Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

[phoneutria_fera]

Ativan withdrawal sucks, especially if you've tapered way too quickly. I was on Ativan 3mg daily for nearly three months before I decided I wanted to quit. My psychiatrist advised me to take the drug "as needed", probably assuming I'd still need one or two tablets everyday for a while to curb my anxiety. But with a fairly low anxiety level these days, I thought I didn't need the Ativan. There was only at most a week between my taking 3mg and taking zero. That is a rather quick taper.

Now on to the ugly world of withdrawal symptoms. Yesterday, I had a slight tremor which I hardly noticed. Today, it was a million times worse. At first, I laughed it off, although my thought that it came from the Celexa didn't sit easily with me. I hoped that if it was a rather late Celexa side effect - three weeks into using the drug -, it would pass. I felt also slightly, well, uneasy. It wasn't full-blown anxiety, but some inner sense of restlessness. Again, I assumed it was due to the Celexa until at last I had a lightbulb moment and googled "benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms". Aha! I took an Ativan this evening - "as needed", cause I was rather tense - and the tremor is gone. Now I think I'll taper a little slower.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Benzo withdrawal was a total misery for me.

I was going all the way from 40mg clonazepam (Klonopin). Drastic dose reduction yielded massive anxiety plus hallucinating snakes crawling the walls and crows conspiring outside my windows.

I succeeded by reducing 0.125mg every three days (that's 1/4 of a 10mg pill, rather crumbly but it worked).

best wishes!