Ativan Use off and on for 1 month

Looking for advice for a taper from sporadic Ativan use for 1 month. Off and on for insomnia from 4/6 to 4/19. Off for a few days then 1 mg per night for about a week. realized I was becoming dependent and looked up tapers. Went to .75 mg per night from 4/27 to 5/2. Just started .6 mg per day yesterday (2 .3 doses). Tough night sleep last night and a little off today. Am i going too fast. Very nervous that I will take more of this drug tapering that I did in total while using as I thought correctly.

I feel the sooner you get off of the Ativan the better, you're way too sensitive to this medication if you've already felt withdrawal symptoms after such a short amount of time.  I've seen it happen in as little as 10 days, so this is possible. 

 

If you're not incapacitated, I'd suggest keeping up the pace you're going, you're right, you don't want to be on it longer than you took it for.  If you begin to face serious withdrawal symptoms then of course, you'll need to slow it down, but I hope you won't face that. 

Thank you, able to work from home during the pandemic. A little shaky, spacey and little sleep. Concerned about when to "Jump" and what to expect post use.

Most feel symptoms well past the jump off of the drug, your brain is working hard to repair the changes the drug made so there will likely still be symptoms.  But, you're so smart to get off of this drug before anymore damage can be done.

 

The best tools are distraction, anything you can do to take your mind off of the symptoms helps and also acceptance and education.  Accept that sleep is going to be rough, don't get angry or frustrated, these won't help you but practicing good sleep hygiene and letting your body regain it's equilibrium will.  Learn all you can about what you're going through, fear is a big component of this process so the more you  know, the less you'll fear.

thank you again. i will let you know how it progresses.

The sooner the better Shauneh. I had been using ativan just a couple times a month for 3 years and only taking it regularly for two months. I too face the situation where I may be on a taper longer than my actual consistent daily use and that doesn't sit well with me. I've been pushing my taper faster than the Ashton method and until the last 2 days it had been going pretty well. You can see in my signature my progress so far. I started from 1.5mg and currently at .5mg in the course of 3 weeks. Only time will tell if I can keep this pace up or not but there have been people that did .25mg cuts all the way through and were fine but it seems more people definitely took it slower.

 

 

Thank you April10th. Are you doing the dose 1 at a time or several per day?

Thank you April10th. Are you doing the dose 1 at a time or several per day?

 

Several per day. I've been doing roughly 9am, 3:30pm, and 9:30pm. I may move my morning dose to around 6am as the 9:30pm to 9:00am stretch is really long. Most people on here suggest splitting it 2-3 times per day and try to keep it as even as possible per dose.