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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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This is a request for simply encouragement from others who are going or have gone through this. I have taken Lorazepam for a little over a year, and am now on my third attempt at tapering off. In both cases, I had a 'stressful event' occur toward the end of the taper, and my Dr. upped the dose right back up to 1.5mg daily the first time, then 2.5mg the second time. I wish I never would have allowed that, but one can't go back in time. I'm seeing a really good neurologist now, who immediately dropped the 2.5 back to 1.5 because it wasn't doing anything other than making me sick. And to say the last 6 weeks have been hard would be an understatement (I've had almost every withdrawal symptom listed). I'm holding at 1.5 for another week, then will drop in much smaller increments, next is .25mg off the current morning dose of .5. And we will go much slower going forward. I'm just feeling pretty low (I feel like this drug has made my life miserable for the last 9 months), and would appreciate hearing a few 'you can do this' and 'it's so worth it' from a few who are also much more sensitive to this drug and a painful withdrawal. Thanks in advance.
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3 ReactionsYou can do this! I posted my taper from being on .5 mg Ativan for over two years. I did a VERY slow taper, (posted on another thread here) slower than doctor recommended and am happy to say I’ve been free since early June.
Best wishes!!
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2 ReactionsI am on .5 mg and taking it three times a day. It has really helped me. May I ask why you are tapering off the medicine?
What was your taper? I have been on 2 mg only at bedtime since we lost our only child to fentanyl for a year. I am down to 1 mg now but want to get off. Would love to hear how you came all the way off:
Congratulations where do we find your taper on the other thread? Thanks
I was originally prescribed it for anxiety due to a health threat. I then began relying on it for sleep and both my gp and sleep Dr recommended getting off it. Benzodiazepines wreak havoc with your brain long term. I wanted to be off it.
I now take a very low dose of mirtazapine which has addressed my sleeping issues.
There are several threads on Ativan/lorazepam and I can’t remember! It may be the one about weaning from .5 mg.
If you can’t find it, let me know and I’ll repost here.
Full disclosure that I am NOT a medical professional and that the weaning schedule I used worked for me
@ljob I am currently working on getting myself off of 2mg of Xanax 3x/day! Thats 6 mg a day. Doctor renewed my script at .25 mg 3x/day 😳😳😳😳😳. I FREAKED OUT. I couldn't get in touch with her. I tried insurance company intervention (I've been on pill for ELEVEN YEARS!) she finally called me back - I was half crazed to go from 6 mg/day to 3/4mgday!!!! I said to her if you give me the 2 mg I can just snap off a 1/4 pc and that will be 1-3/4. No. She had to give me 1 mg and 1/4 mg. So I have to cut the 1 mg in half so I take 1-1/2 1 mg and. 1/4 mg!! So now I am taking 9 pills a day instead of 3! It would have been so easy to just keep snapping off pieces! And she would know I was cutting back because I wouldn't be renewing them once a month but maybe every 6 weeks!!! Now I am out of the .25 mg so I have to cut a small pill into 4 pieces!!! I'm already down 3/4 of a pill every day so that's maybe 4-1/2 pills a week which is great considering the length of time I was on them. A CDC brochure given to me in another group said people in meds over a year should not do more than 10% less A MONTH as it could cause seizures and/or possible death!! Aaannd she wanted to put me on another pill which I started and raised my BP to extreme heights and got me nauseous! I stopped that. Why start another pill when I don't need it, it's getting me sick, and who wants to have to go off another pill in the future????
I hope this hasn't been too confusing. 😳😳 just a nightmare for me.
@ljob per the DEC booklet, not more than decrease of 10% a month if taking over a year!!! I've been taking for 11 years 😳😳😮 and doing my best to work with what she's given me. She will be the death of me. 😫🥺
Is it possible to have withdrawal after using .25-.5 mg 4-5 times a week for sleep for a month or so? I can't tell if what's happening to me now is a symptom of the ativan or HRT. My psychiatrist said the dosage is so low to start and the time frame wasn't long I shouldn't have a problem stopping it, but I'm not so sure about that. How do you even taper off .25mg???