I've been taking ativan for over seven years. I started out with .5 Mg 3 times a day. Over the years My doctor has increased the dosage to 2 Mg 3 times a day. If I take it on an empty stomach it tends to make me sleepy, so I always take it with a meal. I lost a month's worth of pills one time on vacation and had to wait 2 weeks to get more. I did not feel any real withdral symptoms over the two week other than difficulty sleeping for the first couple of days. What I did feel was anxiety, irratability, and a complete lack of enthusiasm for anything. These feelings vanished the day I got home and contacted my dr. for a refill.
People can say what they want about addiction, I just know that when I take the pills I don't scream at my kids, I don't have anxiety attacks at the grocery store, and I can deal with the daily stress much better. It also controls my OCD tendencies which get worse when I'm stressed out. The drug has been overall,for myself, a good, workable, long solution for something that had adversly affected my life for years.
Well, ativan can feel strong at first. you should be using the smallest effective dose as possible. I started taking .25 MG as needed. Later on though I built up a tolerance and had to up the dose to .5. Now I'm on my way to 1. But you should definately use the smallest dose possible.