Question regarding using Valium vrs Ativan

I have not been able to get a answer that makes sense to me and

was hoping someone could explain to me in simple terms the

reasoning for this --

 

Valium - long acting. Half life minimum 20 hours.

Ativan - intermediate acting (tho I often see it here referred to as short acting) w/ half life minimum of 10/12 hours.

 

It doesn't make sense to me to spread out my ativan doses during the day. It works from a.m. pill till my p.m. pill.

It seems backwards if trying to heal to switch from taking it every 12 hours to taking 3 or 4 times a day and always having the level in my system be the same.

 

To me, that would cause more dependency than I already have.

 

I don't even know why I can't seem to understand this! Definitely feel I am missing some HUGE part since my thinking is apparently backwards from most of the posts I'm reading.

 

Help?

Thank you! -- bolding the main question since I am a bit more 'lost' today than normal.

 

whoops - forgot to ask: is it because I have no withdrawal sx's yet that I'm not understanding this?

 

Hi Flower,

I understand your logic and many do successfully taper off short acting benzo's.

However, once we reach tolerance or cut our dose enuf to get symptoms, short acting acute w/d's can be too extreme for some people.

This is why they will break up the doses or switch to the longer acting valium.

 

I would think if someone titrates small enuf and with enuf dosings, they could minimize w/d's just as with valium slow tapers.

 

My mom didn't micro taper off lorazepam the first time and the w/d's were bad, so this time, we did the valium and I am so glad we did.

She needed her next lorazepam 2 hrs after taking a dose, but this changed when she got on the valium.

She was able to wait out the 6 hrs for the next valium dose.

 

A daily micro taper with valium would have been the best if I would have done this originally.

However, some do have problems with valium.

 

I hope this answers some of your questions.

 

If you do not have side effects than there is no need in my opinion to change anything. Just keep tapering as you have been tapering. Your body is accustomed to one thing and it seems as if from what you are saying that it is working for you.

 

There are no 'rules' in benzo w/d. What works for one person may not for another. If this works for you why mess with it? In order to taper the two doses you could alternate cuts, this is what my benzo w/d specialist doctor recommended for me and it worked quite well . For example, say you were cutting your dose once a week. One week you would cut a bit of the night dose, the next week the day does, the following week the night dose the week after that the day dose....etc...and on an on until you are off the medication. You could give that a try as it seems as if it would be more in line with your current dosing.

 

If you hit a bump somewhere down the road in the future you can try something else. I had to change my strategy a few times during my taper. Twice during my taper (i am dry cutting)  I had to titrated for a month or so when the doses became really small. And then I went back to dry cutting. Sometimes I was able to do large cuts and other times they were baby cuts. Sometimes I held, sometimes I updosed. I did not make any rules for myself. That way I stayed flexible to what my body was telling me to do.

 

Listen to yourself first and foremost. You are the one that knows what is best for you. And it seems as if from your post you are very clear on what you would like to do. So stick with your gut instinct.

 

Keep at it, you are doing great! Alabama.xo

If its working for you, don't change it. Thats exactly what I did, I tapered ativan all the way down with only a single 11pm dosing each day.

 

But you should understand the rationale for multiple dosings. It is very logical. Dose just once (maybe twice) a day and your serum level of lorazepam will go up and down. Its the down part that causes interdose wd. Dose more frequently and you can keep a steady serum concentration of lorazepam thus obviating the interdose wd.  I perfrom nonclinical pharmacodynamic studies in my work and we dose subjects frequently in order to maintain adequate/consistent serum levels of the drugs we test. It really does work that way.

I am glad to hear someone ask this, I didn't know if I was the only one with this logical conclusion...

I take a stat dose at night. For sleep obviously. So not really for anxiety. S splitting it thru the day would not help me either. I am glad to hear it is possible to taper this way. Laser jet, did you do water titration or dry cutting?

I am glad to hear someone ask this, I didn't know if I was the only one with this logical conclusion...

I take a stat dose at night. For sleep obviously. So not really for anxiety. S splitting it thru the day would not help me either. I am glad to hear it is possible to taper this way. Laser jet, did you do water titration or dry cutting?

 

Neither actually. I have been doing weekly cut and hold using a methylcellulose suspension.

I crossed over from Ativan to Valium and it worked out alright. If I had to do it again, I would try and taper the Ativan as far as possible and only c/o to Valium if I got stuck.

Alright cool. What is methylcellilose?

Cellulose is just the fiberous component of plants, MC being the methylated version. It is commonly used as a carrier to suspend hydrophobic compounds in aqueous solvents. It is highly inert and commonly used in the food and many other industries. My pharmacist used it to suspend the ativan for me, but by no means is it the only method to get ativan in suspension/solution.

Oh  I am not having luck with getting liquid anything from pharmacist...dry cutting it is I guess...