How did you successfully taper off of 0.5 lorazepam (Ativan)?

You’re so welcome. Transition times are difficult for those of us with bad anxiety. @kawanhee had a good point: this may not be the right time for you to back down. Moving is a huge life event that is inherently stressful. Give yourself permission to hold where you are if your doctor says it’s okay. Keep the big picture in mind. Positive thoughts your way 😎

what symptoms did you have, was insomnia one and anxiety

@marty70 I had anxiety and insomnia big time. I didn’t sleep much at all for days. My heart rate was through the roof. I had massive headaches. I had the sweats quite a bit. I was incredibly nauseous at times. On top of all this, I was in a great deal of pain due to my diverticulitis flare up. I’d say it was up there with one of the worst times in my life.

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???

I just quit cold turkey without telling my psychiatrist. Not a great idea but it worked for me. 0.5 of klonopin in the morning and 1 mg at 4:00 pm. Both are benzodiazepines and when I quit one benzodiazepine he gave me another so I’m still on it and I hear it’s very difficult to quit klonopin.
I found that out the hard
way. I tried unsuccessfully to get off the klonopin. It was a nightmare!

I'm tapering off Klonopin now. I have done a very slow taper and the first part from 1-1.5mg at bedtime for over 10 years and Xanax prior to that too .5mg was very easy. We did reductions to 1mg, .75, .5 and and .375mg every 6-8 weeks. The last reduction to .25mg was the hardest and I had a lot of irritability and sleepless nights. I occasionally went back to .375mg to help with sleep but only 1-2x per week. My psychiatrist prescribed 90 days of the .125 disintegrating tablets as the last part of the taper and discharged me. His practice does not treat geriatrics (over age 65) and that is why he discharged me. He does not see a problem in continuing the taper. I was supposed to decrease to those last week, but I have not been successful in sleeping at that dose. He prescribed Vistoril (an antihistamine) for sleep but it does not work. So I'm stuck at .25mg and working on meditation and an Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping) for sleep. Those will eventually run out so I will try the .125mg again and hope my brain eventually adjusts. This is a hard process but I am determined to do it as I know my brain will heal in time. I just have to work out a new relationship with sleep as it has always been an issue for me.

I thought the question was anout lorazapam taper?

They are both benzodiazepines and so is Xanax so it doesn’t really matter witch one . They are identical benzodiazepines.
Different doses taken perhaps but they are all benzodiazepines. I think Valium might also be a benzodiazepines I’m not sure because I was never on it and if you follow this issue you should find Valium withdrawal complaints.
I don’t understand why you made the point that Atavan was the sole subject of this discussion. Are you having benzodiazepine withdrawals? I was inpatient for two months and they lost my list of my current medications.

So the hospital used a three year old list from a previous hospital visit. I was not taking klonopin three years ago so they wouldn’t give it to me for the two months I was there.

So it was an instant stop.
When my withdrawal symptoms began driving me crazy I asked for a klonopin but they refused. “We’ll give you atavan instead.” I figured it was better than nothing but I soon learned that I was on a 1 mg dose every 24 hours. What? Unacceptable. It wasn’t enough to ease not taking klonopin. I took a fit and told the nurse to contact the doctor. After waiting 2 nightmarish hours I was approved for 1 1mg every 12 hours. Not good enough but it did help take the edge off slightly. As soon as I was discharged to my home I took a 1 mg of klonopin and within 1/2 hour I was relieved of the withdrawal symptoms so they didn’t give Atavan to take home and that’s why it was easy to completely quit the Atavan because I had no choice.
I’m fine now but I can’t get off the klonopin so I went from 1 benzo to another benzo.

Xanax is a much tougher medication to get off of then valium and some others. Of course one has to take doesage into account. I won’t take that medication because getting off them is simply too difficult. Valium will do just fine with less suffering.

I was on 1mg Ativan (lorazepam) for years dealing with anxiety.
Decided to change with retirements of myself and my psychiatrist.
10 mg of Melatonin at night seemed to help with withdrawal plans
from this low dosage of Ativan. I had not developed tolerance over
the years. My primary MD and I planned a transition to Lexapro (escitalopram) a different class SSRI drug cutting down the benzo to .5 mg then .25 over weeks and adding 5mg then 10 mg. generic Lexapro.Minimal side effects and no anxiety attacks. After 3 year I am trying to reduce escitalopram to 5mg.