Lorazepam withdrawal?

[ErinKC]

I’ve had a lorazepam prescription for a while now. Typically, I only take it now and then when my anxiety is high and I’d never taken more than 0.5mg in a day. Over the last two months my anxiety was a bit higher and I was taking it more often - I’d say most days. When I got Covid a month ago it got even worse there were a few days I took 1mg during the day. My anxiety has been getting better so I decided to try to stop taking it. I’ve never had any issues with going days without taking it. This time, my last dose was Sunday. Since then I have been getting bad dizzy spells/feeling weird and detached for hours. That’s not a typical anxiety symptom for me.

Now, I honestly can’t remember if I was having this dizziness before I stopped taking it because I’ve felt weird for the last several weeks. But I went 5 days without the drug until yesterday when I was at work. I was feeling so dizzy and off and my boss was going to take us out to lunch, so I gave in and took one to avoid panicking. I felt better within like 20 mins. This was first a relief but then it freaked me out that maybe the weird symptoms were withdrawal.

I didn’t know a lot about how Benzos work. So I looked it up and now I’m kind of freaking out that I screwed up my brain.

Who has experience with this drug at a really low dose and how did you get off it and what was that like?

Thanks!!

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239

[panic_down_under]

When I got Covid a month ago it got even worse there were a few days I took 1mg during the day.

Anxiety and depression are the emotional manifestations of an underlying physical brain dysfunction, atrophy (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC60045) of the twin hippocampal regions of the brain caused by high brain stress hormone levels, particularly of cortisol, killing brain cells and inhibiting the growth of replacements. See also: Depression and the Birth and Death of Brain Cells (PDF (https://www.americanscientist.org/sites/americanscientist.org/files/20057610584_306.pdf)). Both therapy (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.05.017) and antidepressants (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025168/) work by stimulating the growth of new hippocampal brain cells. The cells produce the therapeutic effect, not the treatments directly.

The atrophy results from a type of auto-immune reaction and these disorders will often worsen when the immune system is in overdrive fighting an infection.


This was first a relief but then it freaked me out that maybe the weird symptoms were withdrawal.

It may well be withdrawal as benzodiazepine (BZD) dependence can occur within a few weeks when they are taken daily.


I didn't know a lot about how Benzos work. So I looked it up and now I'm kind of freaking out that I screwed up my brain.

No, you haven't "screwed" up your brain. Lorazepam is one of the naturally occurring BZDs (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3172979) found in all foods so your brain 'knows' how to deal with it. It actually needs the small amounts of lorazepam or other BZDs in food to function. But the extra pharmaceutical lorazepam has forced brain changes and it may take a few weeks for these to be reversed.

Given the low dose and the relatively short time you were taking it I don't think you need to taper off lorazepam, just stop taking it. I suggest you also talk to your GP about your experience and ask for an alternative medication as while BZDs can be very effective in the short-term, or when taken only occasionally as you used to do, they may actually make anxiety and depression worse when taken regularly by causing the very hippocampal atrophy which manifest these disorders (see the 'Ugly' part of Benzodiazepines: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (https://journalofpsychiatryreform.com/2016/11/20/benzodiazepines-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/)). They can also blunt the effectiveness (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23639432) of antidepressants.