I have been on .5 ativan for over a year.want to quit.

Have you tried a high dose of inositol (vitaamin B8). I am currently withdrawing from mirtazapine, an anti-depressant which is notoriously difficult to come off of. Regarding the inositol, I take one - two heaped teaspoons of the powder in my tea has really helped me. Capsules are no good because you need a lot of the powder to get a theraputic effect. There have been several scientific studies proving its effectiveness against anxiety and depression. I have actually felt better than being on anti-depressants. It really lifts my spirits. I would try this at the same time as cutting your dosage of ativan really gradually and making ssure you stabilize on each reduced dose before cutting further. I use a plastic pill cutter to cut my ppills into quarters.

Hi Jim, coming off Ativan is very very hard, any other Benzo for that matter. The best way is to taper your Ativan very slowly or else it can cause serious troubles with a lot of anxiety and frequent panic attacks for weeks or months at the minimum. I don't want to scare you as everyone is different but that is what most people experience. Ask your doctor to switch to an equivilent dose of valium and slowly taper from there. In your case 0.5 mg of Ativan equals 5 mg of Diazepam. I am currently tapering from 40-60 mg of Diazepam and have been on a very high dose of Klonopin as well 2-3mg for over 6 years, that's a lot of benzos, somedays I would take more because of tolerence. Since April I started tapering from 40mg of Valium and as of today, December 19, I am still at 5.5 mg of Val and it was VERY diffifcult to get to the point. The lower the dose the harder the taper because the pills are hard to break, if he does prescribe you Valium ask for the 2mg pills rather than the 5 because it is easier to break them into forths and taper by 0.5 mg. Also Valium comes in liquid so the reductions can go lower than 0.5mg as well.

When I tapered off Ativan I cut my dose by 1/4 every 2 weeks. I suffered some headaches but that was the worst of it.

I want to also get off ativan. How are you doing today? And with your taper? Cheryl

Hi Jim, name is Betty, and I, too want to quit the Ativan....I am on one .5 per day...but am feeling need for more. Did you successfully stop? Hope you get this...I know its 7 months.