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Re: what to do about ativan

Posted by maryflo on December 15, 2003 at 19:15:54:

In Reply to: what to do about ativan posted by disidente on December 15, 2003 at 07:19:48:

When I was tapering off ativan, my doc had me titrate down by drops! You can crush the pill and mix it with 10 oz. of water, so each oz. has 1/10 dose. You can measure out how many drops are in an oz, using as eye dropper, if you need to go down even more carefully. The easiest tapering was at the higher levels; it got a lot slower the lower I went. My doc also put me onto a tricylcic antidepressant at the same time, which helped counter the total insomnia I had from the ativan withdrawal. (Fortunately I could handle that med.) My taper took four months, I still had a lot of symptoms for another four, and then there was a period that was good except for occasional "breakthrough" symptoms. I think the average time it takes people to taper off, however, is much shorter. It depends on your system and how much of the stuff and for how long you've been on it.

It was helpful for me to have a doc (a psychopharmacologist) watching, because she could tell, from my panic attacks and whatever, when I should slow the taper and when I shouldn't.

Sleep restriction is absolutely no match with benzo withdrawal. It's like Bambi meets Godzilla.

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