Ativan to Valium substitution advice

Hi all!

Just wanted some advice on how to safely substituteAtivan to Valium. Dr. Stopped my Ativan prescription and is basically telling me that I shouldn’t be having any withdrawals since one on Valium. Would like to know best taper. Much appreciated

I have about 40 .5 mg of Ativan left. My schedule usually looked like:

1mg of Ativan every night. Then when dr have my Valium I was taking 10mg of Valium every night instead of Ativan for a few nights. Added the Ativan .5 very other day when I was feeling shaky. Have never been on meds before now so never really had a scheduled time to take I would just take it when I was feeling jittery. Also started cymbalta 30mg (2 months)

How do you feel when taking only the 10 mgs Valium and .5 mg Ativan every other day, do you feel shaky the day you're not taking the Ativan?

I wake up feeling like crawling out of my skin and that pretty much last for hours.

All benzos don’t work exactly the same in the body, so if you have been regularly taking Ativan and switch to Valium with no gradual crossover you will very likely have withdrawals from the Ativan. I took 6 weeks to crossover from 1 mg Klonopin to 20 mg Valium. I dropped .25 mg Klonopin at a time and added 5 mg Valium. I still had withdrawals, but they were very mild (mostly a weird somewhat painful head pressure). If you have left over Ativan, you could do something similar to ease the symptoms you’re having, it would just be faster if your doctor is not willing to help you cross over.

Thank you for your reply.

Do you mind sharing your cross over schedule

Weeks 1&2: .5 mg Klonopin AM/.25 mg Klonopin & 5 mg Valium PM

Weeks 3&4: .5 mg Klonopin AM/10 mg Valium PM

Weeks 5&6: .25 mg Klonopin & 5 mg Valium AM/10 mg Valium PM

Week 7: 9 mg Valium AM/10 mg Valium PM

 

I started tapering immediately when I switched to only Valium, so I never actually took 20 mg which is the Ashton equivalent for 1 mg Klonopin.

Sounds good. How were the withdrawals?

I wake up feeling like crawling out of my skin and that pretty much last for hours.

 

It looks like you could reach stability if you took 10mgs Valium and .5 mgs Ativan every day, do you feel this could be your starting crossover dose? 

Going to have to give it a try and see. Should I space them out 3x a day? Or 2x?

If it's been working for you I'd continue to take them as you have while you stabilize, you might want to wait a few days before attempting to taper.  What do you think?

Yes I’m going to wait until after Xmas. Have little ones and I don’t want to ruin their Xmas with mom being all sick Happy Holidays btw

Good idea, its always helpful to get a plan together and start a taper from a good place.  Keep track of your doses so we can help you when you're ready to get started.

 

Happy holidays to you, be well. 

All benzos don’t work exactly the same in the body, so if you have been regularly taking Ativan and switch to Valium with no gradual crossover you will very likely have withdrawals from the Ativan. I took 6 weeks to crossover from 1 mg Klonopin to 20 mg Valium. I dropped .25 mg Klonopin at a time and added 5 mg Valium. I still had withdrawals, but they were very mild (mostly a weird somewhat painful head pressure). If you have left over Ativan, you could do something similar to ease the symptoms you’re having, it would just be faster if your doctor is not willing to help you cross over.