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Tapering off Ativan after 1 year while adjusting antidepressant .
Hi, Long story short…last year my antidepressant stopped working after a traumatic accident. Dr did a taper switch , gave me Ativan to help 1mg am, 1/2 mg afternoon and 1 mg pm. After taking time to adjust the dose to be effective I began to taper off Ativan. I managed to get to 1/2mg am, 1/2 mg pm. Yesterday I forgot my fist 1/2 mg and remembered at 6:00pm. By then had headache, took the dose and thought I could just skip the pm dose. Woke up with headache and vertigo. I checked yo see if I was experiencing positional vertigo (bppv) which I have every now and again but this was different. Is this pretty normal? I took my 1/2 mg dose this morning and I’ll take it again in pm until I figure out the best way . Looking for any similar experiences and how to succeed. I see my doc in March
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When you mentioned a taper switch did you mean a new antidepressant along with Ativan or a taper off the antidepressant with Ativan to help with the withdrawal?
@frouke Yes, I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear. I went from Zoloft after 20 years to Cymbalta.
@lovehope63 The Dr gave me the Ativan to help with the transition of anxiety etc.
I’m going through something similar, I started on Escitalopram a while ago, I had read that it’s best for seniors and has little side effects, I started on 2.5 mg because 5 mg was too strong, I never seem to do well with these drugs but I need something desperately for depression. I was overwhelmed by the side effects, arm and leg cramps, headaches, insomnia, jawline pain and worst of all I had pelvic floor contractions that felt like I was having my period, apparently this is a rare side effect, I take Ativan for years and it’s the only drug that works for me but only for anxiety, it certainly doesn’t work for depression. It will offer you some relief with your withdrawal from the antidepressant and that’s a good thing, try not to worry about all the negative stuff regarding Ativan because it’s going to make your withdrawal a lot easier for you to get through it.
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1 Reaction@frouke How much ativan do you take and for how long have you been taking. I have been on 1mg for about 5 years and it stopped working about 6 months ago. Trying to taper off the last 3 months but having a really hard time.
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1 ReactionI’m currently taking 0.5 mg 3 times per day, I increased 0.5 mg recently because of the side effects from Escitilopram, I hope to reduce it once I get off the antidepressant. I have taken Ativan for over 25 years and it has always helped me but I recently noticed that I can feel it wearing off after ina while and that worries me, I get so anxious when I read about this medication not working anymore, I truly pray that it will continue to work for me.