Scared of Ativan

[Waitingtoexhale]

I’ve been on 50mg Zoloft for 21days now and I take 0.5mg Ativan for my anxiety. Until the Zoloft kicks in, my psychiatrist told me to take the Ativan as needed. I NEED TO TAKE IT EVERYDAY! This scares me because I don’t want to become addicted to it. Please share with me your Ativan experiences. Thanks

[Boomba76]

It is extremely addictive! I was taking .5 every night then I would need 1mg and then 1.5mg I eventually got up to taking 5mg before I was almost in a coma. I had to step down by .5mg every week until now I don’t take any. Be careful it is very addictive and you always want more...

[Bela64]

I’m in the some boat as you ,I’m not taking Zoloft now,but I have tried it before but unfortunately it didn’t help me ...I’m now taking Duloxetine for the past 21 days hoping and praying for it to work 🙏🏼I have asked my doctor for Ativan but he refused to give it to me ,He said that is very addictive.. I’m trying very hard to get through this in hope that the medication kicks in soon 🤞🏻I been listening to Claire weekes on Youtube how to over come anxiety and panic attack’s...is helping me understand my feelings..she is very good..I also have her books .. maybe you should try it .. wish you better soon and hope you medication kicks in soon 🙏🏼Best wishes. Bella

[Boomba76 in reply to Bela64]

Try Joyce Meyer on you tube. I put my wireless headphones on at night, turn it up and fill my brain with her messages.

[Bela64 in reply to Boomba76]

Than you I will for sure try that ..good advice is always well come 🤗hope you feeling better today!?

[elaine2447]

Don't take ativan, it's lethal. At first it's heaven and then it's hell.

I just took one a year ago and felt wonderful after an awful out of the blue anxiety attack plus nausea that had gone on for a month. Then it got to twice a week, then 3 a week and then one every day. Little did I know at the time that 1mg of lorazepam is equivalent to 10mg of valium. So after 10 months I had become addicted. I spent this last summer which I was really looking forward to, lying on the bed feeling like i was dying unless I popped an ativan. I realised I had to stop it, the GP was useless and just said you'll have to taper (easier said than done) He hadnt even heard of the Ashton Manual which is universal and said oh no, no diazapam (which is what is recommended to help taper) so I had to go it alone, joined two benzo recovery groups on Facebook, and my god, I think I have got away with it lightly after seeing what some of the members are going through. I got it down to 1/4mg of lorazepam plus 2.5mg diazepam, felt pretty grim but I didnt want to take the recommended amount of diazepam as it was huge. Then I had to have two scans of my neck in October, one rather unpleasant because of the time it took, two hours and my neck was wedged in a block.

So by the next day and days that followed, having arthritis in my neck since mid thirties and an old whiplash injury I was in agony all through the night. Oh and by the way I am sure that it was lorazepam that messed up my adrenals, as I did a morning cortisol blood test and it was twice over the high end normal which I think was accounting for my horrendous wake ups, 3, 4 and 5 am. Anyway, getting back to after this nuclear scan, I thought I will have to go back to my old osteopath, and because I was so nervous instead of my 1/4mg of loraz I took around 1.75mg thinking oh to hell with the tapering I will start over but at least I would feel great for one day. Never happened, I felt 100 times worse. Apparently this is called tolerance, so I had become tolerant of this wretched med just in 10 months. Osteopath had retired and the son was too nervous to do anything much because of my severe osteoporosis.

I have now been off it for 6 weeks and am down to 1.25mg diazepam twice a day, and am just about holding on. I have tapered too quickly I know but I dont like taking drugs. In saying that I remember that there was a study done some while back about mirtazapine given to healthy volunteers and was found to reduce cortisol (the stress hormone quite dramatically), so I am taking just 15mg of that per night. So far, don't feel great but at least I am eating again (lost 14lbs because of the nausea) and hopefully will taper off the mirtazapine.

You have to be careful with certain types of anti anxiety tablets as some increase cortisol and some reduce. I found this page which is quite useful I think. YOu will see that zoloft has an arrow pointing up which means it increases cortisol. goodhormonehealth.com/artic...

[Mike7777]

Hello, ive been on ativan for almost a year and have only needed 1 mg at most but mainly take 5mg. No side effects. No addiction. It works. Period.