valium stays in your system much longer than ativan so its easier to taper. with ativian you go and up and down every 5 or 6 hours. Once you crossover to valium, you can taper it without such bad side effects. Hydroxyzine is atarax and you can find information about it on line. I have tried to taper off of xanax which is like ativan andi had a lot of uncomfortable side effects. Now i am trying the ashton method. I hope you will check it out: Dr. Heather Ashton, Ashton Manual.