How to Wean off Ativan

Hi capelang - I don't know about Ativan but I was on Xanax after my diagnosis. I was taking .25mg 4 times a day. I took it about a month and a half, then I was worried about addiction so my NP at my PCP said to cut the dose in half approximately every two weeks. I cut it in half every three days instead and had a tough time and was very anxious and shaky. The bad thing about coming off it so quickly is soon thereafter I started having panic attacks. I hung on for about another month then saw my PCP again, this time he put me on an antidepressant and on klonopin (.25mg 2 - 3 times a day). He ORDERED me to stay on it until Spring (which was about 9 mo). By Spring I was in a much better place, and weaned off it over two months. That was not a problem.



How far out of dx are you and have you had any counseling? I was in a really bad place and I needed the meds and talking to a professional to get me out of it. Our church has a Stephen Minister program and I met with a SM for several months. Her day job is as a cancer social worker so she was an incredible help.



Private message me if I can help.

You take a nail file or pumice stone and, starting where you are (cutting from 2 pills to one is way too drastic) shave off a few grains off one of the pills, a few more every so often, over months. I've weaned myself off both Xanax and zopiclone - a sleeping pill I used for 18 years. My dr. ordered me to, and that is how i did it. Your brain is wired to the signal of a certain amount of ativan to go to sleep, and it will rebel if it doesn't get it. But a few grains, very, very slowly, is almost like fooling it. By the way, i don't think there's anything wrong with taking anti-anxiety meds when you have anxiety.

Hi Capelang - were you asking ME about tapering the klonipin? I don't have plan. I have generalized anxiety disorder - that is, I at times am overcome by anxiety, but not always, depends on what's happening, often calm as can be. I'm never tapering off. I get 3 x .5mg pills per day to use. I use 2 to sleep, and would say my brain is now dependent. I save 1 for if anxiety hits for some reason. As long as the dr. is fine with it, so am I.

Drs are NOT fine with it if you keep asking for more & more, bug the pharmacist, etc. - then you get red-flaggged and dr's alarm system says uh-oh she's an addict. I mean in the way of, say, stealing them from other people etc. which 2 of my friends were at one point. My friend's dr, who was a pretty bad dr., finally refused to deal with her and stopped prescribing & she got to having to go cold turkey which is utterly devastating, ended up in emerg., etc. If you do have a lot of anxiety, and many, many people do, and do need more, it's best to be in the hands of a psychiatrist who has a better understanding of deep anxiety and how to deal with it, i believe.

At one time my own dr was also an acupuncture dr. At that time I had a complete melt-down ("nervous breakdown?") she didn't hesitate to give me Xanax, which is really strong and fast for heavy duty anxiety, because she told me that she could treat me by acupuncture to come off it if i became addicted. So - that's a possible way, too - acupuncture. but after about a year or so on Xanax I came off myself by the nailfile method.