Has anybody successfully tapered off of lorazepam (Ativan)?

I had been on Ativan for about a year and a half- .5mg, often less at the beginning. So at first, I just took it when I felt I needed it which was maybe every couple days. Then after a while – this was during the pandemic – I ended up taking it every single morning. And for many months that was OK and it was when in the late afternoon, I could tell I was in need of something for anxiety, I realized that I had developed a tolerance finally. After a few more months of twice a day dosing, I decided it was time to try to wean off of it. And I did it what many people would consider agonizingly, ridiculously slowly. I started with spacing out the doses to eliminate the evening dose, like I would wait till 10 PM when I had been taking it at five or 6 PM, if I could. Meantime, breaking the pills, slightly smaller each time. And if I had a bad day, I would take a little more. It probably took me about a month to a month and a half to eliminate the evening dose, and then I just started taking smaller and smaller pieces until at the end I would skip days or take them every day and a half instead of every day. And the whole process took about three months and it was fairly painless for me. I understand it’s not the same for everybody for sure.
But anybody who has a doctor advising them, or they’re feeling internal pressure to go fast, I say why? There’s no point in suffering, why not just take as long as it takes?
And I definitely agree with those who are saying, best not to mess with other meds that you’re on and their dosages unless it’s absolutely necessary to try. Otherwise, you don’t know what’s causing what!
I hope this helps someone,

@kawanhee yes im on 0.5 ativan and the new psychiatrist i have told me to taper my ativan the 4.00 pm dose and the 8.00 am dose in three days this shows you she has no clue what she is doing im not going to go that fast .but we are doing a crossover to Valium 3 mgs 2x a day .to me its unheard of.

What do you think ? I agree with you

I tried could not do it.Had to go over to Valium Im going to go my sleep no matter how fast the psychiatrist wants to do the ativan in 3 days thats nonsense to me

Hi. I'm using Ativan 0.5 MG in the evening for the last 10 years. I want to withdraw from it. What is the best way? I'm scared of seizures and other withdrawal symptoms.

If you taper very slowly to achieve your goal then you don’t have to worry about seizures or very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, do you have a plan set up with your doctor or are you going to try it out yourself?

@frouke thank you. I think I must work through my doctor.

I know someone who is also trying to do this. She is actually shaving her pills and doing it very slowly but she was in a larger dose

Hi All,
I'm new here and happy to see you all and great that we can support each other. I've been taking 1mg of Ativan nightly for 5 weeks now for severe lifelong insomnia. I'm going to start taper and my Nurse Practitioner said not a safe med long term, and suggested going down to .5mg, then after sharing my concerns about that, she finally agreed to 25% drop, to .75mg. The problem is, the .5mg tabs are not scored, so are not supposed to be split, so I asked about oral solution and she prescribed it. I'm finding that super challenging as well, working with the dropper and or syringe, and am just terrified of the whole thing measuring incorrectly, inconsistently, etc, possible withdrawl, etc, Thanks in advance, any input is greatly appreciated.

I have a good pill cutter and I’ve been able to successfully cut in half tablets that were not scored, including Ativan