1. < Depression & Anxiety

Experience weening off anti anxiety meds?

Posted by mitz000 @mitz000, Mar 6 8:22am

Hi. I’m on 1mg of lorazepam but want to titrate slowly. My Dr said to cut the pills but they are next to impossible to cut in an 1/8 or 1/4 as you they are small and long. He also said it’s the hardest one to come off of.

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beracha | @beracha | Mar 6 10:12am

Hi I recently started weaning off med by .25 mg every two weeks. It helped when dr called in different dose pills that could easily be split. 1/4 I can do. Never tried 1/8.

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lauralouisenelson | @lauralouisenelson | Mar 7 5:43am

Get a nice heavy duty mortar and pestle, and a digital scale for weighing meds. Crush and weigh the pill. Remove the percentage you want to taper.
For example, if your pill weighs 100 mg and you want to reduce by 5%, remove 5 mg, take the remaining 95. The next time you reduce the dose, take 5% away from 95 - 4.75 round up to 5), remove 5 mg again and take 90. And so on.
You can also do a liquid taper, I'm not as familiar but same concept, you can reduce by very small amounts. See Ashton Manual

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1 reply
kawanhee | @kawanhee | Mar 7 8:13am

I weaned from .5 mg of lorazepam very slowly. It took six months and below is the schedule I followed. I didn’t want to try the Ashton method because it seemed too complicated. I used a pill cutter and did the best I could.

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mitz000 | @mitz000 | Mar 7 10:27am
In reply to @lauralouisenelson "Get a nice heavy duty mortar and pestle, and a digital scale for weighing meds. Crush..." + (show)
@lauralouisenelson

Get a nice heavy duty mortar and pestle, and a digital scale for weighing meds. Crush and weigh the pill. Remove the percentage you want to taper.
For example, if your pill weighs 100 mg and you want to reduce by 5%, remove 5 mg, take the remaining 95. The next time you reduce the dose, take 5% away from 95 - 4.75 round up to 5), remove 5 mg again and take 90. And so on.
You can also do a liquid taper, I'm not as familiar but same concept, you can reduce by very small amounts. See Ashton Manual

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Thank you 🙂 I will try this.

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benzossuck | @benzossuck | Mar 8 7:20am

I will be finished with my Ativan taper on April 8. I started in February of 2023 at 1.5 mg per day. I have been seeing a doctor that was willing to prescribe liquid suspension Ativan. No guessing with the cutting although it does require math skills (that the pharmacist should be able to help you with). I have decreased 10 percent every two weeks. A slow process but I am down to 0.25 and next 0.125 and I will be finished. With such small dose reductions I am not feeling any side effects. She also prescribed a low dose of Mirtazapine to help with my sleep. Smallest dose is 7.5mg but I am only on 2 mg that I get at a compounding pharmacy made in liquid. It is not easy but slow and steady is the answer. Best of luck to you.

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