AmZ
Member
Hi everyone,
So, I went to my psychiatrist this morning.
As I have been taking the Lorazepam for over 2 months now on a daily basis, I said that I'd like to start to taper off of it. Hopefully this will work alongside taking the Effexor and the Effexor will take over enough so that I won't need the Lorazepam/Benzos in the future.
I asked about a tapering plan and he just said to come off of it within a 'week or two'. So I asked if he could be more specific. (I take 1mg at bedtime and 0.5mg in the morning and maybe 3 days out of the week, 0.5mg in the afternoon). He said that if I take 1mg at bedtime, then take 0.5mg at bedtime for a week and I can then stop completely. He said that the 0.5mg in the morning doesn't need to be tapered off, that I can just stop it tomorrow if I wanted and it would be OK.
Have I missed something here or is he right in suggesting this? It's different to what I have read.
So he's given me 20 Lorazepam of 1mg each and said that is enough in order to taper off now. Luckily I have 22 left over from before, so I have 42 total - Plenty to work with!
I am basically going to do more than he said to do, because there is no harm in it, (coming off it it slower).
I think I'll do 0.5mg at bedtime instead of 1mg for a week and then even 0.25mg for a further week and finish there with that.
With the 0.5mg in the morning, I guess do a week of 0.25mg and then finish it?
I asked for 0.5mg tablets so that I can easily break them in half and get 0.25mg, his response to that was "when you come off of it, you don't need to take anything less than 0.25mg, 0.5mg is a low enough amount to finish on".
Concerning the Effexor, I've been on 75mg for a month now and can't say it's raised my mood or helped really.. But difficult to tell, because 3 good days here, 1 bad day there etc and haven't been able to see enough over time if there are cycles of how I feel or whether it is the medication helping. He said that I should go to 150mg from today. I asked if maybe I could go to 112.5mg (1 1/2 tablets) for a week or two and see how I feel on that. He said that I can if I wanted. He said that if I had no side effects at all from the 75mg (which I didn't), then I will most likely need the 150mg, so recommends I just do that. Is that true? It would be a sign that if someone had no side effects on the 75mg then it shows they need a higher dosage?
So, got some decisions to make here.... Please, any advice would be superb.
Thanks in advance. :2thumbs:
---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 AM ----------
And meeting with the new (and long-awaited!) psychologist next Monday....
So, I went to my psychiatrist this morning.
As I have been taking the Lorazepam for over 2 months now on a daily basis, I said that I'd like to start to taper off of it. Hopefully this will work alongside taking the Effexor and the Effexor will take over enough so that I won't need the Lorazepam/Benzos in the future.
I asked about a tapering plan and he just said to come off of it within a 'week or two'. So I asked if he could be more specific. (I take 1mg at bedtime and 0.5mg in the morning and maybe 3 days out of the week, 0.5mg in the afternoon). He said that if I take 1mg at bedtime, then take 0.5mg at bedtime for a week and I can then stop completely. He said that the 0.5mg in the morning doesn't need to be tapered off, that I can just stop it tomorrow if I wanted and it would be OK.
Have I missed something here or is he right in suggesting this? It's different to what I have read.
So he's given me 20 Lorazepam of 1mg each and said that is enough in order to taper off now. Luckily I have 22 left over from before, so I have 42 total - Plenty to work with!
I am basically going to do more than he said to do, because there is no harm in it, (coming off it it slower).
I think I'll do 0.5mg at bedtime instead of 1mg for a week and then even 0.25mg for a further week and finish there with that.
With the 0.5mg in the morning, I guess do a week of 0.25mg and then finish it?
I asked for 0.5mg tablets so that I can easily break them in half and get 0.25mg, his response to that was "when you come off of it, you don't need to take anything less than 0.25mg, 0.5mg is a low enough amount to finish on".
Concerning the Effexor, I've been on 75mg for a month now and can't say it's raised my mood or helped really.. But difficult to tell, because 3 good days here, 1 bad day there etc and haven't been able to see enough over time if there are cycles of how I feel or whether it is the medication helping. He said that I should go to 150mg from today. I asked if maybe I could go to 112.5mg (1 1/2 tablets) for a week or two and see how I feel on that. He said that I can if I wanted. He said that if I had no side effects at all from the 75mg (which I didn't), then I will most likely need the 150mg, so recommends I just do that. Is that true? It would be a sign that if someone had no side effects on the 75mg then it shows they need a higher dosage?
So, got some decisions to make here.... Please, any advice would be superb.
Thanks in advance. :2thumbs:
---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 AM ----------
And meeting with the new (and long-awaited!) psychologist next Monday....