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.
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.