How to manage side effects from 30 years use of Lorazepam

@frouke The longest acting benzo I know of is clonazepam and it takes a long time to ramp off of it, but I've dropped usage dosage pretty dramatically a few times and felt no adverse effect except after a couple of days I would start to feel antsy and jittery again, like the olden days. I finally just gave up and felt I didn't have the motivation or concern about side effects from taking the clonazepam (now about 10 years on it) to stop it after all. I feel the best about not fighting the possible anxiety and the clonazepam works just fine for that. Just ask the doctor casually about changing over to clonazepam and you will be satisfied with it.

@laughlin1947, I'm going to ask the doctor to switch me to Clonazepam because I need a longer lasting effect than Ativan provides, I have to try and persuade the doctor to agree with this decision. I'm currently trying to get through withdrawals from Paxil because I went off them too quickly, thank you for your help with this matter

My comment is 10 months after your post. I have great empathy for you. Your own personal lived - experience is the absolute truth. Finding an informed medical professional who understand benzo dependency can be exhausting. However, a pharmacist is an invaluable resource, who knows more about medication than those who prescribe it.

Mum has been prescribed lorazepam for many years. This was due to agoraphobia and anxiety in her thirties. It helped her face the anxiety attacks when she decided to overcome the agoraphobia and go out.The dose was reduced successfully over the decades, tiny bit by bit. I think that's how she reduced successfully. I'm not a medic but understand it's wise to reduce benzodiazepines very gradually: It may take time or as in Mum's case you may need a small fraction for good or none at all: Mum has a small piece of one still at night- she's 87 and did not have a serious mental health issue again until starting Alzheimer's in her seventies.
Good luck 🌅

I feel the Ativan starts wearing off after 8 hours, this is when I start getting symptoms, the doctor said that 8 hours is about normal duration for this drug and doesn’t seem to feel that it’s a problem? I don’t think that he is well versed with certain medications, now I am dealing with serotonin withdrawal syndrome because I tapered off Paxil too quickly at his advice, it’s already been 3 months since I stopped taking them and I still have headaches and brain zaps over night and early morning. My only opinion is to go back on the antidepressant and start a slower taper however if I do this all the side effects will come back like before and I don’t want to go through this again.

@frouke it takes a very long time to taper off antidepressants. I tried many times only to end up needing to take them forever! Effexor works great for me. I had to many issues with the Paxil class of drugs. I still get brain zaps on Effexor if i forget to take mine. I find the morning after breakfast is the best time for me to take it.

@harvey44 , I was recommended Effexor but it’s a Prozac just like Paxil so I’m worried about more side effects, I don’t mind taking antidepressants but they just don’t agree with me, go figure I took Paxil 30 years ago and they were great, that’s why I chose them, I guess our bodies change over the years, thanks for the feedback.

This is the only antidepressant out of the prozac family that i could handle. If the right dose is used it maybe worth a try. I was initially prescribed 300 mg. and it was too much. I kept getting it reduced until im now on 75 mg. extended release and it has worked great for me for at least 20 years. Good luck with whatever you choose.

@laughlin1947 Far from the longest acting benzo. Diazepam (Valium), Chlordiazepoxide ( Librium), Clorazepate (Teanxzene) much longer half lives. MUCH longer.