankfully, this would be my last Inpatient episode.....up to this point in time, a full year had already transpired of this benzo/z-drug ride. I was exhausted and bewildered from this "mysterious illness" affecting me.

I was Inpatient for two weeks and was grateful to be there for more than one reason. But being put back on Ativan turned out to clearly be the best reason to be in an Inpatient setting once again.

When I got home I did my homework. I got on the Internet and searched the drug Ativan. I was shocked to see it was my problem...soon after I would see that Ambien was equally as bad.

After reading the Ashton Manual, I decided to cross over to Valium. My only problem was I had to get my doctor to agree. And as far as I was knew, he was not educated on these drugs. If he had been he would have recognized why my health had taken such a drastic nosedive...going on over a year at this point in time.

Fortunately, he agreed to let me cross over to Valium. I did a dry pill taper....I did not use a scale. By the end of my taper(s) I had powdered lines of these drugs. Eventually the lines were so tiny I just jumped.

The entire process went smoothly for me. I cannot speak for you in terms of what to do. We all are different.

I did get the toxic depression from Valium. It was horrible. And it mainly hit me upon awakening in the morning.

Hope this helps a bit. I do understand your concerns and your level of anxiety. Doing this alone can be so unreal given how serious it is going through it.

Thank you for your response. Were you more stable taking the valium?

Toxic depression sounds hprroble. That just gave me major anxiety

Also how did you split your doses of valium? From ativan 0.5 tp valium?

I decided to just jump over to Valium. For more than one reason I made that decision. The jump went fine. I did not notice if I was more stable on Valium. Like I said in previous post, once I was put back on Ativan, I felt stable. I had been in a c/t state for 50 days(according to my notes) before being put back on Ativan. It was only 1/3 the original dose too...so clearly I was not in tolerance with Ativan(who knows though...I just know I was miserable from being c/t'ed and getting even a third the dose back in my system did wonders. These drugs are obviously VERY potent regardless of dose). Ambien...I can only guess the damage that beast had caused. It's what started this nightmare.

The taper that followed my quick jump over to Valium, went well enough too. I wasn't symptom free. But I can say I have never been revisited by my initial acute level of symptoms experienced in the beginning of this ordeal. I still suffered/suffer...but again not like the initial beginning. I can't put words to what I went through...and I was alone. It was beyond one's worst nightmare.

I decided with my limited knowledge then, to take the full dose before bed. I had a strict schedule that I kept to so that I would be sure to get some sleep. I averaged 4 hours a night for a good two years. After joining BB I realize I was fortunate to be getting any sleep....especially at the beginning of my taper. Sleep is critical to healing...I think.... and that goes for anytime during this benzo ordeal.

I was also on Ambien 10 mg during the Valium taper of 6 months. After Valium, I tapered Ambien...it took about 6 months too. The Ambien pills were a bit tricky to prepare as they had an outer paper-like coating that had to be peeled off. I figured it was "filler". The process is tedious no matter the approach. I was very careful to be as exact as possible...and saved every crumb I didn't use during the process...then got rid of what was left at the end of the taper.

I remember this whole process as taking all my mental strength+.

One day at a time...can't speed it up can't slow it down...