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Benzos lorazepam - worried about dependence/withdrawal

bro, when you ask a guy "what are the side effects, i know anti anxiety pills have them" and he replies "lorazepam is one of the few out there that have next to no side effects in nearly all folks who've taken it"

thats bullshit

and you're right, i found out about this a month and a half after taking it and it was too late. I'll admit my folly in the situation, and my rather quick action to catch it

now, i hope this thread is something that someone else, with a computer, can stumble upon like i did to someone else's and realize its no joke.

I mean, when you read the side effects to medications and under "severe" it always says shit like "death, stroke, blah blah) young users especially hold the mindset "ive seen that before," and/or "not me"

so, poppy planet, thanks for your opinion and i hope you're smart enough to realize my intentions in posting that.

It's not his fault, but i think when a patient shows interest in learning about a medicine you've Rx'ed and you either: A) lie or B) don't know the answer

you should be considered somewhat at fault. don't give out powerful substances without being able to inform someone about its proper use. That's why we pay the psychiatrist a lot of money, so he can use his "superior knowledge" to guide us throughout a medication.
 
waketheeffup said:
bro, when you ask a guy "what are the side effects, i know anti anxiety pills have them" and he replies "lorazepam is one of the few out there that have next to no side effects in nearly all folks who've taken it"

thats bullshit

and you're right, i found out about this a month and a half after taking it and it was too late. I'll admit my folly in the situation, and my rather quick action to catch it

now, i hope this thread is something that someone else, with a computer, can stumble upon like i did to someone else's and realize its no joke.

I mean, when you read the side effects to medications and under "severe" it always says shit like "death, stroke, blah blah) young users especially hold the mindset "ive seen that before," and/or "not me"

so, poppy planet, thanks for your opinion and i hope you're smart enough to realize my intentions in posting that.

It's not his fault, but i think when a patient shows interest in learning about a medicine you've Rx'ed and you either: A) lie or B) don't know the answer

you should be considered somewhat at fault. don't give out powerful substances without being able to inform someone about its proper use. That's why we pay the psychiatrist a lot of money, so he can use his "superior knowledge" to guide us throughout a medication.
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Doctors never wanna take the blame for anything they prescribe. What about when people commit suicide on SSRI's & they were telling the doctor they had suicidal thoughts & the doctor wouldnt do anything about it, it happens all the time. Imo, some doctors are a f**king joke.
 
TheLostBoys said:
Doctors never wanna take the blame for anything they prescribe. What about when people commit suicide on SSRI's & they were telling the doctor they had suicidal thoughts & the doctor wouldnt do anything about it, it happens all the time. Imo, some doctors are a f**king joke.
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exactly

my family doc has referenced many times the "new" and "old" style of psychiatry. The old being something to look out for if your "Rx doc" is over 65/70 - write rx, problem goes away, new problem comes up, write rx, problem goes away, business continues if patient is addicted

new style - not as fun for those of us trying to get things to abuse, they'd rather counsel you as opposed to writing an Rx right away
 
For most benzo withdrawal is hell on earth. Apparently rapid withdrawal can be so traumatizing it can cause PTSD. The first time I came off benzos, I was absolutely stunned at how bad I felt. Opiate withdrawal seemed like a gentle massage in comparison.

I would highly recommend to anyone not to use benzos for longer than 10 days - and if you really must insist - ensure you can secure a great enough supply for a very gradual and safe taper.

I have never felt more like I'd fried my brain than coming off benzos too fast - and that includes after weekends partying on all sorts of things...

Good luck mate, with the will, you can get off them - good for you for catching it early. Your shock experience with WD was a blessing in disguise.
 
Just call your doctor and taper off. Honestly I've had a scrip for klonopin for the past 8 years (1 year on xanex) and I've never felt "WD" symptoms ever. I've read that they are real but it seems like you have to take them multiple times a day daily for like atleast a year to really get physically hooked. Benzos should not be something you take daily unless ordered by your doctor. Take only when you feel like youre going to have a panic attack, or if you need to sleep. If you are taking any dose of benzo like right when you get up in the morning, you are doing it wrong. Getting hooked on opiates is one thing but benzos? come on..
 
I got a lorazepam script did 1mg nothing I can take the whole lot 28x1mg pills in one go and not feel a single thing not even drowsy.

Valium on the other hand 2 pills will give me nice calming effects. Can anyone explain this?
 
Me too. I finished it anyway thought. My previous post was from this morning.
 
Idk why this thread was rez'd but..

Ativan is one of the weakest benzos out there. N .5 mg is litrrally nothing. I have extreme social anxiety and agoraphobia with panic disorder and 2mg wouldnt even touch it.

Pretty much any dose big enough to touch my anxiety would also make me black out.

Not an enjoyable benzo at all. Was also a piece of cake to come off. Aloy of people i think psyche themselves out.. like they look up benzo wd and all the suddeb they feel all the wd symptoms they just read about.

A month isnt even that long really. It takes years to get to the point of extreme wd and seizures. Or maybe a couple months of very high dosage.

Last time i was in rehab therr was this chic coming off of .5 mg xanax twice a day n she said the only reason she came was because she read about how bad the wds were and thought that 1mg a day was a high dose.. she was gone in 5 days.. had no problen coming off them. I kept telling her how that was a low dose and she shouldnt worry.. which i think helped calm her mind the way people get paranoid reading abt horror stories of ppl coming off 6mg xanax per day for 10 years.

Or people quitting weed swear theyre withdrawing.. its purely in their head but to them it is real.

The mind is a powerful thing.
 
Squeaky said:
Finished WDing from Oxy cold turkey (18 days now). My plan was to go cold turkey from the Lorazepam too. BIG MISTAKE.
Headaches, major insomnia, impossible to concentrate, slurred vision.... The works. I may have been headed for seizures. Who knows.
That was after 5 months of 4-6 mg/day and I was only off the stuff for 36 hours. I searched the internet and got a taper plan, I'm starting at 3 mg total /day. I felt better withing 10 min of my first 1 mg dose, and then I got the Fing FLU. Maybe lucky, it's an awesome excuse to avoid people while adjusting to the benzo schedule but I feel like crap right now. This thread got me started, the internet got me a ton of info. I haven't told my doc yet. What for? He never mentioned any of this crap!
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It's crazy how irresponsible some doctors are.
I knew a girl who took lorazepam I think, for more than a year, upping the dose to 8mg. Then, from one day to the other her doctor cuts her off, doesn't even mention that she could experience withdrawal. After a day of no benzos she seized. She could have died this day, purely because her doctor was a fucking idiot.
 
I had the same problem with baclofen when I went to the hospital. Now that is one drug that you absolutely CANNOT stop suddenly. I believe it has the WORST withdrawal syndrom of any medicine. I was in delirium having simple partial seizures, myclonus, hallucinations and paranoid delusions (something baclofen is notorious for), a fever of 105, malignant hyperthermia, and very bad muscle rigidity. And they couldn't even figure out what was wrong and I couldn't tell them because of the delirium and hallucinations. I honestly believe the excitotoxic effect that this had on my brain caused serious damage. It makes you wonder if doctors really know what they're doing...
 
I am very familiar with xanax and clonazepam but lorazepam is new for me and I have had a bad backlash from taking a couple too many at a time as I did that to help with methadone withdrawal. I think if I stay on a low dose it will help but wondering if anyone can advise me on how to use ativan best and anything else to help with methadone withdrawal, thanks so much!
 
If you have the supply these actually do make a decent taper drug, you trade in the short action for almost 0 abuse potential compared to other benzos(ime). Any other benzo I enjoy enough to were it?s hard to ween down. I ODd on em as a teen so now more than 3mgs makes me wanna puke. Way easier to get off of than these RCs or Valium as I don?t look forward to taking it and never take ?cheat doses?. It?s odd to me that every thing I read recommendeds valium but if you walk into an American hospital in benzo/alcohol withdrawal they are guaranteed to give lorazepam instead of Valium. I know it kicks in faster but every alcoholic I know gets Ativan instead of something longer acting to take home. Guess you gotta dish out top dollar for a psychologist if you want the proper meds.
 
Wow, that is not true. Severe anterograde amnesia and rebound w/d in 3-5 hours. My psych said it's 'peaky' which I thought was on the mark. Very nasty, very quickly. You're only on 0.5's for two months. The rest of us would prefer to have learned this way.
 
Lorazepam's only advantages are a particularly good way at relieving acute agitation, and requires far less guesswork to stop seizures in ERs (than diazepam)
 
Are referring to my post? As it is indeed peaky but I was able to taper off of a hefty clonazoLAM habbit by taking 4mgs through out the day. As much interdose w/d/rebound anxiety that you can stand without breaking your taper is beneficial in the long run as it prepares you for the next step down and helps you redevelop coping skills. Obviously you want to avoid seizures and sleep was a no go switching from 1mg of c-lam before bed to 2mgs of loaraze. I did seize a couple times but I have never been able to keep a structured taper on anything but Ativan. For me it’s not good to get to comfortable in my taper as I’d never go down. Just enough to keep my hands from shaking and seizing at work. Slight pain for Huge gain is how I look at it.

Edit: I guess the main advantages are mine personally due to eating 25mgs when I was 16 and puking for days. It’s the only benzo I can control my use with long enough to taper
 
modocmodoc said:
Lorazepam's only advantages are a particularly good way at relieving acute agitation, and requires far less guesswork to stop seizures in ERs (than diazepam)
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Sorry for another bump but since you seem knowledgeable, any idea why all the alcoholics take home short acting lorazepam(which most drink on top of them) instead of something like Valium? Is it solely due to what they consider abuse potential? Seems counterproductive when an equal dose of Diaz would hold them for twice as long.
 
It's not just alcoholic. I was in the hospital for several months, over a month in a coma and they gave me Ativan the whole time I was there. I had a trach tube so everything was in shots.

They gave me a script when I finally got better but I didn't fill it because my pain specialist prescribed klonopin and I would have broken the contract if I filled it.

I've been in the hospital on 5 occasions where I was there for at least a week and I was always given Ativan, with small doses of Xanax a few times.

I'm not sure why they seem to always use Ativan, but this was 3 different hospitals and 2 different states. Anyone know why Ativan is the "go to" benzo in the hospital?
 
Lorazepam is believed to be less abusable. It kicks in quick and can be the fastest way to control sezuires in a hospital setting. It also unfortunately has a short half life but longer mode of action compared to other short acting benzo's. I still occasionally see Librium being used for acute alcohol WD.

I had to inform my physician the fact that Valium and Librium stay in your system longer then say 30 hours. Meaning she had no idea about the fact the the 12 panel urinalysis test she was providing tested for the metabolites of those last two BZD's. These metabolites can pop on a test 20 days later.

Long acting BZD metabolites make a huge difference in tapering. You are much more likely to be able to succeed in getting off of benzo's with minimized toxic risk from the WD. Prescribers can easily forget about the importance of long acting metabolites over a drug with less abuse potential.
 
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