3rd March 2004
Hello Upatnight,
Nice to speak with you again - and of course you are not intruding - great to have as many contributions as possible? There are many people on this board who think that benzos are somehow OK to use, as and when.....that they will not get hooked..........so its helpful to have to views of someone else who is wary of them. Perhaps people dont realise that - unlike narcotics - they are psychotropic drugs............ and have a profound effects on the brain. Not to be messed with.
I think that the last time we spoke was on that dreaded "graveyard shift"!!
Yes - a quick synosis - nothing clever about my problems with benzos - just a steady slog to the bottom of my own personal gutter!
I was prescribed ativan following a family bereavement - to help me sleep. No other reason........ no anxiety or anything else........ I just couldnt sleep........... so ativan was prescribed. With hindsight I think my doctor was entirely wrong. In fact - when I picked up my prescription from my pharmacist - he did indeed question why I was being prescribed ativan. He told me, there and then, that it wouldnt help me - it would just "anaesthetise" me from my emotions and that when I stopped then I would still have to deal with grief. What a wise man - I wish I had listened to him.
So - I took 1 mg of ativan - a couple of nights a week. Did this for a long long time (several years). Then - for no apparent reason (well - I know differently now) - I needed to take 1 mg every night - or I had a good deal of difficulty in sleeping.
Then I needed 2 mg............. and finally when I started to take 3 mg I decided that I had had enough - this was not the way to continue - I knew deep down that this was not the answer to my sleep difficulties, and I stopped dead!
Big, big mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Within 2 days I was in full florid withdrawal - and I wont bore you with the details! In desperation I sought information on the net and happened upon the benzo org site. Thank God that I did! I shook so hard that I could hardly type. I "spoke" with the site owner - he told me what I had to do................................ and by the next morning a copy of the Ashton Manual was lying on my doorstep.......... I took it and presented myself as an emergency at my doctor's surgery....... and the rest, as they say......... is history!! I reinstated on 3 mg ativan - crossed over to 30 mg valium and got tapering!!
I did a classic Ashton taper as per page 28 of her Manual -
Withdrawal from lorazepam (ativan) 3 mg daily with diazepam (valium substitution 3 mg lorazepam is approx equivalent to 30 mg diazepam). I followed it almost to the letter. Sometimes having to slow the taper down more than is laid down. It was pretty gruelling - and took me 8 months to complete. But I was so very lucky - many people have to take it much much more slowly and suffer much more than I did. Mind you - I had only been on daily doses for about 2 years............ many people have been on for much longer.......... some as long as 20 or 30 years.
I agree with you about Ashton...... she is of course a highly respected psychopharmacologist who is still in discussions with our Health Minister and works tirelessly for better treatment within the NHS for people trying to withdraw from benzos. I know of no other such authoritative work which is so understandable and so helpful.
So - Upatnight - take care with those little pills? They are very insidious.
If I can help in any other way? Any other questions you want to ask? Please feel free.
Hope you are well?
Speak again soon?
Y
Nice to speak with you again - and of course you are not intruding - great to have as many contributions as possible? There are many people on this board who think that benzos are somehow OK to use, as and when.....that they will not get hooked..........so its helpful to have to views of someone else who is wary of them. Perhaps people dont realise that - unlike narcotics - they are psychotropic drugs............ and have a profound effects on the brain. Not to be messed with.
I think that the last time we spoke was on that dreaded "graveyard shift"!!
Yes - a quick synosis - nothing clever about my problems with benzos - just a steady slog to the bottom of my own personal gutter!
I was prescribed ativan following a family bereavement - to help me sleep. No other reason........ no anxiety or anything else........ I just couldnt sleep........... so ativan was prescribed. With hindsight I think my doctor was entirely wrong. In fact - when I picked up my prescription from my pharmacist - he did indeed question why I was being prescribed ativan. He told me, there and then, that it wouldnt help me - it would just "anaesthetise" me from my emotions and that when I stopped then I would still have to deal with grief. What a wise man - I wish I had listened to him.
So - I took 1 mg of ativan - a couple of nights a week. Did this for a long long time (several years). Then - for no apparent reason (well - I know differently now) - I needed to take 1 mg every night - or I had a good deal of difficulty in sleeping.
Then I needed 2 mg............. and finally when I started to take 3 mg I decided that I had had enough - this was not the way to continue - I knew deep down that this was not the answer to my sleep difficulties, and I stopped dead!
Big, big mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Within 2 days I was in full florid withdrawal - and I wont bore you with the details! In desperation I sought information on the net and happened upon the benzo org site. Thank God that I did! I shook so hard that I could hardly type. I "spoke" with the site owner - he told me what I had to do................................ and by the next morning a copy of the Ashton Manual was lying on my doorstep.......... I took it and presented myself as an emergency at my doctor's surgery....... and the rest, as they say......... is history!! I reinstated on 3 mg ativan - crossed over to 30 mg valium and got tapering!!
I did a classic Ashton taper as per page 28 of her Manual -
Withdrawal from lorazepam (ativan) 3 mg daily with diazepam (valium substitution 3 mg lorazepam is approx equivalent to 30 mg diazepam). I followed it almost to the letter. Sometimes having to slow the taper down more than is laid down. It was pretty gruelling - and took me 8 months to complete. But I was so very lucky - many people have to take it much much more slowly and suffer much more than I did. Mind you - I had only been on daily doses for about 2 years............ many people have been on for much longer.......... some as long as 20 or 30 years.
I agree with you about Ashton...... she is of course a highly respected psychopharmacologist who is still in discussions with our Health Minister and works tirelessly for better treatment within the NHS for people trying to withdraw from benzos. I know of no other such authoritative work which is so understandable and so helpful.
So - Upatnight - take care with those little pills? They are very insidious.
If I can help in any other way? Any other questions you want to ask? Please feel free.
Hope you are well?
Speak again soon?
Y