Benzos Ativan Tolerence.

[stuckinsouthdakota]

I was prescribed 1mg ativan PRN. At first I just take 1mg once or twice a week. And then soon I was taking 1mg a day, though if I took oxys or percs that day, I wouldn't take it or I'd just take a 1/4 of a pill. Soon I took 1mg everyday, and sometimes 2-4mgs when my anixety was really bad. I'm concerned that now, when I take it won't help me when I am feeling especially anxious. I have major surgery coming up, and I have been in out of the doctors with 3 hour MRIs, x-rays, consults, etc. so thats why I have been taking more. But I've noticed, it hardly helps anymore. I'm not really sure what I should do.


Should I just taper off it? I felt that before it was really helping, I am just shocked how quick my tolerence went up. The weird thing, is that even if I take one, I still wake up with "ativan head" in the morning, with a nice foggy feeling. But I don't get the same calming affect right a wy

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Yes, you should taper off of it.

 

[kokomo]

ativan is short acting benzo wit no active metabolites, switch to a longer acting benzo leik diazepam or chlordiazepoxide and then taper it slowly.

ps: 1 mg lorazepam is 10 mg diazepam

 

[kokomo]

also if ur gonna have surgery tell ur doc that ur tapering cuz they usually use benzos or barbs as both preanesthetics or as an amnesiac agent which may make trouble.

 

[adder]

I stuck to lorazepam at some point too (with estazolam sometimes). I switched to clonazepam but I took way more than 4mg a day. If you've got 10mg diazepam pills in your country available, I would switch right away. If the strongest ones are 5mg pills, then I'd taper down to 1mg if I were you before switching. You may also try to spare your lorazepam dose and then after lowering your dose enough, introduce diazepam as one of doses. There are many possibilities.

Also, despite actually better results for epilepsy attacks lorazepam isn't used for it as much as diazepam is. Well, there's nothing to hide before the surgery as anxiety is a common problem nowadays and it's very important for you to tell that you're on benzodiazepines and on what dose. This is for your own good so they know how to prepare you for anesthesia.

And when you still want to control your anxiety with benzodiazepines, I'd choose something less addictive. Lorazepam is one of the worst to get off.

 

[Paulycodone]

I found taking Ativan to cause very little relief and a lot of withdrawal. If you can stop taking benzos great, if not, I'd try to get one that isn't so short acting, like klonopin or (clonazepam)

 

[subox0wned]

I used to be scripted Ativan, at the .5mg dose, & I have to agree with how ridiculously high my tolerance shot up after just a few months on it. I agree with tapering off asap, before you find yourself scarfing down handfuls of these pills, running out of your script early, and yet still feeling disappointed with the effects, like I did.

 

[Paulycodone]

Yea if you take a lot for a long period of time you might end up having to take for the rest of your life (like me klonopin everyday) or else withdrawal and mini-to-major seizures happen lol