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Feedback on side effects and withdrawing off of Lorazepam (Ativan)
I am trying to see if anyone has had similar situation with side effects and withdrawal of Ativan. In summary, I am trying to help my wife titrate off Ativan due to its not helping and she is having side effects where she doesn't feel herself. The long story short is that it's been two years and she was on Ativan about 7 months taking 2mg/day. We were able to get her off then after about 2 months titrating down. About a month and half later against my better judgement was prescribed Klonopin which she was on for about 6 months. We titrated her off that because it was doing nothing. Unfortunately, this past December she was diagnosed with something else where Ativan was the only treatment. We are now titrating her again off this and its been hard to watch her struggle with the side effects. Sometimes there are just crying outbursts and can't explain why and is staying in bed a lot. I have also noticed she will not listen to me, but was thinking if others have similar experiences and share any advice/success in dealing with it. Right now she believes nothing helps and even getting off of this will not help. Thanks for any thoughts. I will also say, she has been on a total of 18 different medications and nothing is helping. I feel like the benzo is causing the problem.
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Im sorry your wife is going through this.
I want to contribute something I learned about 2 years ago with an Airrosti specialist who was treating me for sciatica due to very high stress. Mom in palliative care in AZ me living in Texas having to fly out to oversee her care every 2 weeks for 3 years. The sciatica developed the 2 nd year.
My Airrosti practitioner worked on me for several months, as i continued the travel and after a few months, hearing I was more comfortable laying on the bed, crying a lot, and had a hard time with any activity she took the initiative to tell me she suspected: i was Sympathetic Dominant mode.
She showed me a book written by an Australian doctor who was giving a seminar at her medical college on SD.
I bought the book, read it and realized she was on to something. Yes, I, too was on Ativan, .5 mg once a day.p and am currently weaning off.
I had a multitude of symptoms, gastritis, couldnt eat, crying for no explained reason other than i couldnt eat, was afraid to go out etc.
Heres the book:
Sd Protocol: Achieve Greater Health and Wellbeing: Sympathetic Dominance Kindle Edition
by Dr Wayne Todd (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
Look for Dr Wayne Todds videos.
He was on this early.
Basically youre living in Fight or Flight mode 100%.
The Vagus nerve has MUCH to do with this and there are videos on youtube, instagram, etc.
Your wifes symptoms may be coupled with SD.
If so, my contribution in helping her is for you to learn about SD, try some if these easy exercises like singing fir 29 minutes, humming around the house, gargling water for 30 seconds 3-8 times a day, and OBSERVING her disposition.
Perhaps you can sing simple children's songs or put on music you and she loved when you were dating and sing along.
This actually helped my symptoms. Theres lots of vagus exercises, and the vagus nerve has been getting a lot of attention in the last 2 years. Its a VERY important nerve in our body, more than people realize.
I hope this helps both of you.
For now, youre going to be the one to guide her as she may not have the mental energy to contrive this.
If she wants to stay in the bed, sing with her in bed and then do some of the other exercises in bed.
Read about SD and see if this applies.
There are solutions out there!
Best!