Help stopping Ativan

Hello! I hope I'm posting in the correct place. I first posted my introduction on January 10th, but then didn't post again because my doctor assured me that since I was able to go 2-3 days between doses of Ativan and had only take 12.5 pills at that time, I wasn't dependent on them and could just stop. After going 6 days without taking one I started having the most severe panic I've ever had in my life. Lightheaded, felt like brain was shaking, shallow breathing, arms, legs and hands numb and tingling, etc. So, I had to take an Ativan. Two days later(yesterday) I woke up with the same severe panic feeling and suffered for several hours before finally taking half an Ativan(.5). It didn't help and I continued to suffer until about 8 pm when it finally passed. So, I went back to the doctor today and he agreed it sounds like I'm dependent on them and should get off of them. However, he told me I could keep taking them if I really needed one and also prescribed Restoril for my insomnia to replace the Ambien I've been taking because it's not working well! Egads! We didn't discuss getting off the Ativan, just agreed I needed to. In the meantime, he also increased my Zoloft from 25mg to 50mg and I always have bad side effects when increasing and may need the Ativan for that!

 

So, basically I don't know what to do. I'd like to never have to use the Restoril(haven't slept more than 1-4 hours a night for 7 weeks, usually 3), get off the Ativan and be able to sleep on my own! I want to just take my Zoloft, BP pills and nothing else.

 

At this point I've only taken 14.5 Ativan since December 13. The last time I took it was yesterday, Jan 21 .5mg. I'll post the dates below of every time I've taken it that I can remember. I can't remember all the dates in December, but it was roughly every other day or ever 2nd-3rd day since the 13th and usually .5 mg.

 

I appreciate any and all help and advice, and again, I apologize if this is the wrong place to post!

 

December 13-1mg

December 14-1mg

 

January 2-1mg

January 5-.5mg

January 8-.5mg

January 10-.5mg

January 13-.5 mg

January 19-1mg

January 21-.5 mg

 

 

Also, this is my introduction post for further clarification

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=250584.0

 

Thank you!

Hi katmandu, I'm sorry to see you're back and to hear you've been suffering.

 

I'm going to give you the same advice, it's my feeling that you need to get stable and to do this it would be wise to take a small dose of Ativan every day for a few days then start reducing from there. 

 

What size are your pills are they 1 mg or .5? 

 

Do you think .25 every day would help you feel stable, it would be helpful to split your dose into at least two doses.

 

I would be hesitant to increase your Zoloft dose at this time, especially if you're typically sensitive to increases, being dependent on benzo's can cause you to react to other medications and supplements even more than you normally do.  I've found in my time here that adding more drugs into the benzo mix isn't always the best course to take.

 

Are you taking Restoril, its a benzo too, please let us know what your dose is.

 

Keep talking to us, we'll get this worked out.

 

 

Thank you for replying! My Ativan is 1 mg, but I usually only take half. I've already started the Zoloft increase today and I'm not too concerned about it. I'm taking 37.5 now and will gradually move up to 50 mg. I'm a little concerned about taking the Ativan every day since I haven't been, but I don't know anything about it, so I trust your expertise! 

 

I picked up the Restoril prescription today, but have not taken any and am hoping to never have to. I've been taking Ambien 5mg(Restoril is supposed to replace that), but I've only taken 7 of them, though not on 7 consecutive nights. I'm hoping I can start sleeping on my own and will not need the Ambien anymore either.

 

Thank you for your help!

I know it sounds counterintuitive to take the Ativan every day when you haven't done this in the past but try to think in terms of a pendulum swinging wildly back and forth, this is what you put your body through by erratic dosing. Ativan has a fairly short half life so when you don't take it regularly, you're putting your body through mini withdrawals in between doses. Our goal is to keep your blood serum levels as stable as possible while gently reducing your dose, this is optimal in terms of tapering.  Once our body goes into severe withdrawal symptoms it's very difficult to pull it back out, many members will up-dose to relieve the symptoms and this is not the direction we want to go in. 

 

Restoril has a longer half life than Ambien but I'd avoid starting it if you can, I'm not a fan of using one addictive drug to get off of another one.  Hopefully you can discontinue the Ambien as well, I took it too and the interdose withdrawal I experienced was terrible.  What helps is to accept that insomnia is going to be a part of this process and reaching for prescription drugs will just complicate things.  We have a lot of good sleep tips on the Insomnia  board.

Do you have a recommendation on how much to take daily and how to taper?

What do you think about a daily dose of .25 for a few days to see how you feel?

 

There are many ways to do this, Lorazepam comes in liquid form from the pharmacy if your Dr is agreeable to write the script, this makes it very easy to make reductions.

 

You can crush and weigh your dose on a jewelers scale with good accuracy.  Once a scored pill is cut in half you can't be guaranteed even distribution of the medicine so it gets tricky the smaller in dose you go.

 

There is also using liquid to reduce your dose, you can see some info here: Titration FAQ's

 

I hope I'm not overwhelming you.

You're not overwhelming me, I already am overwhelmed!  I just don't know what to do! I keep going back and forth between keep taking it as needed until my Zoloft levels out and sleep gets better, or stopping cold turkey or tapering. I wouldn't think cold turkey would be dangerous with as little as I've had, would it? It's just so hard to decide!

You can quit cold turkey but it will hurt, of course tapering will too and seizures are rare so I don't think you're in much danger of that unless you have a history.  I hate to see you stay on it while waiting to level off after your Zoloft increase because antidepressants don't do much to help with benzo withdrawal. 

 

My feeling is you're better off stabilizing on a daily dose then beginning a taper, hopefully with your limited time on the drug it can be a fairly rapid taper but your symptoms will determine that.

 

Another option would be to add your Ambien and Ativan doses together and cross over to the Restirol and then taper from that since it has a longer half life than both of the other medications.