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Splitting up the tapered dose


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I've been taking .5mg Ativan every day in the morning, and only take a second pill later if i'm having problems.  I attempted to start tapering last week and it didn't go to well especially after something set me off one of the days and it required a second pill to calm me down.  but i think i want to try again this weekend.  I noticed that i would start to feel worse as the day went on, would it be a good idea to split my tapered dose into  2 or 3 doses that i took throughout the day or would the fact that they're such low doses each time make me feel worse?
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I was on the same dose of Ativan last year and tried unsuccessfully to get off myself by cutting my dose in half.  After I found out that I was having withdrawals I had to stabilize again before I crossed over to Valium and began my taper.  Because the Ativan has a shorter half life I had to dose at .25 two times a day.  With Valium as it has a longer half life, I didn't have interdose withdrawals.  The Ativan only "lasted" around 8 hours for me. 

 

It sound like you experienced interdose withdrawals and dosed yourself again when you felt the withdrawals.  This is the nature of the beast.  Regular dosing doesn't cut it anymore and our bodies need more to feel normal again.  IMHO, you would need to figure out how much a day you have consistently been taking and split that into two or three times a day to keep a steady blood level before tapering. 

 

I wish you the best!  :thumbsup:

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Hi

The short half life almost makes it neccesary to split doses, so yes try that 8hrs or so apart, and see how that goes making sure you take enough to stabalize.

TC

Bobers

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Hi,

 

I agree with Bobers. Ativan's half-life normally doesn't allow for once-daily dosing. You'll need to split it up into at least two half-doses, possibly three. You could try two first and see if that works.

 

It's very important to be consistent with your dosing throughout a taper. If you fluctuate in dose, your body gets confused because it's not getting a clear message as to how much healing needs to be done.

 

You might want to start with taking .25 mg Ativan twice a day for awhile to get your body used to a steady benzo blood level. Then you can start tapering.

 

Therese

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