Klonopin survivor here.
I don’t know anything about Ativan (Lorazepam) specifically… But it’s in the class of benzodiazipines, of which there are at least a dozen common drugs, maybe more. They all have different detailed characteristics.
One common feature of benzos — all of them, maybe more so for some than other — is their addictiveness. They may be well and good for short-term anxiety, insomnia, or whatever else they are supposed to treat. For long-term usage, not so good. Over time, all these drugs tend to cause habituations and dependency. Whatever dose you are using will, over time, become less effective, and you will need to increase the dosage ad infinitum to maintain the same effect.
When that eventually starts happening, you might decide that it’s just not working anymore, and with all due regrets, you’ll feel you need to quit. When that happens, prepare your soul for gruesome torture.
They say that quitting a benzo is tougher than kicking a heroin habit. A typical residential heroin rehab program runs four weeks. They will do the same for kicking benzos, but it’s not enough. Figure on it taking at least six weeks. At least. Benzo withdrawal is nasty and can take six weeks, or six months, or (in my case) 18 months :eek: and even after that I didn’t feel quite right for another two years. And I was only taking 0.5 mg of Klonopin twice a day, a small fraction of the prescribed dosage!
All drugs come with a “package insert”, a detailed and technical description of the drug that you’ll need a medical dictionary and a strong magnifying glass to read. Most pharmacists won’t give you that unless you ask, so ask. There will usually be a section suggesting a schedule for tapering off. If you need to do that, my advice is: Taper off much slower and more gradually than even what they suggest. For really small doses, try dissolving a half (or quarter) tablet in water, stir well, and drink only a portion of that. You can get really small and fairly well-measured doses that way.
Don’t trust your doctors to know this shit. I consulted with six of them over the time I was trying to kick the habit. Not one of them knew anything about benzos beyond some basic generic stuff. One on them (well after the fact), upon hearing what a small dose I had been using, told me that I should have just quit cold-turkey. Well, that’s what I did, with gruesome long-lasting withdrawal results as described above. Nobody understands how long-lasting the withdrawal can last for some people.
Here’s somebody who does understand: Professor Heather Ashton (long retired), at a teaching hospital, ran a benzo detox rehab for a dozen years. She wrote this paper:
Benzodiazepines: How They Work and How To Withdraw (TL;DR: Basically what I said: Very gradually and even then be prepared to be miserable.)
The above paper is found on this web site: benzo.org.uk, a British-based support site for benzo users. I suggest studying that. Also, google for whatever you can find on benzos and Ativan in particular. You’ll find plenty.
As for me: I ended up living with relatives for 8 months and then in a board-and-care home for another 8 months, I was so debilitated by the withdrawal problems. That was over 10 years ago. Since then, I’ve gotten over it. I’ve managed to keep my chronic anxiety and depression mostly down to sub-thermonuclear levels somehow (don’t ask me how!). Benzos seems to be falling out of favor — my HMO won’t use it, and I think Medicare doesn’t cover it. If I ever get a serious bout of anxiety or depression I’ll just buy a bottle or several of my favorite vino to deal with it (and yes, that’s happened and not hypothetical).