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Anxiety Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to generalized anxiety, anxiety and eating, anxiety and sleeping, mood swings, and phobias.
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you should not up the dose without speaking with you doctor about it first. I have had some clients that take 2mg. That being said, I wouldn't really reccomend taking ativan if you're having trouble sleeping. Ativan is great to take as a PRN (as needed basis) for when you're having acute anxiety. It can make you a little drowsy or a little more mellow, but is generally not used as a sleep aid. Ask your doctor about trazadone. Technically, it's an antidepressant, however it's super effective as a sleep aid...it's not all that effective as an antidepressant. Oh...and I wouldn't reccomend taking restoril at the same time as ativan....one or the other.
lorazepam - (P R N!!!) - in the 1/2 to 1 mg dosage ranges.
usually it was to start a couple days a week with a little
more calm. twenty or so minutes later this little knot in
my tum-tum relaxed. i could _feel_ the change.
1/2 mg was just fine with an occassional 1-mg when i was too
lazy to cut the tab into two or felt more anxious than usual.
and in about 20 mins, tum-tum relaxed. mid-day anxiety was
(prn) treated approx the same way though _rarely_ on days
that started with lorazapam.
through the 70s and 80s and early 90s things were nominal but
then added grief/stress made me think a bit because my sleep
pattern/cycle changed adversly.
so i changed from wake-up meds to go-2-sleep meds (doc
approved). realize, also, that 2-beers a night (over
3-4 hours) is a diet mandate of mine. the lorazapam
helped with the sleep but i had to titrate up to
3.5 mg to get a whole, reliable quality night's sleep.
this surprised me, actually but i'll use that regimen in
the future if the situation seems to suggest it. btw,
4-beers a night was no help. more than that i am not willing
to exceed, and never loraz+beer>2!!
Yours Sincerely
Mack...USUALLY Ativan isn't the best sedative to take long term, because you build up a tolerance and eventually end up requiring a higher dose to acheive the same effect. There are other benzodiazepines that are more appropriate for long-term use.
Whatever you do...do not ever stop taking the Ativan abruptly. You will need to be tapered off of it. As for if your doc ever decides to not prescribe it for you? I don't know your doc, but a lot of physicians will only prescribe Ativan for short periods of time (months to maybe a year), for the reasons I listed above.
If it is working for you, and your doc has not given you any indication that he will be pulling the plug anytime soon...I suppose you should just go on as you have. If it really concerns you, by all means, discuss it with your doctor...a lot of times, for long term use, Klonopin is prescribed. It is a longer acting benzo, and patients do not develop the same kind of tolerance that they do with Ativan, Xanax, etc.
Good luck to you.