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Benzos Ran out of Xanax, have Ativan, will I experience withdrawal?

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fadeaway

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 6, 2015
Messages
3
Sorry, but I couldn't get a concrete answer through my research. I am prescribed .5mg Xanax 4x a day (for over a year). I ran out a few days early. I cannot refill until the 9th. I have one more Xanax left, but I do have plenty of 1mg Ativan that I can take. However, will I still experience withdrawal? I am not sure what I should expect, because this is the first time I've ran out early.

I appreciate any comments and/or advice. I am hoping the Ativan will work just fine to substitute until Monday, but if that's not the case, I would rather just suck it up and call in to my psychiatrist and let her know that I abused my prescription medication and am in need of an early refill. I have no idea how she would/will react. It would be the first time in the [almost] two years that I've been her patent that this has occurred, but I would rather not make that call if Ativan is sufficient.

Thank you.
 
The ativan will work wonderfully do not fret. You will not experience withdrawal. Your going to want to take as much lorazepam to equate the amount of alpralozam you are prescribed. You should be as to find a benzodiazapine equivalency chart somewhere around this place.
 
Okay. Thank you for your input. I had read something similar, but then there were a few posts discussing some sort of agent that Xanax has that Ativan doesn't. I am not sure if that affects the horrible withdrawal symptoms that one goes through if they have to quit Xanax cold-turkey, or if it just a component of the drug that will be noticeable once you stop taking it, etc etc. So, I appreciate knowing that the Ativan will cover me from experiencing withdrawal.

Thanks again! :)
 
I have a lot of experience with both of these benzos, and although Xanax definitely packs a stronger punch then Ativan, it will definitely keep you from experiencing the nasty effects of benzo withdrawal :)
 
That's fine, I will just have to deal with a bit more anxiety over the weekend. That I can handle, I just did not want to suffer through horrible withdrawal, and/or end up in the hospital due to some of the dangerous withdrawal effects I have read about. I appreciate all of the feedback and comments. The more I read, the less anxious I feel. :p
 
You'll be fine :), and the ~dose from the Alprazolam to the Lorazepam would be 4mg's of Lorazepam a day. So other than .5mg Alprazolam. You'd take 1mg Lorazepam.
 
I agree with most here.

Both Xanax and Ativan are in the same class of drugs, benzos.
Although, Xanax is much stronger than Ativan, you should still be stable on your Ativan on the right dose and not go through any w/d at all.
You said in your op you take .5mg of Xanax daily, that's just 2 mg's. Although it can give you bad w/d's, your dose isn't that high to experience life threatening w/d.

Anyways, yeah, comparing Xanax and Ativan is like comparing Oxycodone to Codeine.
As long as you take the right drug, in your case benzos, you should be 100% fine with replacing Ativan with Xanax.

Hope that helps, :)
 
If anything the ativan will work better if you have grown accustomed to xanax. I switch up benzos regularly. Provided that you dose at least double the amount of ativan as you take xanax - I'd say personally that 1mg xanax is similar to 2.5mg ativan, but I go by my body more than those charts. I love lorazepam though, moreso than alprazolam for sure. I don't even take alprazolam anymore, but I would if I didn't have like 5 other benzos around that I prefer over it.
 
It will be fine. Lorazepam is strong in all intrinsic effects, and is a very potent anxiolytic like alprazolam, so you'll be fine. It may make you drowsier than Xanax, though with me this is not the case.
 
I'm going to call bs on the "no/relatively little issues"' w the direct switch. You may not experience "WD," but having worked in healthcare 8 years now in clinical leadership, and conducted extensive research on benzos in their various forms, in addition to an incidentally personal necessity to switch without taper (TSA stole my meds, I'd just moved to Texas, and the doc I saw here apparently "read an article not long ago and is no longer prescribing Xanax because she didn't like what she read," but would prescribe Ativan or Klodapine.... I stupidly said Ativan, as I'd already taken Klodapine in the recent past- for approximately 2-3 years, 2mg a day, felt perfectly fine, but decided to taper off to stop benzos for a while, and experienced the worst hell of my life for 6 months, I wanted to give this a shot). Let's just say the ativan changeover has been more than mildly uncomfortable. Agreed, there is no "dangerous" WD (i.e. Seizures or disassociation), but there are some extremely uncomfortable symptoms associated. The nausea, the fatigue/malaise, the brain fog-- all are less than easily managed. Doctors shouldn't dictate such Med changes unless they are experts in the field, and "reading an article" isn't sufficient enough to make such decisions.
 
fadeaway said:
Okay. Thank you for your input. I had read something similar, but then there were a few posts discussing some sort of agent that Xanax has that Ativan doesn't. I am not sure if that affects the horrible withdrawal symptoms that one goes through if they have to quit Xanax cold-turkey, or if it just a component of the drug that will be noticeable once you stop taking it, etc etc. So, I appreciate knowing that the Ativan will cover me from experiencing withdrawal.

Thanks again! :)
Click to expand...

Here you go.

Basic understanding of the pharmacology of different benzodiazepine receptor subunit subtypes: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1188559/pdf/jpn00053-0026.pdf

Here is a VERY IN DEPTH look at ALL of the GABA A subunits and and how they relate to GABAergic and Benzodiazepine function

http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/62/1/97.full
 
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