Tapering off Lorazepam 4mg for 8 weeks

It’s been exactly 2 months since I started taking lorazepam (1mg for two weeks then upped 4mg for 6 weeks). I’m going to start tapering today, 10% which is 3.6mg instead of 4mg and see how I feel. I have a larger dosing compared to others but I hope that because it’s only been 8 weeks I won’t have such a horrible time but only time will tell. I had been postponing this for other reasons, tested positive for cdiff and currently taking antibiotics for that but I realized that’s there’s always going to be a reason to not begin for fear of withdrawal but the longer I’m exposed to it the more dependence I’ll create. Wish me good luck guys and keep me in your prayers, hopefully this week won’t be so horrible.

You may have been "lucky" not been long enough to this high dose to encounter the fulkl withdrawal, but that's just a guess, everybody is different.

Also at high doses you might feel not to much when tapering, but wait a couple of weeks to be sure. Good luck.

Hi HealthFighter

 

Good luck! 10% is probably a good place to start at your dose. From there your body will tell you whether it's working or not and if you need to adjust your taper rate. Let us know how it's going!

Sounds like you're off to a great start HealthFighter! Seeing the fear is so close to beating the fear.

 

I suggest starting a daily tapering journal, if you haven't already, with at a minimum the date, your dose, and any withdrawal symptoms and their severity. This information can come in very handy later on when deciding future reduction or explaining the need to go at your desired rate to doctors.

 

Good luck! 

I will! Thank you for the advice, I’m excited but I know that’s my naive mind towards everything, I’m just happy I finally made the decision to quit this horrible drug

Hi Healthfighter,

How are you doing with your taper? I am starting my 0.5mg Ativan (used for 2 months) taper next week and plan to do a 10% drop. Hope your doing well!

Thanks,

Liebswells

Hello, right now I’m at 2.87mg of my original 4mg (tapering 10% every week). In the third week I have definitely seen an uptick in anxiety but no other symptoms to report.

Just want to report, currently at 2.125mg and no withdrawals except anxiety. I don’t know if it will stay this way but I’m hopeful so for those that are tapering off after a short term use of Ativan, there’s hope!

Healthfighter, I was on Temazepam for only 21 days with five of those days being half doses.  Thus, it was more like a CT for me.  First two weeks were pretty bad but on day 40, only lingering is insomnia which seems to be lightening up a bit.  Although I did not really know about tapering until I joined Benzo Buddies post CT, I most likely would of benefited from tapering.  But on the other side, I really did not want any more days of this  poison in me.  Best wishes on your person journey through this.

I’m very glad to hear that your WD symptoms weren’t that bad! I feel like this gives hope to short term users that our tapering journey won’t be so scary (although everybody is different). I think it’s important to spread the positivity and “good” (mild WD) experiences as well.

Just wanted to update you guys, currently on 1.75mg (more than halfway through and thank god no WD symptoms this far)!

Just wanted to update you guys, currently on 1.75mg (more than halfway through and thank god no WD symptoms this far)!

 

Good to hear that taper is going well.  The only lingering symptom for me is insomnia but it seems to be turning a positive corner.  Looks like slow withdrawal may win the race!  Happy for you!

Excellent news! I'm so happy for you!

Hey guys! So update I did get WDs when I tapered to 1.75, bad bad morning anxiety and I got dizzy once so I had to hold. Thankfully, after the two week hold I feel back to my “normal” and functional so I can once again keep tapering. Currently at 1.5mg. I sometimes wonder why the heck I was prescribed such a high amount as a first attempt to treat my anxiety. Because I’ve been seeing most people on lorazepam usually around .5mg to 2mg. Smh.

I'm so glad you're making steady progress! Thanks for the update.

 

I sometimes wonder why the heck I was prescribed such a high amount as a first attempt to treat my anxiety. Because I’ve been seeing most people on lorazepam usually around .5mg to 2mg. Smh.

 

Yeah, https://www.drugs.com/dosage/klonopin.html said that a study showed 1mg was the best tolerated dosage of clonazepam, and higher doses were associated with more adverse effects; yet my doctor (who explicitly said he knew I was sensitive to medications and was giving me a low low dose) prescribed up to 6mg/day. So I think something is going wrong in some doctors heads when they prescribe this stuff...

 

I guess we have the chance to warn our families and friends, at least.

How are you doing it? Liquid? Thanks.

Right now just cutting pills. I bought a pill cutter at cvs and have been using that. I take three doses per day, right now it’s :

 

Morning: 0.5mg

Afternoon: 0.25mg

Night: 0.75mg

 

So I just cut the 1mg pills into four (.25 each) or two (.5 each)

 

You’ve been taking 2mg for about two months, right?