anxiouskitten
16-09-14, 13:46
My doctor prescribed me 0.5mg of lorazepam (generic for Ativan) in early August as a means to help manage the physical symptoms of anxiety I've been experiencing almost every day for eighteen months (heart palpitations, dizziness/lightheadedness, shaking/trembling, muscle aches/tension, etc)....he advised me to use it on an "as needed" basis, up to twice per day....to date, I've only taken it in 0.25mg doses (half a pill), never more than once per day, and not always every day (there have been periods where I've skipped a few days altogether, and other periods where I've taken it every day for a few days)....it's now been about five weeks and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with discontinuing a relatively small dose such as this over a relatively short period of time...I understand the issues with long-term benzo use which is why I want to discontinue using them sooner rather than later....(in fact, I took this same drug in the same dosage and frequency for almost eight months last year and stopped essentially cold turkey last fall with very few withdrawl effects)...being the Google addict that I am, I've read too many stories of the horrific withdrawl effects, and I'm already convinced that I'm about to have a seizure or irreversible brain damage, so please try to keep the scary stories to a minimum.....the worst part for me is that the lorazepam works FAR better for me than any of the SSRIs I've tried with respect to managing the physical symptoms so I know I'll be feeling a bit worse for a while....I just started another round of CBT last week, and am hopeful that I'll start to feel the benefits of that soon (I've had luck with it in the past)....sorry for the long post (I've become a ranter lately!).