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Is it safe to drop Ativan dose to .75mg after taking 1mg nightly?
Hi All,
I'm new here and happy to see you all and great that we can support each other. I've been taking 1mg of Ativan nightly for 5 weeks now for severe lifelong insomnia. I'm going to start taper and my Nurse Practitioner said not a safe med long term, and suggested going down to .5mg, then after sharing my concerns about that, she finally agreed to 25% drop, to .75mg. The problem is, the .5mg tabs are not scored, so are not supposed to be split, so I asked about oral solution and she prescribed it. I'm finding that super challenging as well, working with the dropper and or syringe, and am just terrified of the whole thing measuring incorrectly, inconsistently, etc, possible withdrawl, etc, Thanks in advance, any input is greatly appreciated.
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I have a good pill cutter and I’ve been able to successfully cut in half tablets that were not scored, including Ativan
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2 Reactions@berekann Agreed. Pill cutter's can be purchased at any pharmacy and sometimes in grocery stores in the healthcare supplies. Good luck. It can be done!
Just want to offer support for your insomnia and make sure that you are getting help with that in some other way(s) if you are cutting down on Ativan. Do you have another med to help you sleep? I assume you have done everything from the cognitive therapy angle to work on insomnia.
I know it’s not a popular opinion but I take Ativan nightly and my psychiatrist is totally fine with it. I have cut down from higher doses and I also split the pills and did it very slowly (like 25 mg reduction over 6 weeks). It’s hard and it helps me to have a different meds that help sleep.
Good luck and I hope you’re sleeping better.
You're overly worried about going to a relatively minor lower dose of the Ativan and besides, you've only been on it for 5 weeks, which is a really short time as well. Ativan is not that potent unless you are on the multiple milligram dosages, and that does not apply to you. So what are you going to take instead, seeing as how you have severe insomnia? Ever try melatonin? Your practitioner says it is ok, so just take that for what it is worth. There is a lot of misleading info about taking benzos, but many, many people rely on them, taking them for years and years. The side effects only arise when you want to wean off the benzos and them it must be slow.