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Question on changing dosing time


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I had initially been prescribed Lorazepam for anxiety/insomnia to take during the day and again at night. I never took it during the day only at night as I did not have any anxiety plus it just made me very tired.  What was supposed to be only for a few weeks has now turned into almost two months.

 

Never taking RX meds before, I found out Benzo's are not supposed to be taken for insomnia longer than a few days or so. I told the Dr. I wanted off asap which at that point I was almost a month in and tried to stop per his taper instructions but I had severe withdrawals. He had me start the taper back up which my sleep became worse and some days none at all.   

 

He decided a hard crossover to Diazepam would be a smoother transition to finalize the taper. Unfortunately turned out to be a nightmare and I feel worse on it now than I did on Lorazepam and when I take it at night, it wakes me up within 3 hours like clockwork . He said I could go back to Lorazepam if I wanted but from what I have read that doesn't seem to be accurate unless that's not correct?

 

Long story long, I am inquiring to see if there have been any previous posts and or information shared on how to transition away form taking it only at night and if switching back to Lorazepam should be done? At this point I know I have to stay on it for the taper but want to try and get my sleep back instead of having the meds interfere.

 

 

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hi,

so, it sounds like the valium crossover hasn't been working too well but am I right that before you did that you were feeling okay on just the lorazepam. 

there are a lot of folks that make that c/o and just don't feel well.  if you did better on lorazepam, maybe you could go back and do a slow taper off of that?  were you having any interpose withdrawal during the day when you were only taking it at night?

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I felt ok on Lorazepam until the lower doses which I started to have the interpose issues once I got down to .35 and then it got worse at .25. That is why he suggested switching to Diazepam. But now still taking it at night I am barely able to sleep and get woke up 3 hours later once the meds wear off and then I can’t get back to sleep.

 

I find myself getting tired at night but if I fall asleep without the meds I might doze off for an hour or maybe two, then I wake up with an extreme headache. I haven’t found a post and or article that talks about how to switch back to Ativan from Valium. Only doing transition off Ativan to Valium per the guide.

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A few comments.

 

You probably had what I call anxiety induced insomnia before taking benzos.  Benzos work great taken at night and if you get a good night of sleep, you can handle daytime anxiety.

 

But now you have a problem.  You still have the anxiety induced insomnia but it is amplified by benzo withdrawal.

 

It will be a hard road but you can get through it.

 

Remember, you must learn non-drug ways to deal with your insomnia.  If you had those skills, you never would have never tried benzos.  So work mostly on non-drug ways to address anxiety at bed.

 

That said, there is no good way to taper.  It is difficult.  It will take time.  If you feel more comfortable on Lorazepam, go back to it. 

 

You have many choices for tapering.  Since you are a short term user, you want to stop soon before you get more addicted.

 

Let me know if you have specific tapering questions.

 

 

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Thank you so much for getting back with me so quickly!  You are correct, I was in the ER for 8 days and couldn't sleep which kicked this all in motion. They tried to put me on Ambien for a couple of days but the 5 and or the 12.5 didn't work for me which is when Lorazepam came into play.

 

I started doing mindfulness meditation along with different breathing exercises before bed to help calm my brain and am still doing it, however now that the meds are seeming to work against me I can't get back to sleep even trying to do the exercises upon waking.   

 

I did feel better on the Lorazepam but am not sure what the taper off of Valium and then the re-introduction of Lorazepam should look like. I couldn't find any articles where people went back to it. Seems that is a rare situation and my Psych said if I wanted to go back I could but the "standard practice" is that tapering off is not done, only hard cutovers.

 

To me that seems very strange and potentially dangerous but maybe that is the US standard? 

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There is really no good way to do this.

 

You will have a time of troubles but it will pass.

 

During that time, the benzo withdrawal will make sleep difficult - you need to accept it so you can have some peace.

 

Do not get discouraged.  The natural anti-anxiety tools you are learning may not help much during the withdrawal period, but they will be life changing after the benzo nightmare is over.

 

In the meantime, just pick a taper plan which works for your lifestyle.  None are significantly better than the others when you consider the overall difficulty of benzo withdrawal.  So pick a taper method which is easiest for you to do.  For some, that is filing off bits each week or two.

 

In general, for any taper, you want to make a reduction and then hold for 10 days or until your symptoms are tolerable, whichever is longer.  The reductions can be made with a scale or better yet, see if you can just do it visually for a while.  You do not want to make the taper difficult.

 

Only critical people need to do a daily micro taper as it is a pain to set up.

 

 

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Hey Bob

 

I have the same question.

I partially moved over to Valium in late June and couldn’t finish cross

 

I started to taper the Ativan I was still on, but I kept getting sicker with the Valium.

I had a lot more food issues, as Valium blocks DAO which breaks down histamine.

I know that’s controversial, but it’s happening.

I also have much more interdose wd going on than when I was just on the liquid Ativan

I feel like I’m metabolizing my Valium really quickly.

I feel brain dead on Valium, like my brain can’t work at all.

I wasn’t like this on Ativan

I want to move back to Ativan

It was suggested I do this in a stepwise fashion, like replace 0.7 V for 0.07 A for one week etc

And continue that until I’m back on the liquid A

Does this sound right to you?

I sleep fine with Trazodone

I have lots of anxiety tools, but none can be employed because all I have all day long is pain, major headaches, from the foods that I eat.

I’m getting no relief from the Valium and it’s dying in my digestive track, tons of acid reflux and stopped up etc.

 

Anyway, would love to know your thoughts!

I heard others switched back, but for me it’s been a few months not a few days or weeks.

 

Cheers.

Winnie

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Hi WinnieDog,

 

I think you should switch back.

 

If it was me, I would do it quickly but if you want to do it in steps, perhaps 25% change every 4 days?  Perhaps record how you feel as you make the change and share with everyone so they can learn too?

 

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Thanks so much for replying quickly Bob, as I have apt with dr at lunch today

 

I’m going to move back.

I was good on all A with just 1 mg of Valium, so I’ll try that.

I just want to be able to eat eggs, avocado, salmon again.

 

I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Cheers

Winnie

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