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Has anybody successfully tapered off of lorazepam (Ativan)?
Has anybody successfully managed to successfully wean off of Lorazepam?
If so how was it done?
And if it was by way of switching to other drugs, were you then able to taper off of those entirely under a doctor's guidance?
My husband has been on Lorazepam for 16 years
He did well for 14 years, but dragged his feet about trying to withdraw while he was feeling better.
In May he had a relapse of anxiety, and insomnia, with brain fog, heart palpitations, and more.
Currently he's doing better, thinking better, but still feels like crap a large part of the time, can't sleep without the drug, can't nap.and still struggles with anxiety.
At this point, I believe it's the drug that is actually causing the problem. Currently he's doing 1 mg at bedtime and 3/4 mg when he wakes up at 2:30 am.
I know it takes 2 years for the brains GABA receptors to normalize after taking Benzodiazepines.
Also know it's really hard to withdraw, has to be done extremely slowly, and the side effects are exactly the same as the symptoms it is meant to help.
My goal is to eventually wean him off of all drugs as functional health tests show they block his nutritional absorption and may be damaging his intestinal lining. I would like to be able to repair his health using nutrition, supplements, and neurotransmitter amino acids.
All feedback is welcomed!
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Hello everyone.
Long story short I've been on Ativan for 1 year, with 0.5 morning and evening. I tapered the morning dose 2 times in the past year. It's been a week since i finished my 2nd taper for the morning dose. I've noticed an increase in anxiety in the past week so obviously I'm scared of stating the evening taper.
I'm doing all of this under the direction of my doctor. And she does a taper that is once 1 day off several times, then every 2,3,4 days over the course of 2 months or so.
To be honest idk why i made this post. Maybe just wanted to put my fear of withdrawals, seizures somewhere.
@grumpypants When I tapered off very slowly, I too noticed increased anxiety.
To be honest idk if my taper is fast or slow. 😄
@grumpypants My personal journey in slow tapering off Ativan was as long as I was on it…years.
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1 ReactionAt this point I'm not even sure it's withdrawal that i'm feeling, since it still take 0.5 in the evening.
This drug is terrible......I have taken it for about a year now and find that .5 is hardly making a diffference any longer. I was taking .5 in the morning and .5 in the late afternoon but recently had to go up to .5 three times a day. I want to taper off and get this out of my system but it is so hard. Everything just starts to feel like it is shaking inside. Has anyone tried Buspar as an alternative? My psych doc is suggesting it.
I am on 0.5 in the evening for 1 year. During this time i also took 0.5 in the morning 2 times for a few months and successfully tapered that 2 times. Now i just finish tapering the morning 0.5 for 10 days and things are kinda strange. I don't even know what or how bad withdrawal gets with these doses. My doc says it's all fine and nothing bad will happen, but so many horror stories on the Internet makes me questions everything.
I did know a woman that needed to get off of Xanax and she was in a facility to get off of it. They administered Buspar for her and she made the jump off of Xanax and did very well with the Buspar. She told me that you can go off of Buspar, whenever you are comfortable to do that. Keep in mind that you will be taking Buspar every day and it will take a month to see results. Maybe your doctor will have you take both of them together for a month? That would be something I would ask, since the withdrawals are so awful.
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1 ReactionThis list of withdrawals is from Benzobuddies.org. I would refer to it when I couldn't understand a certain symptom that I was feeling during my withdrawal period. By the time you are ready to taper in the evening, your withdrawals will be something that you will adjust to, and it will be less as time goes by. The healing process was very slow for me, but I did find that reading at night helped and if I had trouble sleeping, I would sometimes take Benadryl and it did help. Since you are tapering slowly you probably won't feel every symptom on the list. I did experience most of the items because I was on Xanax for many years. http://www.benzobuddies.org/benzodiazepine-information/withdrawal-symptoms/
Thank you for this. I am happy to hear a positive story about Buspar. My doctor is prescribing it along with the Ativan taper. Do you have any idea how much her dosage of Buspar was? I think the dosage is the key?