Posted by Sarah S on April 22, 2003, at 19:21:32
In reply to Tapering too quickly from Xanax?, posted by Alara on April 21, 2003, at 7:14:26
I'm kind of in the same boat you are. My pdoc doesn't want me to use Ativan anymore, so after lecturing me about how I'm a drug addict she abruptly stopped prescribing it. I used to take .5 mg twice a day, so I slowly went down to .5 mg once a day. I felt kind of depressed but not too bad, so after a couple weeks I went down to .25 mg a day. I started to experience dizziness, chest pain, insomnia, and derealization--so I figured I might as well stop taking it regularly altogether, since .25 mg didn't seem to be doing anything. So now I'm basically not taking any Ativan except when my chest pains get too unbearable. It sucks big-time--my severe social phobia and derealization has come back with a vengeance--and I really don't want that sort of thing to happen to you.
So, basically. . .as a person who is having a bad time with rapid withdrawal, I would advise you to take it as slowly as possible. If you can, switch to Klonopin and then taper off the Klonopin. Quitting Klonopin is a lot easier than quitting a short-acting benzo--in fact, I was able to quit Klonopin cold turkey.
Don't know if my story helps, but I really hope that this goes well for you, and if you have any more questions about benzo withdrawal, just post them to the board and I'll try to answer. Peace and good luck!!
poster:Sarah S
thread:221091
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030417/msgs/221608.html