Posted by Hugh on September 22, 2015, at 20:27:32
In reply to Able to hold a successful job while on daily benzo, posted by Chelle on September 22, 2015, at 11:44:21
It's possible that what you're experiencing is inter-dose withdrawal from Ativan. I also took Ativan for sleep. I took it nightly for three years and was very pleased with it -- except that I increased my dosage twice because of tolerance. I started at .5 mg. After I'd been on 1.5 mg for several months, I started to get brain fog and suffer from terrible gastrointestinal problems, and my anxiety worsened.
I agree with Guy, that you should probably switch from Ativan to a longer-acting benzo like Klonopin or Valium. It could be that you'll feel much better on either one of these. I had to get off of benzos completely, because I just couldn't tolerate them anymore. It took me four months to complete my benzo taper (I did a crossover from Ativan to Valium halfway through my taper -- I would have switched a lot sooner, but I had trouble finding someone to prescribe Valium for me).
The Ashton Manual has lots of good advice on how to do a crossover to another benzo, and has tapering schedules.
poster:Hugh
thread:1082810
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150901/msgs/1082831.html