How to manage side effects from 30 years use of Lorazepam

@laughlin1947 It’s not Lithium its Librium (Chlordiazepoxide). I take Valium 2x per day. 4-5. Would usually be for people with seizures. Heather Ashton sometimes used it 3x per day depending what drug someone was withdrawing from and how often they took it.

I read that there’s a big difference in how the mind uses Valium as opposed to Lorazepam, I was given Valium by a therapist many years ago and it didn’t affect me for very long so I had to take it more often. I was confused about why a longer lasting Vallium wore off faster than a shorter one like Lorazepam and the research explained how it was dispersed in the body vastly different, I don’t remember the exact details but it seems that the Vallium stays in your system a long time but apparently the drug gets stored in the fat cells and this can make it feel like the effects have worn off.

I am finding EVERYONE is different so why put about your own issues , tired of listening to my daughter going on about others ,when she is suffering as much as them !?

Has the Dr tried you on different anti- depressants? There are so many different ones. I had severe depression and anxiety from 2008. I'd had Prozac for moderate depression in the 1990s and until 2007 but it was no longer working.
Luckily I was recommended a psychiatrist who did not give up. It was disappointing to be put on a new antidepressant, initially react well eg mirtazepine, then be hit with severe depression within days. Then the dose would be upped to the off- label maximum.
Then venlofaxine ( I've probably misspent that ) same. Then duloxetine- same. Then sertraline.
Sertraline really suited me- I'd wake up buoyant, start working, feel able to face day.Then showed signs of developing an allergy to it within days( I'd been allergic to venlofaxine but it had not helped much anyway)
At this point I tried trazadone. It's an antidepressant but with something soporific in it to help you sleep at night.
The trazadone had been what I needed. It was strong and its potency took some time to get used to and it made my brain slower in the mornings but I could finally work and sleep, enjoy many months of each year.For a few years the depression returned in the winter months but it was not severe/ dangerous. And it lifted in the spring. After a few years the depression didn't even affect me in the winter.
The Dr prescribed Lamotrogine mood stabiliser to augment the effect of the trazadone. Eacitalopram was another antidepressant that seemed good but it depends which suit you best.
For me the best were sertraline, which I had to stop, and trazadone which definitely had been what I needed. That's when the relief came.It was a turning- point in terms of finding a medication that worked.
I'm not offering medical advice but wonder if, as you have night anxiety,trazadone might suit you because it definitely helped me sleep. It was effective for depression and sleep/ anxiety for many years.I have a small dose of liquid trazadone on an as required basis now.
Lamotrogine mood stabilisers were prescribed to augment effect of anti- depressants. I think that did help. I was on a fair amount of that for many years. Not on that now. Not on escitalopram either.

Mum was on lorazepam and noratryptaline for many yrs due to depression,anxiety and agoraphobia. She reduced the lorazepam first taken in her forties until her eighties( she has dementia now) She reduced to a small piece of a blue lorazepam for many yrs but didn't manage to discontinue. I think she tried to stop or reduce both, altogether or reduce the lorazepam even more,once or twice, on GP's advice. I remember it was too much for her so she accepted that she'd reduced as much as she could, that she could live without depression and anxiety if she took the dose she'd narrowed down to, so that is what she did.

If your Dr does not seem to agree or want to help you then can you go to a different one?

I was forty when the D and A became severe. It was a whole new and unbearable level. The first consultant didn't mean it I'm sure, but when she couldn't get the depression under control she made it clear she was at a loss what to do. When you are struggling to remain ' 'here' it is even more frightening
when your Dr makes it clear they don't know what to do.

Thankfully this is when I was recommended the Dr I went to next, a quietly confident and determined consultant psychiatrist who did not give up.

I hope you can have a Dr like this. They save lives and give people back their lives.

If you feel you should not be on lorazepam or anyone is making you think this, don't let stigma or others' views on ' addiction' etc influence you.

If you have been on a dose that's helped bad symptoms of anxiety for years and feel increasingly ill reducing, I'd ask whoever it is, be it yoursrlf, Dr, anyone else, why it is wrong to have if you can function and not suffer on it.

Hope I haven't offended at all.

I’m definitely in agreement with what you’re saying, you’re very fortunate to have found a good doctor, it makes all the difference in the world. I’m fairly phobic when it comes down to medications and this hasn’t made my life easier, when you add in the many doctors who have so very little knowledge about the drugs they prescribe it becomes total chaos. In my experience I was given lorazepam for GAD and PTSD 25 years ago I found this medication to be helpful for me, I did try antidepressant Peroxitine and it worked well for a while but I had to stop taking it after a year because I felt emotionally blunted. In recent years I’ve tried several antidepressants and they overwhelmed me with side effects, I came to realize that they weren’t good for me, I’m still taking lorazepam and remain on the same dose for years, I truly wish I didn’t need them but I’m just not able to put myself through a taper unless I had no other options. I’m just very tired of reading about how evil they are and you must get off them, it’s the same for all medications, some people benefit from certain drugs and others go through hell with the same thing, no one is right or wrong in this situation, it all comes down to what works best for you.

Why do you all need to read so much negativity . I have a daughter suffering mental health and her head is so brainwashed by idiots who have to give THEIR ailments for the world to see ,Where is the positive comments !!!!

@pollyanna16 , I feel very sad for you because it’s such a heartache to see your child suffering this way, I agree with you that too many people are opinionated about what you should do and their knowledge is based on their own experiences. It’s not good for your daughter to read all this information because it causes her more anxiety than helping her, her only source of help is to listen to her doctor who has more knowledge to help her.

I have also been taking Lorazepam at very low dosage for about 30 years as well. I get a bottle of 20 pills that usually last a year. I take it when my tinnitus acts up which is a precursor to kick starting my anxiety disorder. This has worked for me but, as had been said previously, everyone is different. My wife has worse tinnitus and has gotten no solution after speaking to many Mayo Clinic doctors. I have suggested Lorazepam; her PCP gave her a Xandax prescription instead. I post this because there might be someone listening that could get help with Lorazepam without the side effects.

@doccharlie , I am also a victim of tinnitus for many years, it’s really a torment to say the least. Although I have taken Lorazepam for years I’ve never felt any relief from tinnitus using this medication, sometimes I get lucky and running water can help me but I have to stay near it to help, I have missed many good tv shows but it’s worth the relief I get from it.

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