Ativan Schedule Please (Assistance w/ First Attempt at Withdrawal)

Hello,

I experienced a severe anxiety breakdown / attack which landed me in the E.R. with a 209+ BP in a state of convulsions. I had never experienced this level of anxiety or panic before in my 39 years. I am however Bipolar for which I take Lithium, and Zoloft. I also take Clonidine for Hypertension.

I was given Ativan right out of the gate and given permission to take it at will, which ended up being 3MG per day since May. I'm now ready to get the hell off this god forsaken pill at any cost. Last week I tried a quick taper of 1/2 a dose and all hell broke lose within a couple hours, it's that bad for me. Had I known I was going to experience such severe withdrawal from taking it for such a short period of time, I would have never started.

I assume(d) a Substitution Plan was the best way to go if at all possible until it was brought to my attention that a Direct Withdrawal directly from Ativan could be best via Ashton Manual. It will be at my next Appointment (this week) when I tell my Dr. I'm ready to start the taper, so I'd like to have a schedule ready before hand, just so he can give it a once over. I've just finished reading the Ashton Manual but I'm failing to see a schedule that works with my particular situation. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best with numbers nor even semi-complicated instructions. I was hoping someone had a simplified up-to-date version for my current dosage lying around? I'd simply print it out and bring it along to the Appointment.

Thank you

I thought the Ashton Manual had a 3mg Ativan taper example in it?

Does this not suffice or did you not see it?

I saw your post right when you made it & wanted to say the same thing ativannie did, but felt I was too new here to start giving out advice.

Anyway I was bored today & reread the whole Ashton Manual, no where in it could I find a reference to a direct taper from Ativan being preferable to the Ativan/Valium crossover method.  Just the opposite in fact, she mentions several times how it is best to use a Valium substitution plan when starting with Ativan.  Maybe you could point out where that was mentioned, because I didn't see it.

Since you want an exact schedule to print out & take to your doctor here it is in case you missed it:

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s8

Hope this helped & best of luck to you!

James

Thanks for the help guys, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

ativannie, I did see the 3MG Ashton Plan as mentioned, however it is not a direct taper, it's diazepam (Valium) substitution Plan. Is there a direct version I'm not seeing?

James, in another Thread Board Member Challis99 has brought it to my attention that Professor Ashton suggests crossovers when a taper from the original benzo fails.  It is quite doable to taper directly from Ativan and avoid the possible complications that can come from a crossover to a longer acting benzo. Which makes sense.

Well you are a (relatively) short-term user, I have no experience with Ativan, and only my own experience with Xanax to go on, so I'm gonna bow out here & hopefully someone with more knowledge of your situation will reply here to help you.

Everybody is different.  I've never been able to taper off Xanax directly & am really glad I found this site.  I hope you find a plan to help you succeed & get off benzos quickly.

Again, good luck to you!

James

Tallcan,

I think you are right, forgive me because I was unaware you wanted to directly taper off Ativan. Yes, the 3mg Ativan taper in Ashton follows her suggestion of crossing over to Valium. I am assuming, and this is my non-professional opinion, that given the equivalent of 1mg of Ativan is usually 10mgs of Valium, you would follow the total mg dose accounting for the equivalency, discounting the cross-over period, and following it down. However, a better idea is to look for some of posts by members here who have provided examples that I'm sure are precisely what you are looking for. Good luck to you and don't be afraid.

DJP