9 Days off of Ativan, when will the symptoms end?

Try Traadone. Far less addictive.

I’m sorry that you’re dealing with such an awful situation, I too take Ativan for over 20 years, fortunately I have maintained a low dose for the most part but when health issues come up I can increase at times. I don’t agree with what your doctor said, he clearly has no clue what he’s saying to you, unfortunately your psychiatrist retired because she was doing a slow taper which obviously was working for you. My advice would be to leave this doctor because he could cause you to relapse with the undue pressure, frankly I don’t know of any medication that doesn’t cause problems after long term usage, they all have nasty side effects one way or another. It sounds like he’s cold and unsympathetic to your needs and is clearly using scare tactics. I think you have done a great job getting down to where you’re at now, please don’t let this heartless doctor get to you because you’re in a vulnerable situation and it’s not worth it.

I want to say thank you @frouke for your kind words.

I’ve hesitated to speak ill of my doctor, despite the way he has handed this. I do feel that he doesn’t take me seriously and that didn’t have the level of expertise in this particular issue that I need. The one thing that we do agree on though is the benefit of getting off of this medication. I really want to be rid of it but I’m not sure I have the sheer “willpower” that he believes I should.

I am in Canada and it’s not so easy to find a new family doctor where I am specifically. I’m trying to and have met with someone recently who seems promising. Fingers crossed!

I’m a little bit stuck right now in terms of my immediate future. I’ve been without any med for 10 days now and I’ve read in a few forums that you should never go “backwards” in terms of increasing the dose. That said, I’m quite full of worry about how I’m feeling and if I should jump back up to .25 for another month and try to get down to .125 for a month beyond before I am off completely.

If I’m going to have the same symptoms that I’m having today eventually, a part of me just wants to power through it and remain optimistic that the worst is “nearly” over.

I probably should have tried harder to find resources like this one before I stopped taking it, I’ve learned so much over the past few days reading posts and similar experiences. I’ve read it can take people months to feel better but also stories of people that have very mild symptoms that pass pretty quickly. I feel very confused!

Thanks again for your reply and support. 😊

At least your Dr “tried to help you taper. Unfortunately, most don’t have an any idea on how to do this you should not have been tapering any more than 3 to 10% a month Per the new FDA guidelines. Ativan is one of the worst to get off of and should be tapered SLOWLY. I was on the same thing 0.5 for only four months and it’s taking me almost a year to taper off of this with very few side effects because you have to go slow and you have to listen to your body. I got help from a man in UK that has treated thousands of people because I couldn’t find a doctor anywhere here to help me or knew what they were doing. I suggest you go on Beating Benzos website On Facebook where there’s a man called David , The same one that helped me. There’s a wealth of information on this site. I was ready to call it quits until I found out about this man who has helped so many people. Wish you luck

@sle737, I think you have this under control and are making the right decisions for yourself. I must apologize for coming off so aggressive about doctors but some of my own struggles fueled my response, I have never felt so bad like I do now and my struggles are more with my family doctor who is failing me in his lack of care, I used to think that I had the best doctor and sometimes a friend for 20 plus years and I realize he’s only human perhaps dealing with problems of his own. I would also like to thank @ellerchim for saying that you’re fortunate to have a doctor who helped you taper because my doctor hasn’t a clue how to do that, his idea of help was to reduce my pills by half without even taking to me or leaving hurtful messages via his secretary. Today he put the responsibility with the pharmacy which poses other problems, their job is to dispense medication not to try and counsel people at the counter in front of strangers, I call this a form of shaming. I too live in Canada and you’re fortunate to have found another doctor who hopefully will be helpful when you need it, Frouke.

All I can say is pick your poison. I also have used Ativan successfully for many years. The only drug I take without visible side effects that does it's job. I am treating "my today" and just trying to get through what I need to now. Good luck!

Not sure if my experience will help. Psychiatry engages in overmedication when perhaps major lifestyle and behavioral interventions will help a lot. I took many benzodiazepines over 4 decades. The last one was clonazepam. At the time my psychiatrist and neurologist supervised my taper off of it. August 2017 to January 2019. It was successful. I did have a seizure risk at the time so it was scary. As the taper progressed my cognition improved. It was like my brain waking up. My seizure has healed.i have an abnormal eeg called a breach rhythm but it is non epileptic. The ony psychiatric med I take now is esitalopram 10mg. I do take lamotrigine for seizure prophylaxis. I am very sorry you are going through so much. My journey was worth it but only you can decide