Need help with reinstate of Lorazepam

I am off Lorazepam for 1 week and the WD is unbearable!  Do I go back on and taper slower?

Hello SummerFun72!

 

It looks like you went off cold turkey from 2 weeks of intermittent lorazepam use (0.25-0.5mg/day), then reinstated some time later at 0.25mg/day for 4 days or so, cut your dose in half the next day, then quit again cold turkey.

 

Sadly, these drugs don't seem to work the way that doctors expect them to. Physical dependence can happen in a matter of weeks, or less; and yes, you will experience withdrawal getting off them. Since your usage was so short term, you could wait out the WD period, and you may feel a full recovery in a couple weeks to a month, or less. Or, if you have a history of benzo use prior to this, or other underlying health conditions it could take much longer to just wait it out.

 

Getting on and off as rapidly as you have been puts you at risk for kindling, an increased sensitivity to benzo withdrawal symptoms, from neurological damage. Not to be frightening, but it sounds like you need a much slower approach if you want reduced symptoms.

 

Did you stabilize at 0.25mg/day? That means returning to functionality, maybe not feeling awesome but able to eat, gentle exercise, and sleep.

We generally suggest cuts of no more than 10%, and many people prefer a slower rate.  Dropping from 2 to 1 dose of 0.125 mg was a 50% cut.

Since Ativan is pretty fast acting you should know in a couple of days if .25 a day is going to work for you, if you're still in bad shape after that you might want to consider going up another .125.  If that works for you I'd suggest holding that dose for a couple of weeks at least until you can feel a little more confident about beginning your taper.

 

Try not to worry about being on the drug for longer by doing this because your body is obviously already dependent so a few more weeks won't make any difference.

 

I'm sorry you're suffering, it's so unfair how this hits some of us but not others. 

We understand, no one can tell you how much you can take of this, only you know and we have to live our lives while doing this.  All of our choices are miserable but hopefully you can get feeling better soon.

Did someone call my name? Yes, slow and steady is the game here!

 

I imagine you're working with 0.125mg doses because that's 1/4 of your 0.5mg pills; is that correct?

 

How are you planning to do a 10% reduction? You'd need to remove 0.025mg from one of your doses. If you remove 10% from both doses, you'd be doing a 20% reduction; maybe you meant to say you're thinking of taking 0.00125mg from both doses. Do you have a liquid? Or a scale?

Worrying about doing harm will cause harm so my advice is to accept your reinstatement and work on getting stable for now.  One of the biggest contributors to increased symptoms is stress so I feel it would be a good idea for you to take this time to educate yourself about the process because the more me know the less we fear.

 

You might want to limit your time on BenzoBuddies while you're trying to stabilize because for as much as we need this place for support, it can also raise our fear because of the horror stories.

 

If you feel better being here with us, then you might want to read success stories or play some of the word games available in Just for Fun for distraction.

Sorry for leaving you hanging.  I'd suggest you do what is necessary to get stable.  Obviously a single 0.125 mg dose isn't cutting it.  The last dose that seemed to help was 0.250, so it would seem reasonable to try that. 

 

As Pamster said, you should know pretty quickly (1-2 days) if the up-dose is going to help.  If it does, I'd stay there for at least a week or two before beginning a nice slow taper.  10% is a much better target than 50%, but keep in mind that 10% is our maximum recommended reduction.  Many people make much smaller cuts.

It seemed to work for you before, so I'd say it sounds reasonable.

Your doctor just sounds like so many other doctors I've seen or heard about; they don't understand benzo tapering, in the least. My old MD just kept telling me to hang in there when I was rapidly losing weight and severely severely depressed and psychotic; same doctor who told me to take up to 6mg/day of klonopin "as needed". He's my OLD MD; it just didn't seem safe to have him on my healthcare team anymore; honestly, I should have moved on 15 years earlier.

 

I don't rely on doctors to judge my taper rate or methods; I get a regular prescription, and I taper with homemade liquid and tablets. I don't enjoy the dry tapering methods on account of dodgy scales and tedious measuring and re-measuring, but your dose is low enough it might be pretty easy... you've seen Bob7's site? https://benzodrytapermath.com/

 

Like Pamster and Badsocref are saying, I agree with the suggestion to just stabilize and try to relax. You can do this! Slow and steady; this will do LESS harm.

Symptoms are often a combination of both withdrawal and natural anxiety.  You can certainly add to the anxiety by worrying.

 

Used properly, benzos would provide a short-term (2-3 week) buffer, while your p-doc or therapist counsels you on how to deal with anxiety-related issues thru non-drug means.  Sounds to me like that counseling part could use some reinforcement.  It's natural to feel some level of anxiety, shaking, insomnia (and a lot of other symptoms) during withdrawal.  The rate at which you taper will have a big impact on the severity of symptoms you experience (50% is a big cut).  Your ability to accept/cope/renew/re-energize is your power to fight back against those symptoms.

I'm glad you're doing better.  You're learning your dosing boundaries.  0.25 per day seems to work.  0.125 doesn't (yet).

 

I did counseling during my withdrawal/recovery and found it very helpful.  It is important to develop strong coping skills.  If symptoms (or life) get nasty some day in the future, you want to be able to turn to something that works for you.  Some people meditate.  Some do breathing exercises.  Some exercise.  I try to tinker (stay busy).  A good therapist can help you find an approach that will work best for you.

I did counseling during my withdrawal/recovery and found it very helpful.  It is important to develop strong coping skills.  If symptoms (or life) get nasty some day in the future, you want to be able to turn to something that works for you.  Some people meditate.  Some do breathing exercises.  Some exercise.  I try to tinker (stay busy).  A good therapist can help you find an approach that will work best for you.

 

This is really good advice!

If .125 is working for you so far that's great!  After that it will be time to get the scale out and put it to good use.

I'm not sure but didn't your family want you to add other medications?  You feeling better on the .125 shows it's the benzo, you're not mentally ill, you're not in need of additional medications, you just need to get off this one slowly and safely so your brain can adapt while you do.

Hi all, I am doing very good on one .125 yesterday and one .125 today.  Do you think it is reasonable to just try and do the .125 morning dose for a week to see how it goes?  My mornings are "usually" my worst.  I feel really strong today and I feel that it may be ok to stabilize at .125 for a week.  Last time I did my short taper, I did the .125 morning and night and then when I dropped to the .125 for a few days before jumping, I was actually ok.  Ok until the day after my jump!!!

 

Thoughts?

 

Do me/us a favor and please update your signature.  It's hard to keep up with what you've been doing lately.

Many wonder when it's safe to jump but to me it depends on how you're feeling as you taper.  If your taper is fairly uneventful then you can jump whenever you feel confident enough to do so, if you're struggling all the way down then it makes sense to taper lower.  Once off you can expect to still experience symptoms since it takes awhile after that last dose for your body to recover. 

Are you asking if it's a good idea to make reductions every 3-4 days instead of every 7 days?  If so, its totally up to you. 

 

Since Lorazepam is fairly short acting you should know by the first couple of days how you're going to feel after a cut, if you feel okay then you could reduce again when you're ready but if you don't feel stable then you might want to hold off.  There are no hard fast taper rules, we all react differently so it's important to listen to your body when doing this. 

 

You've found out what happens when you reduce too quickly, learn the lesson your body is trying to teach you and you'll be much more functional as you do this.

It doesn't sound like it was a mistake if you're feeling so much better, I would imagine you'd still be suffering if you hadn't.  Its common for us to second guess ourselves but this just stresses us out so try not to do it.  You made a decision, you feel better so now you move forward with your plan.  This will be uncomfortable no matter how you approach it, this is the nature of benzo withdrawal so take comfort in getting some good sleep and feeling good because when you start your reductions, you'll face some challenges. 

We don't typically recommend skipping days, this creates a symptom whiplash effect, its better to keep blood serum levels as even as possible.  Your brain is craving some consistency and dosing erratically isn't the way to do this.  What is your reasoning for asking this?

Okay, thanks for explaining, this stuff happens.  Try not to worry about this today and take it when you get home, hopefully you'll do just fine. 

It's unfortunate that benzos are this hidden epidemic in our culture; if you were telling people your doctor had put you on briefly on heroin and they're not taking your physical addiction seriously, people would see the abuse taking place. But instead it's "medicine" and doctors seem to, across the board, dismiss withdrawal as some sort of underlying psyche symptom or other antics. It's disturbing, to say the least.

 

I know you're going to get through this! I'm glad you're working out a tapering plan elsewhere on the forum. Now that you're aware of the danger of these drugs, I hope you won't keep it a secret! I'm warning strangers, neighbors, whomever; I just tell them it's harder to get off of than opioids, and there were almost 100 million scripts for benzos in the US in 2019. That was BEFORE Covid. Also many people have been on these prescriptions for decades. That's a lot of neurological damage that can be hard to reverse.

 

Us short-timers are really the lucky ones; we got on, we want off, we'll get off. And we'll be wary next time! Long-term users are in for a much slower taper (if they're smart about it), a much bigger emotional and psychological adjustment, and generally they're older and often poly-drugged.

 

So I'm just saying, the danger is real; I'm sorry you got into this situation SummerFun72, but you're going to get through this, I know it. And no doubt, much wiser for it!

 

I plan to put benzodiazepines as drugs that I'm allergic to on my medical records once I'm done tapering... 

 

SummerFun72,  I hope you don't mind me answering before Pamster. I suggest trying to calm down, trying to see your body as healing, trying to see your timeline as long and easeful, and trying to see your taper as exploratory and flexible. "Fear is the mind-killer."

 

From what I've been learning, if you can practice relaxation, you will reduce brain inflammation, up-regulating neuroplasticity; this is the healing method by which the brain regrows its damaged and unbalanced receptors. People survive kindling. People survive traumatic brain injuries from car accidents. Learning to stay calm, and reduce inflammation, I think, is key to this recovery.

 

Yes, you will feel WD symptoms while you taper. If you're careful and taper slowly (like with an appropriate DMT) they can be rather minor, almost unnoticeable at times. But if you take quick, hard cuts, yes, it will be a little shock, and life can feel rough sometimes. I'm learning that however we cut, the people who get through are those than can normalize the experience, relax about even when they're not relaxed, and just accept that they're doing their best. So much of this is a mind game.

 

You'll get the hang of it! Learning to manage anxiety is a life skill, and will be necessary to stay off these kinds of drugs in the future.

Pamster, I am having a hard time with freaking myself out.  How would I know if I was kindled?  What are the signs?  Can one recover from that?  As far as my taper, I am at .125 and can function and get around but sleep is not good again. So even on a taper, symptoms are going to be present, correct?  How do I know if I am stabilized?

 

Good morning, Summer!

 

Tapering is an uncommon experience for people.  There are many mysteries and uncertainties along the path, and many people don't seem to like uncertainty (interestingly, some thrive on it).  You don't seem like one who wants a lot of uncertainty, so let me encourage you to not create it.

 

I think this article on the monkey mind is well written.  Maybe it will help you quiet your worried mind.  I'm not trying to promote anything else on this person's web site, but this article did seem well done.