Don;t think I can maintain at 1 mg atvian/24hr

woke up at 3:35 after dreaming I was being thrown out of the Hotel Loraz. Held on till 6:00, .5 mgs & orange juice. 8:30 .25 tramadol.

There are people who have been on benzos a lot shorter time than me here and now I think I cant do this. Any reasurance would be welcome at this point.

What is your plan? Is sleep your concern? I had trouble sleeping while on benzos, would wake up many times each night. It's gotten a good deal better since I stopped taking them, but not yet back to normal.

I'm trying to maintain at 1 mg every 24 hours before I try to start tapering. Today's been really hard. I took .25 ativan around  10:30 and now hove only 25 left to get me through tomorrow at 6:00. Head is tightening up and having muscle twitches  Don't know if I should stabilize at a higher dose.

 

Thanks for answering.

Have you ever been stable on ativan? Some of us never really get stable on benzos (I was one of them). I'm not sure what the tapering people say to do in this situation. Updose until you are stable and then taper, or begin from where you currently are? Hopefully someone with more experience will stop by and help. Sending you a big hug!

I never took it every day. It was PRN, days would go by without me taking it. Then I went cold turkey for three days and all hell broke loose and I realized I had a problem. My PCP says, "just break it in half" and the shrink who prescribed it 8 years ago says the same thing.

 

Thanks for answering.

OK. So taking it every 2 or 3 days previously. I think in a week or two taking 1mg daily you will stabilize if that is going to happen for you. In this case you are now taking twice as much (or more) as you were before. If that amount doesn't stabilize you shortly then the ativan may simply no longer work for you. Read the tapering board here and try to get a plan together if that is your intention to taper off. Many here cross-over from ativan to valium as it stays in your blood longer for a smoother taper. Once you do a bit of research and put a plan together you can discuss with your doctor and get the ball rolling.

Taking ativan once a day was unbearable for me during taper. I would split my dose in to three or four doses a day. Whatever work to help cope with interdose symptoms was the goal, and it helped, not completely, but more tolerable.

Joy....I am at end taper ( direct dry cut.... .0312 once a day...am) of ativan....my taper was not tolerable until I divided my daily dosage into 4 equal parts and dosed each 4-5 hours. This helped in 2 ways....it really eased the interdose s/x which for me were awful....secondly on a psychological level..on a bad day it was much ( much much) easier to go 4 hours to 4 hours for dosing rather than the long long wait from 24 hours to 24 hours. There were many days in mid- taper when the only way I made it through was counting how many hours I had to get through until my next dose. I would definitely give that a try as a first step to taper....good luck...wishing you a successful taper. .cooperten

Cooperton-

 

Thanks for answering. I actually did split it up into three pieces today, May I ask how long you were on lorazepam? Approx 8 years here, I feel so awful....didn;t know and there are so many people on here who were on for much shorter times. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now....

Hi joy,

 

I did the benzos dance for ten years, and I beat it. You will too!

THanks! That makes me feel a lot better!

My mom took lorazepam prn and after a month of w/d, she had to reinstate at .5mg 3x's per day.

This was not working for her because she wasn't making it to the next dose.

I had switch to valium and it worked so much better.

It did take a week for her to stabilize on 2mg v 3x's per day, but she wasn't wining for the next dose after 2 hrs.

Crossing over to valium was a life saver.

 

 

 

I could not take one dose a day either.  The best trick I learned at BB was to break it up into 4 smaller doses and dose every 6 hours.  BIG relief!  Ended the inter dose withdrawal hell fast and sleep settled in fairly easily with a little help from low dose remeron.

Joy....I am at end taper ( direct dry cut.... .0312 once a day...am) of ativan....my taper was not tolerable until I divided my daily dosage into 4 equal parts and dosed each 4-5 hours. This helped in 2 ways....it really eased the interdose s/x which for me were awful....secondly on a psychological level..on a bad day it was much ( much much) easier to go 4 hours to 4 hours for dosing rather than the long long wait from 24 hours to 24 hours. There were many days in mid- taper when the only way I made it through was counting how many hours I had to get through until my next dose. I would definitely give that a try as a first step to taper....good luck...wishing you a successful taper. .cooperten

 

Did splitting your daily dose even gave you relief? I am currently taking Ativan once per day (0.8 mg) and just cannot stabilize my sx for the last 4 months. I tried splitting the dose but it was no relief and I had to take more drug at the end of that day.

Joy....I am at end taper ( direct dry cut.... .0312 once a day...am) of ativan....my taper was not tolerable until I divided my daily dosage into 4 equal parts and dosed each 4-5 hours. This helped in 2 ways....it really eased the interdose s/x which for me were awful....secondly on a psychological level..on a bad day it was much ( much much) easier to go 4 hours to 4 hours for dosing rather than the long long wait from 24 hours to 24 hours. There were many days in mid- taper when the only way I made it through was counting how many hours I had to get through until my next dose. I would definitely give that a try as a first step to taper....good luck...wishing you a successful taper. .cooperten

 

Did splitting your daily dose even gave you relief? I am currently taking Ativan once per day (0.8 mg) and just cannot stabilize my sx for the last 4 months. I tried splitting the dose but it was no relief and I had to take more drug at the end of that day.

 

Hi petit-bois,

 

Its doubtful you'll get a response from this member since the post is from 2013 but others may chime in with their experience.

Thank you Pamster. You are such a considerate and involving admin, making the forum experience easier for members.

 

Greetings from Slovenia.