Ativan make it worse

Ativan treats everyone in different ways. For my husband the Ativan made his anxiety worse. As it is giving you relief for a while after you take it, I would say it is working. However, Ativan is short acting. It isn’t going to help all day. You could ask your doctor about Klonopin as it is longer acting. Hope this helps. 

Ativan is a short acting benzodiazepine with a shorter half life than Valium. Valium has a short life as long as 24 hr. I think you should talk to your doctor about taking the right benzodiazepine. Every one reacts to different meds differently . I was once put on 3 mg of Ativan a few years ago and it was terrible to come off them. Don’t get yourself addicted . 

I was on a low dose of Zoloft for 5 weeks. 12.5 mgs for two weeks then upped to 25 mgs a day. The first week went ok. Second week I had horrible shakes/tremors everyday all day. Woke up that way everyday and it was super scary. I kept with it for a while. Took Ativan to get a little relief. By the end of the 4th week the tremors started to subside somewhat. But I still had daily headaches that were also bothersome. The headaches were a burning sensation in the back of my head. Weird I know. Anyway I saw my doc for my 6 week med check and she told me to get off Zoloft. She didn’t like the shaking/tremors and the warm sensation headaches I was getting on such a low dose and felt if I upped the meds it would not improve my situation. Took about 4-5 days for the shaking to stop after coming off Zoloft. She put me on Buspar instead but I am so scared to try it. I’ve been putting it off for almost two weeks now. Don’t know what to do. Take it and see or don’t take it and continue to suffer with anxiety. Hope you can get to the bottom of this and start feeling better soon. Good luck! 

What you are experiencing is known as the rubberband effect with benzos. The shorter the half-life on the benzo, the more significant of a compensation the nervous system makes when the drug exits the system. Longer half-life benzos like klonopin sort of taper themselves as they are designed to leave the system more slowly. As others have stated, klonopin would be a better option if you feel like what you are going through is too much to bear. 

Another idea would be to ask for propranolol. I have a history of alcohol abuse so my psych doesn't feel comfortable giving me benzos, she did give me propranolol though which is a beta blocker and counteracts the sympathetic nervous system's activation during anxiety. I just emerged on the other side of the tunnel after spending a hellish 3 weeks starting Prozac, propranolol helped me so much which the general shaky and agitated feeling.

Regardless though, I was so pessimistic that Prozac would bring me relief after how horrible it was making me feel with regards to my anxiety. Then one day I woke up to a totally different, calm and wonderful experience of life without the constant feeling like there was a looming threat. Stick with it! 

Good luck.

I’m so sorry you are going through this. Remember you are OK. Anxiety and panic is extremely uncomfortable but not dangerous. With that being said, I was on Ativan for about three years and towards the end, it started to make my anxiety skyrocket. It would initially work but as soon as it left my system, full blown panic set in. Since then, my doctor has put me on Klonopin and it has been SO much better.