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Please help me plan titration taper off Ativan


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Hi! I currently am taking Ativan 0.5mg twice daily for a total of 1mg. I have been reading about titration and am interested in doing this but before I start I just need a plan for a schedule. Do I use 100ml water and make the solution from both 0.5mg Ativan together then take out 1ml and toss it and divide up the remainder? Decrease by 1ml more daily? Thanks in advance.
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I just read your introduction, you've had a long journey of suffering trying to convince the medical community, I'm so sorry. 

 

Can you please help us help you by filling out your signature with your medication history, this way we can see at a glance what you've taken, and for how long.  Here are the instructions, but if you need help you can put the information here and a team member can input it for you.  Add your history/signature

 

I wanted to let you know there are other options to making your own liquid, Ativan comes in liquid form from the manufacturer if your doctor would agree to prescribe it but given she wants you off at 25% per week I'm doubtful she'll do this for you. 

 

There is also dry titration where you crush your tablets and weigh them on a jewelers scale or you can probably make some fairly accurate cuts to begin with by using a razor blade to dry cut before you go the titration route.

 

Let us know what you think.

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Thankyou for your reply.. means alot! I am very new here and am learning my way around so please bare with me. My history is Clonazepam 2mg per day March 6, 2021 to May 15, 2021, ran out. Withdrawals terrible. Put back on Clonazepam June 1, 2021 to June 20, 2021 when I went in detox and they didn't taper me. Been on many antidepressants since (Zoloft, Buspar, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin,) nothing worked because that was not my main issue.. it was protracted withdrawals. Dr put me on Ativan 0.5mg twice a day on February 1, 2022 and like magic all withdrawal symptoms disappeared. I have a dependency to benzos and have terrible tremors and get sick in between doses so my dr agreed to taper me but at 25% a week which is too much. Dr also prescribed 60mg Propanolol for tremors and to help with withdrawals. Only other medication I am currently on is Xeralto a blood thinner.
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Thanks for the information.  :thumbsup:

 

Many of our Ativan members will dose 3 times a day, do you think that might help you with inter-dose withdrawals?

 

Do you have confidence your doctor will prescribe you enough Ativan to do a slow taper because it's my belief that given your previous rapid taper in detox that you're going to need to do this very slowly.

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[4a...]
I truly think that its best for me to do 3 doses during a titration taper. I was going to do 100ml water and put my 1mg dose of Ativan in it ( I'm on 0.5mg 2x daily). Then remove 1ml per day. I will divide the solution into 3 doses. How does that sound to you?
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I truly think that its best for me to do 3 doses during a titration taper. I was going to do 100ml water and put my 1mg dose of Ativan in it ( I'm on 0.5mg 2x daily). Then remove 1ml per day. I will divide the solution into 3 doses. How does that sound to you?

 

When we taper it's best to make only one change at a time so we know if our symptoms increase what is causing that increase. I would suggest you first change to dosing three times a day to see how you react. Then you change to liquid while holding at the same dose for a couple of days (some people are sensitive to liquid) and then you start tapering the liquid.

 

Unfortunately I can't give you advice on the pills per water ratio. Hopefully someone else has a definitive answer. I do think you need to check what percentage you'll be tapering because 1ml per day is a linear reduction and not a percentage, so you might run into trouble. Linear reductions are usually done in the lower numbers.

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I used a water taper like this one:

 

 

By the time I switched to a water taper, I was only dosing once a day.  There isn't really a right or wrong way to do this but with Ativan you do need to dose more often.  You could do a mixture of 1mg Ativan in 100ml of water, then discard 1ml per day and then drink the remaining mixture at three different times during the day.  Just be sure to mix well before dosing and dose immediately because the tablet may not dissolve completely in water.

 

Day one - discard 1ml and drink 99ml (or drink 33ml three times a day)

Day two - discard 2ml and drink 98ml

Day three - discard 3ml and drink 97ml

And so on...

 

At this rate you will be off Ativan in a little over three months.  If you want to go slower than that, you can start your mixture with more than 100ml of water.  And of course, you can hold along the way if necessary.

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I appreciate all the welcomed knowledge! I did start the 100ml -1ml this morning and divided into 3 doses. That was before I read replies here. Only thing I have is nausia after I eat. Only thing I am fearing right now is my doctor filled my RX for Ativan because she knows I'm tapering BUT I can't agree with her taper she put me down to do. I saw her last Tuesday and she agreed to let me taper BUT her formula is 25% for the past 3 days then she refilled my RX and gave me 30 and on the bottle it says 1/2 pill 2x per day. Thats a 50% reduction. Im fearing im screwed doing the titration taper.
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Oh dear - if you don't have enough pills to do the 100 days then you will have follow your doc's plan unless you can talk to her and explain what you have in mind??  You could print out info from here to take to your doc to get her buy-in as some members have done.
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Let us know how it goes, I hope she'll let you do a patient led, symptom based taper, its cruel to dictate a taper that will cause unnecessary suffering.  Don't tell her I said that, that won't help your cause.  :-X
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Thankyou Kate08! Right now I am on day 3 of my Milk Titration and im reducing my dose by .25ml per day. 120 ml of milk used. I been ok so far.. just very tired and 2x I cried because I ended up here but my husband gets me through that and im ok after about 10 minutes. I saw my GP Dr Tuesday and explained to her that the taper she suggested was way to much too fast ( cut the pill by 25% for 4 days then by 50% for a week then 75% and so on.. not happening. I feel safer and more at peace doing the titration I read about and although its going to take me 400 some days to complete, thats fine. Its not a sprint.. its a marathon and slow n steady wins the race. My Dr understood and said that is fine and agreed to refill my rx upping my written dose back up to 1mg  per day so that I could do this. My pharmacy said as long as she upped my dose to 1mg again that they could refill it early so I won't run out. When Dr tapered me on her schedule she cut my RX to .5 per day and she adjusted it back for the titration im doing.
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Wow, you sound so good!  You're in charge of your taper and your future, it must be a great feeling to have your wishes acknowledged and supported by your doctor, I'm so happy for you!

 

And the words you've used to describe your journey are positive, this attitude will help you in your quest to be benzo free, I feel so good about your recovery and can't wait to read your success story.  :thumbsup:

 

I hope Kate08 will drop by to take a look at your taper rate because I'm clueless but whatever works, right?

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This is awesome!  I ended loving the liquid taper because it was so gradual.  As long as you have enough pills to do the 400 day plan (and you do) then all is well.  I hope you feel good about yourself for asking what you want - that is very empowering!
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Thankyou to both of you for your kind words. Im doing the best I can to face this and trying to do as much research as possible. Its hard going through this but it helps having people here who understand!
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I appreciate any input or views you have and I do know that my taper is completely up to me and what I am comfortable with but I would value to hear your thoughts. Currently I am on a milk titration of 120ml milk, 1mg Ativan and I pull out .25ml per day with a .25ml pull increase daily and divide the solution into 4 doses for the day. Prior to that I was going to do 120ml milk, 1mg Ativan and a pull out of 1ml per day with a 1ml pull increase daily and divide into 4 doses for the day. Yesterday I met with my therapist and told her I read up more in the taper and thought of doing a .25ml pull instead of 1ml pull. I know a .25ml pull will take about 15 months and a 1ml pull will take about 4 months. I dont want to rush the taper but I don't want to make it longer than it needs to be. Right now I am on day 5 of .25ml pull. Yesterday I did have a weird morning but I dosed the night before at 9:30pm and woke up at 5am in wd. I needed to dose and did. Mornings like that are to be expected I believe and the rest of my day was fine. My Dr also has me on Atenolol 25mg beta blocker for wd. Any input is appreciated and I know the choice is mine but what do you think?
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Hi Icandothistoo, I know you started a new thread for your questions, but its actually good to have your titration posts in one thread, it helps with continuity.  Other members can go back a page or two to see where you were at any given point and its also helpful for you too to keep track of your progress.

 

You said yesterday you felt weird, but you said something about the time you dosed the night before, was this a deviation of your normal dosing schedule?

 

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Basically what I meant when I said I felt weird was that I was over 8 hours in between doses from sleeping for the night and woke up feeling weird but meant I must of been in wd from going 8 hours between my night time dose and morning dose. Every morning when I wake up I feel "off" and I think thats because of the hours between doses then.
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I'll be glad to give you some input on your taper rate.  Before and/or if you speed things up I suggest you stay with what you are doing for a while to see how this goes.  I don't think two weeks to a month would be too long to try this rate - by that time you will have a good for feel for things.  Besides, you won't have a comparison point if you do speed up if you don't have a good feel for how things go at this current rate of taper.
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