Tapering off Ativan Support Thread

Thank you, SG57. Hopefully things will go faster at some point.

 

Mairin,

 

Several reasons led me to choose the daily microtaper.  I like precision, and I'm not good at precise pill-splitting. I also wanted things to be as easy as possible. Splitting pills 4 times a day is definitely not appealing to me.  After 2 years of I/W & gritting my teeth till the next dose, the less my days revolve around doses, the better. By using the liquid A & micropipettors, the math is (mostly) a no brainer--which is good because I'm mathematically-challenged, and often feel like I have no brain! 

 

Ultimately, the the microtaper makes the most sense for me. I don't have the courage to take larger cuts and wait for the sx to hit. I think I'd be constantly holding my breath, waiting to get clobbered. Just thinking about that ratchets up my anxiety level. With a small daily cut I hope I can catch things more quickly if I go too fast. Then if I need to hold I can, or if I need to correct with an updose, it will be a small one.

 

I don't expect to get off this drug scott-free. I know I will suffer. My goal is to get through this with the least amount of suffering possible, even if it takes a while longer. Although I pray it doesn't take anywhere near 4 years, I'm trying not to look too far down that road.  I guess it will take as long as my body says it will take. 

 

I have read your log and many of your posts. I admire your tenacity and your courage. You've come so far! 

 

Lea

Hi. I am on 1.5 mg of Ativan per day.  1mg in the morning and .5 in the evening.  My doctor suggests cutting my morning dose I'n half. I am so nervous to start. Tomorrow I am. I have been on them for 5 months. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am holding for 4 weeks so far, after a cut of. 0625 mgs that was too harsh for me.

Meantime I balanced my doses, which were a mess, because of dry cutting and holding too long.

My doses now are : 6 am .41 mgs 10:30 am .41 mgs 3 pm .42 mgs 8 pm .41 mgs 1 am .42 am.

Dosing 5 times a day, with my daily total at 2.0625 mgs.

I would like to try a wet /dry taper, because I became very ill on Compounded liquid, and am not comfortable tapering with all liquid.

My system is accustomed to tablets, and I do have a scale. Problem is, I feel lost as to how to use which tablet, from which dose, to create liquid for the cuts.

Any help I would appreciate... Thank you ..

Love,  Anu

It's good to see you here, Anu 

 

I hope you're feeling much better!

 

Lea

Hi. I am on 1.5 mg of Ativan per day.  1mg in the morning and .5 in the evening.  My doctor suggests cutting my morning dose I'n half. I am so nervous to start. Tomorrow I am. I have been on them for 5 months. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

Hi Jenn,

The schedule that your doctor suggested is the same schedule my doctor suggested.  I think they all have this attitude that we can taper in a month or two, setting us up for pain and grief.

Please consider splitting up your doses to 3 or 4 a day to prevent interdose wd, and follow a safe tapering schedule, which you can find here. Either by dry cutting, or by using liquid titration. 

Does this help?

Wishing you success with your taper.

Love Anu

 

It's good to see you here, Anu 

 

I hope you're feeling much better!

 

Lea

 

Hi Lea, I could see you above me ..

Not yet Lea, hoping too soon ..

I think I set myself up for grief ..Not being stable from a cut, and evening the doses. So I got hit with terrible symptoms. I hope you are well.

Wishing you all the best Lea ..Praying that tapering Ativan will be successfull.

Love, Anu

SG57:

 

Thank you for advice on how to handle the onslaught of brutal symptoms from my last cut. Your recommendation to updose was exactly what I needed. My cut from 0.45 to 0.35 mg hit me like a truck, but updosing only to 0.39 alleviated all of the pain. Yes, it seems sometimes to move forward two steps we need to move back by one. As you can see, I didnt reinstate my previous dose and lose total ground, I decided to back only halfway to my previous dose. That did the trick.

 

I have also been having bad continuous rebound insomnia from the lorazepam and only get 4-5 hr sleep each night. I just tolerate it because I dont like the idea of being polydrugged but 4-5 hr each night every night has really decreased the quality of my life (on top of the lorazepam wd sx).  I recently decided I have had enough of no sleep and scoured this board for help. Hydroxyzine seems to be a good (and safe) path forward. Yesterday my GP prescribed hydroxyzine HCl 25 mg tablets. Due to the synergism of sedation between lorazepam, my daily trazodone, and the hydroxyzine, I was very cautious about being OVER sedated, so I took only 12.5 mg hydroxyzine last night. I am happy to report that 12.5 mg at bedtime not only knocked me out completely very quickly, but I STAYED asleep the entire night for a total of 9 hours! This unprecented sleep (since the beginning of my hellish lorazepam hourney) is incredibly welcome and anyone out there who might be considering this antihistamine for insomnia should take note of my dose and my response.  Of course, as previously noted here, one should not use it chronically, but sporadic use may just be the magic bullet to help pull me through the rest of my lorazepam taper. Thank you BB!

jennlynn :

 

If you have been on ativan for 5 months I would urge you to NOT cut your dose in half. That is exactly what my doctor suggested after being on ativan for only 7 weeks. I spiralied into hell very quickly from doing such a foolish move and berated my doctor afterwords for making such a poor recommendation. You can try it, but be prepared for very bad wd sx. They may take several days to manifest. On the other hand, there is some unknown (but likely very small) probability that your body will tolerate a rapid 50% cut in dose. Doctors make these suggestions to folks on benzos (who have been on long enough to get physically dependent) because they just don't know any better!

 

Good luck. Let us know what you do.

Anoushka:

 

Sorry to hear of your pain. If I understand correctly, your 0.0625 cut was only 3% of your dose. I am a bit surprised that you have had such severe and protracted problems with a 3% cut. Is it possible that something else may be contributing to the severity of symptoms? With that cut, did you move from one prep of lorazepam to a new one? Is the old one expiring? A change in the accuracy of your dosing? Just trying to help figure out what may be the contributing factors here. Consisitent with the Ashton guidance, 10% cuts for me are tolerable, with bothersome, but not, mindblowing wd sxs. Is there something about your taper that I dont know that might helpt explain your reaction?

SG57:

 

Thank you for advice on how to handle the onslaught of brutal symptoms from my last cut. Your recommendation to updose was exactly what I needed. My cut from 0.45 to 0.35 mg hit me like a truck, but updosing only to 0.39 alleviated all of the pain. Yes, it seems sometimes to move forward two steps we need to move back by one. As you can see, I didnt reinstate my previous dose and lose total ground, I decided to back only halfway to my previous dose. That did the trick.

 

I have also been having bad continuous rebound insomnia from the lorazepam and only get 4-5 hr sleep each night. I just tolerate it because I dont like the idea of being polydrugged but 4-5 hr each night every night has really decreased the quality of my life (on top of the lorazepam wd sx).  I recently decided I have had enough of no sleep and scoured this board for help. Hydroxyzine seems to be a good (and safe) path forward. Yesterday my GP prescribed hydroxyzine HCl 25 mg tablets. Due to the synergism of sedation between lorazepam, my daily trazodone, and the hydroxyzine, I was very cautious about being OVER sedated, so I took only 12.5 mg hydroxyzine last night. I am happy to report that 12.5 mg at bedtime not only knocked me out completely very quickly, but I STAYED asleep the entire night for a total of 9 hours! This unprecented sleep (since the beginning of my hellish lorazepam hourney) is incredibly welcome and anyone out there who might be considering this antihistamine for insomnia should take note of my dose and my response.  Of course, as previously noted here, one should not use it chronically, but sporadic use may just be the magic bullet to help pull me through the rest of my lorazepam taper. Thank you BB!

 

Hi Laser,

First let me say how delighted I am that you are feeling better That is a blessing ..

Thank you for your interest in my situation, I am grateful ..

Laser, I am in dispair and lost ..Since I started making these cuts, ( please see my signature)

I am having a problem stabilizing.

It could be that while unstable, I evened the doses, and my system interpreted that as a cut ..?

 

My Lorazepam tablets have not expired. I used them for the "cut and hold" method when I did both cuts,  and I use a scale to cut the doses now that I evened them up, and had two math skilled people check that each dose is accurate, by weighing on the scale and cutting each dose.

But I continue to be unstable ..Wed. night my BP shot up to 180/100, which landed me in the ER.

Another point of interest is that in January I entered a rehab facility, where they basically CT 2 AD 's that were causing Serotonin syndrome, in 15 days ..Maybe that plays a role in my misery now ..

I wish I knew what is happening ..This situation has me debilitated, and homebound  :'(

Please tell me what you think my problem may be ..

Love, Anu

Hi SG,

Does it make sense for me to updose slightly as you suggested for Laser?

Most symptoms are in and around my head, along with labored breathing, and heart palps, making my life nonexistent ..I feel hopeless and in despair .. :'(

I will be grateful for any thoughts ..

I wish you well always SG.

Love, Anu

Hi Anu,

I'm not familiar with your current situation.

 

I think updosing has it's place, but often just holding can take care of problems.

 

How are you feeling?

Hi SG, I was modifying my post to you when you responded ..

Can you please see? I also explained some symptoms and history on my post to Laserjet ..

Please look at it, if you have time ..Maybe then you will get a better picture of my predicament.

Thank you so much SG ..God bless ..

Love, Anu

Ok, so you are on about 2mg lorazepam a day and you recently cut...how much?

 

And how are you feeling?  How did you feel prior to the last cut?

Yes this helps.  Thank you!

Hi SG,

I explain my cuts in my signature ..I made my first cut of .125 on Aug the 12 th. It took almost 4 weeks to almost get stable.

Still symptomatic, I made another cut, on Sept.the 9th.

This was a beast to overcome .. I am still holding, after more than 4 weeks.

Meanwhile, I evened up my doses, as they were very uneven due to holding for so long ..

These 8 weeks I have suffered ..Mainly head issues, such as pressure, headaches, unsteadiness, dizziness, labored breathing, heart palps, and this depression and crying that has me by the throat ..

Also my BP is unstable, landing me in the ER a couple of nights ago.

I would say that I am suffering SG.

Thank you for any thoughts,

Love, Anu

Ok, I think I have a good picture now.

 

Your original question was about updosing to get relief.  IDK about updosing...it always seems a bit tricky and a gamble as to whether it will work or not.  It would suck if you did it and it didn't change anything.  I' hesitant to suggest anything since it has been 4 weeks.  I think updosing is reliable when not too much time has passed, but it seems to become a gamble the longer we wait.  This is another nasty aspect of these drugs. 

 

Really, I don't feel I know enough about updosing to advise you.  Perhaps another member or a moderator has a better answer.  I think it's a gamble.

Thank you SG,

I think you are right ..Reading Laserjet 's time frame of updosing again, a lot of time had not passed, so it worked for him thankfully ..

It would not be a good thing for me ..

Thank you SG ..You are very kind ..

Love, Anu

Hi, Anouska:

 

I think you are in a favorable situation because you’re dosing 5X day and your doses are equal. They are also small enough that you can start liquid titratation as soon as you switch over from solid to liquid. How bothersome are your wd symptoms?

 

IMO, one way to proceed would be to replace one dose at a time of your 5 daily doses with a liquid dose containing the same amount of Ativan. Then, after you’ve been taking your 2.0635 mg/d in alcohol solution for a week or two with no problems, you can taper each dose in turn by just measuring less solution for that dose. I would not begin a taper until I was stable on the drug and form (liquid or solid) I’ll be tapering from. Stable means relatively mild symptoms that don’t change much during the day or from day to day. Not “bouncing around”.

 

The amount of alcohol consumed over the course of a day in this method is quite small, around 1-3 mL. That’s about 1/10 of a standard drink. There are commercially available (= Rx) solutions made w/o alcohol for those who cannot tolerate it at all.

 

What do you think of this?

 

Aweigh

 

Hi All , I just wanted to post that so far I am so glad that I was able to get rid of my scale . The compound doses so far seem to working out just fine . I think it keeps an even dose in your blood stream instead of weighing . Dosing 4 times a day at the same time I believe helps too . See how I'll do as I get to the lower doses. Still about 80 days out . One of the best things I do to help my WD WS is to walk everyday . Hang in there everyone. MM

Anu:

 

"I feel hopeless and in despair "

 

I too, felt like this during my severe wd sx. For us to get off of this demon drug, it is essential that we not despair and maintain hope. That is what drives us forward. You must take the necessary steps to regain your hope as this will fuel your perserverance. Look at all the success stories on this board. If they can do it, so can we. Nobody claims that this will be easy. In fact, it may be the hardest thing we ever do in our lives. Your future, your happiness, your family, depends on your perserverence to overcome this trial. Know that this protracted period of suffering will pass as you find the right path forward. A positive mental attitude, though difficult, will help guide you to and through thi path forward.

Hi mountainman

From your sig line it looks like you got akathisia from propranolol. Is that correct? I got it from metoprolol which is a very similar drug.

Bart

Yep .5 was definetly to big of a cut! How do I cut .5 tablets smaller?

Hey Bart , The Propranolol has really helped with my Akathisia . But by accident I found out that the Propranolol  has really helped with my withdraw symptoms too. I told my doc about it and she let me up-dosed form 10 mg to 20 mg a day . I see your down to fumes getting ready to jump. Good luck . I have about 8 more cuts left about 80 days . So far cedar tree's plan has been working pretty well for me . MM