I have been on ativan for 22 years. It has destroyed my life. I am trying to taper. I am so scared?

Hi,

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Let me try to help you. First of all, do you have the 1/2 mg Tabs, or will the Doc give you some of them? Since you have been on Ativan all these years, I think you reduced the dose by too much. I want you to reduce it by .25 mg. The problem is Ativan doesn't come as .25 mg. You can carefully cut a 1 mg tab into quarters, but it would better to cut a .5 mg tab into halves. I want you to do this either way you can. Once you cut the pills, I want you to go back up in the dose by .25 mg. Can you do this? Stay at the new dose 3 or 4 weeks. If you feel ok by then, I want you to reduce the dose by .25 mg again. Basically we're going to cut your dose once every 4 weeks. We can wait longer, but we will try that. We have to allow your brain time to start to make the natural brain chemicals Ativan takes the place of. Your brain can do it, but after 22 years it will take a long time. This whole detox will take a few years. I know you don't want to hear that, but you didn't get physically dependent quickly and you can't break your body's need for Ativan quickly neither.

There is another technique I use when detoxing people off opiates. This should work with Ativan too. But I have a few more questions first. How do you take the Ativan? What I mean is do you take 1 mg 3 times a day, or .5 mg 6 times a day, or 2 mg once and 1 mg once? I mean when you were taking 3 mg a day, how were you taking it? I'm guessing it was 1 mg 3 times a day. First I want your body to adjust to 2.75 mg. Once that happens I want you to break up the doses. I want you to take .5 mg 4 times a day, and the .75 mg once a day. By breaking up the dose in this way we will be keeping a more even amount of the drug in your blood plasma. This will make it easier to make the next dose reduction. I also want you to get a small memo pad and keep track of what time you take the Ativan. Use a new page for each day. Write down the time and how much you take. This way we will know exactly what you're doing. OK?

I also want you to ask you doc for Clonidine. That's a Blood Pressure pill that also does some of the same things Ativan does. I don't know your general health, but if you can take this med I want you to start taking some. Your Doc must determine how much. I also want you to take Baclofen if you can. That will help with the shakes. Usually they prescribe 10 mg 3 times a day. Baclofen is a muscle relaxer that works well for the shakes associated with a detox. Take some kind of OTC pain reliever for pain. I like to use Bayer Aspirin. But you can use whatever is best for you. I just don't want you to take anything with an opiate in it.

Do you take any other meds, which ones? If you do.

I made you a friend. This allows you to come to my profile page and send me a pq or private question. I'd like you to come to my profile page and you make me a friend also. That way I can send you a pq. It may be better to do this with a pq. That is if you want my help. I have helped many people to do a detox before. I know how to do it. If you want my help I will be glad to help you. I always need your feedback on how you feel, as we go along. Every detox is different because all people are different. We have to make it so it can work for you. Okay?

Thor