How did you successfully taper off of 0.5 lorazepam (Ativan)?

I am sure you already have the answer in the thread somewhere, but I just wanted to put in my 2 cents. I was on lorazepam 1 mg as needed for anxiety after my husband died. I was also misinformed about its use. The doctor who prescribed it said there was no worry about side effects or it be addictive. After 20 years (YES, 20 YEARS) of being on this drug and trying multiple time to stop, I finally started tapering myself SLOWLY when my new PCP refused to fill it any longer. I started breaking them in half and then quarter for months. Long story short, I played the taper game for about a year before finally stopping completely. I still have anxiety and depression and take escitalopram for that, but I am learning the hard way to deal with my anxiety.

I am in the process of tapering off .5 mg Ativan that I have been taking once a night for 5 years.
My doctor gave me a tapering schedule to reduce dosage by 25% every 2 weeks.
Started with .375 for 2weeks. Now I have been on .25 for 7 days. Main issue I have is not being able to sleep. It is important to exercise and eat nutritious meals with good protein. I am 82 years old , weigh 125.
During the day I get feelings of depression and anxiety. I need to keep busy and force myself to have positive thoughts
I want off of this horrible drug. It has such bad affects on the brain.
Any comments from those who have weaned off this drug would be appreciated

I personally find it very difficult to stop the benzodiazepine, if it doesn’t work or it causes a ton of nasty symptoms then I would probably do much better with my ongoing attempts to stop. I used this medication when I got a cancer diagnosis, I was going through a total meltdown, my fears were off the charts and to make matters worse, we just started going into a pandemic making medical help more difficult to find. I tried a number of antidepressants but I had bad reactions to them so this complicated treatment even further. I was completely in the dark about all the negativity surrounding these meds until I came here and read so many comments from people who have been struggling to get off them added to which the government getting involved, this only made it much worse. I will never promote these meds to anyone especially today with all the pressure to get off them but in my case I had a miserable time trying to adjust to the more approved meds and each attempt to try another one just messed me up even more. I know today that the pressure to stop these meds is due to another medication crisis and so they are putting pressure on more people, I sincerely hope that everything will work out for the best and perhaps one day they will actually develop better medication that doesn’t cause another problem for those of us who need something to rely on for our health problems.

This is my story! Cancer diagnosis in September 2020. Prescribed for anxiety then relied on it for sleep. Had no idea of the consequences of benzos. My pcp then wanted me off it and after one unsuccessful try, I slowly tapered and have been off it for a year!

Bravo to you and others who have successfully gotten off the benzodiazepines, I wish that I had known more 20 years ago, I would never have taken them in the first place, live and learn, btw, I got off them twice in the early days when it was easier to do so but somehow I was given them again and I went back on them, the doctors weren’t under pressure about them yet at the time. I noticed from the many sad stories I’ve read here about the horror of trying to stop and some of them are over 80 years old and they have been taking them for over 40 years, now they are being pressured to stop in a short period of time or else others have been completely abandoned by their doctor of many years, this is the reality of what they created and for those of you who only took them for a few years, consider yourselves fortunate that you have a much easier time to quit.

For those of us that need help with these issues, I have found benzos to be the most successful for me. I feel like I’m being chastised for taking them as well as being embarrassed by my inability to handle my problems without medication. (from the general public, thankfully, not my doctor!). Right now, I have an extreme desire to stop taking both my anxiety and sleep medications, but I think I would just have to trade them in for others that are probably less effective. Why should that be necessary? I can’t wait to hear my doctor’s opinion!

I’m in agreement with you, I always found that benzodiazepines did the job well with calming mind and body, as for all the negative news about these drugs, they know how addictive they are but it didn’t change anything and they continued to prescribe them to innocent victims. No one today should be given these meds and people are more informed about them so they can refuse using them. Also I would like to add that with any addiction it is always harder to stop when you have been taking them for years, it’s truly rare to find people with benzodiazepine addiction able to stop effectively in a few months or even years, for those of us who are a long time user, we are looking at years

Hoping as many have stated that my .5 mg a day is so low that even after years of taking it, I’ll be able to step down easily. THEN, praying at that point there is a better alternative available if anxiety is still a problem. I’ve been taking them so long, I’m not sure I still need them.🤷‍♀️

We are victims of our doctors poor choice of meds especially when they have better options, we are the patients and we trust our health care providers. Now there’s so many people in the same dilemma and struggling to find help, the help is out there from what I have learned but you also need the strength of mind and body to get you there, I pray daily for such strength and this is where Hope comes in to help us cope, without hope there’s nothing to strive for.

I appreciate how you feel, I hate being a benzodiazepine user and I’m about 23 into using this medication. I really don’t have any side effects from my dosage which is currently 0.5 mg. usually once or twice a day as needed. I’ve found this drug makes my anxiety and panic attacks stop quick probably 10-15 minutes after taking it…I always struggled to stay on the same dose but sometimes when my health problems come back, it’s a lot harder to leave them alone. I truly had no idea what was going on with benzos in the US until I came here and read the nightmare people were going through and it messed me up, I realize that it’s coming to Canada where it’s a controlled substance so you’re monitored on your usage. I do feel that if you’re taking this drug it would be helpful if you also take a antidepressant, i.e. if you can find one that agrees with you and is tolerable. I’m currently going to try a new antidepressant because the one I take now for many years is deemed to be bad for my over rapid heartbeats which started with covid 2 years ago. I also think that it’s much harder today to find the right meds and doctors than years ago, perhaps we might have too many choices today and they’re not all very good, no matter what you take for your health it usually comes with a number of side effects or other problems, there’s really no such thing as a perfect medication so if you can do without it you’re a very blessed person.