Am I tapering off of Ativan correctly?

[Magen4]

I've been taking Ativan for almost 3 years now. At first, I was taking 1mg twice a day. Eventually I brought it down to only taking 1mg every 2-3 days. After researching and finding out more about it, I really don't want to take this drug at all and I'm upset that I was ever prescribed it in the first place. I just got 0.5mg tablets and I have been taking them once a day for about a week now and  noticing an increase in my anxiety. Am I tapering correctly? If not, what can I do to make this more tolerable? I'm terrified of some of the withdrawal symptoms I've read about (seizures, or even death?) which is causing me to have even more anxiety. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[Paxiled]

You don't say why you were put on them in the first place.  That makes it harder to know if you're suffering a withdrawal symptom, meaning you're tapering off them too quickly, or a recurrence of the reasons you started taking them.  Benzos are very hard to stop taking, and the proper withdrawal is the speed that suits the particular individual doing the quitting.  Doctors often do a standard taper they read in a book somewhere, but no individual is standard.  Some people quit these things with no problem at all, and some have a hard time.  We're different.  As for seizures, they happen when you quit cold turkey, not when you taper off slowly.  I assume you have a psychiatrist who prescribed this for you, or a doctor (it kind of sounds like a general doc, because it's not a great idea to take these things daily.  It's an addictive drug and hard to stop and some people build a tolerance to them, so unless absolutely necessary it's best to take them only when necessary.  I got the same bad doctoring when I started a benzo many years ago and was told to take it every day twice a day.  Bad advice).  Usually the taper off is done under your psychiatrist's supervision.  You seem to be doing this yourself.  Anyway, if it's withdrawal, you slow down the taper; if it's a recurrence of the original problem, well, it's still there.