Doctor Has Husband On Soma Norco And Ativan He Also Is In Dire Need Of An Anti Anxiety Medication Either In Conjunction With Ativan Or To Replace (Top voted first)

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Husband has myriad of physical and mental issues, the most debilitating to me is his anxiety and depression. Given the meds he has used already for years, what else could he take that woudnt interfere with what he is taking now? He goes for a psych medication evaluation in two days and starts pain mgmt in two weeks. Any input highly appreciated

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6

If you are asking me I had been taking Xanax for 20 years. I asked to change and was given Ativan. I did not like the sleepiness and that it doesn't control anxiety although some say its a stronger medicine. I had a spare year of Xanax, and filled a years worth of Ativan. My Doctor was moving on and could care less. While I only took about a weeks worth, I hated them and stopped. You are fooling yourself if you believe withdrawal can not occur on ANY benzodiazepine as they are all dangerous. I wound up in the E.R almost dead, and finally threw all the Ativan away. Never was able to kick the Xanax and dumped 12 months worth of Ativan. I now take less and have more as I don't want to die. This medicine however can kill us, no doubt at all? You have to experience it to believe it!

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8

Great post Destin. I felt at 3 mg a day of Xanax (a large dose) I still was experiencing anxiety problems and heard that Ativan was Elizabeth Taylor's Benzo of choice, this when Michael Jackson passed away. So I made the switch. About a year later after running out the extra Xanax I had I started taking the Ativan and thought it was terrible so I decided to stop it all. My doctor was moving away, wondered why I had filled all 12 months worth if they weren't working. Even asked for them back. He wrote for one additional month and left the State. I tried to taper down my last remaining Xanax and then took a few Ativan's and just stopped. Then the withdrawal started, two weeks of torture with death just days away. Popped into the local Hospital in my small town and they kept me for a week. The attending Physician became my personal Doctor and I amassed a giant supply of Xanax and even cut down my daily use. While I am with a different Doctor now, I still get Xanax and have about two to three years worth stored away under lock and key. Knowing what we know about the drug I wouldn't have had your Doctor comply with your request to lower your dosage, this after going through that withdrawal, that is why I now have so many and take less. I will say in the Hospital that first night I was very annoyed when I found out they shot me up with liquid Ativan. However it actually worked as I was beginning to freak out in the Hospital and was going to pull the wires and leave. One problem though I was almost dying and soon after the shot calmed me down. On my 2nd day of the week stay I told the Doctor the part Xanax played in bringing me in the Hospital and he put me back on them and restored me to somewhat normal. After that for months after he doubled my supply even though I was taking less. I just did a count, 3000 mg in reserve although my current bottle says 2012. I would never be able to explain this to the authorities so its in storage as I mentioned. One heck of a medicine, one strange class of medicine. Thanks Liz Taylor!

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1

I have been on almost everything for depression. .MDD, Oct and anxiety. The only drug that gas helped me is PAXIL WITH KLONOPIN! I also take serious pain med.s but have been on the same b4 with no interference.

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3

Hes been on the ativan for 22 years, he is scared to death about the withdraw process, he tried xanax, which helped mentally, but he was too drowsy to function. We are in the process of changing doctors, ours of 22 years has just really gotten him hooked on pain and anxiety meds.

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5

How long did you take the ativan before you stopped? Also what other benzos were you on before starting the ativan because theres no way you took only 1 or 2 doses and went through withdrawal. I take 3mg's of alprazolam/day and have been on for like r years now and I run out early once in awhile and î never get any withdrawal.....î think I'm gonna talk to my Dr about getting 1mg alprazolam..I didn't know they existed they might help better.....

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7

Eddy you are right about the Ativan. They say it helps anxiety and is supposed to. In some people it does. I think it's perhaps those, that have never been on any other benzo before. I don't know what milligram they prescribed you? However they're no comparison to Xanax. I too have been on Xanax for about 20 yrs. It has been a miracle drug for me. However I take it properly, the proper prescribed dosage, at the same time every day. And yes WD from Xanax can definitely kill a person. My drs. have made sure to tell me this.
As you probably know a person can rapidly build a tolerancy and if not careful will decide to up their dosage on their own and that's where the problems begin.
About 2 yrs ago I decided to decrease my dosage by half [without my Dr.s knowledge], but tapered over about a 3 month period. After I had done so safely and my body had adjusted I then asked my Dr. to decrease my dosage, to what I had tapered to, which was 1/2 of what I had been taking. He happily did so. I'm now still on the reduced dosage and plan on staying on that dosage.
Strange that before I started on Xanax I had Drs. prescribe me a myriad of anti-depressants, which always made me worse than before these meds. I kept telling them it was NOT depression, that it was extreme Anxiety and I also have PTSD. Finally, after about 3-4 years of this yo-yo ride decided "no more". Then my pain management Dr. prescribed me the Xanax. Wow! What a difference. I wish this had been done through those years of these others Dr.s guessing and basically using me as a Guinea Pig, with all those different anit-depressants [in hopes of finding the "right one". I feel normal again.
There is a high abuse rate with Xanax, as I'm sure you know, but it's a great drug when taken properly!
And yes the WD from it is brutal!! I'm blessed to have great Dr.s, who made sure to explain to me, that the WD could kill me and to be sure to never run out.
They can keep Ativan. It does nothing for me at all !!
With you being on Xanax previously, for so many years that Dr. knew that the Ativan was not going to work for you. For years, many years ago, Ativan [before newer drugs came out] was used in ER's for patients coming in, in WD, to stop the WD symptoms. [However, that wasn't it's only use.] They would pop you with a shot of Ativan to stop the WD symptoms, but it was only a temporary fix. Once you left that ER you were on your own.
When they started taking people off Xanax and replacing it with a different med, they were usually giving either, Klonopin, or Valium, as an alternative. My Dr. did the same with his patients, however allowed me to keep my Xanax.
Good Luck!

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9

Sir, I suggest you may be taking too much- for YOUR system, and should Always start with HALF. As for the above woman, who says she had withdrawals after a WEEK? Im not sure this is even possible, unless you're taking very very large doses. As for her husband, being afraid,...any sane Dr, will simply recommend, to cut dosages, untill down to 5 mgs of pain relief meds , then half that, then stop. I have DONE THIS, when I lost my pain control Dr. (7 yrs of Morphine) What you get left with is a bad dose of diarrhea for a couple of weeks, which you treat with Imodium. THATS IT.--Anyone who says or fears total physical withdrawal, is not right, going from my own experience. I believe alcohol withdrawal is more dangerous.

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10

Interesting, I am a registered nurse and I can tell you that pain is a very subjective assessment, and varies from patient to patient. We may be able to tell when a patient is in the moderate to excruciating stages as evidenced by diaphoresis, increased blood pressure, increased respiratory rate, increased heart rate, irritability, emotional liability, etc. Two patient's with the exact same injury with a numerical pain score could show one patient with a score of a 2 and the other an 8. The first patient would probably be given 800 mg of ibuprofen while the second patient would possibly recieve a parenteral dose of hydromorphon, probably 1 to 2 mg. A patient's pain is what the patient states it to be and we will often have them describe if it is sharp, dull, burning if it radiates and what, if any thing, makes it worse or relieves it. As far as the original posters husband going through benzo withdrawal after a week of ativan use is HIGHLY unlikely and would suspect something more psychological in nature, and I'm not qualified to make medical diagnoses. Yes, alcohol withdrawal is far worse than opioid withdrawal. When we have people come in the ER with alcohol withdrawal symptoms they are immidiately put on an alcohol withdrawal logarithm involving seizure prevention protocol using lorazepam and klonopin and slowly tapering it down and evaluating their response. In laymen terms, opioid withdrawal sucks but alcohol withdrawal can possibly kill you.

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4

I just watches a half hour special and it was really sad. 3 different people, all dead or dying from prescription pain medicine. The last guy spent $13,000 a month on pain meds and Xanax, then his Doctor got arrested for killing 17 patients. Now he is just on Xanax for a broken back. I don't want to be like him, and at 2 to 3 I hope I will never be, but this stuff is bad, and Ativan I felt was not worth living for. Even threw away a years supply. Switched back to Xanax which only makes you very drowsy in large amounts

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2

Ativan is a very strong anti aniety medicine. I took it, hated it, and stopped. 1 week later I was almost dead from a benzo withdrawal. You might consider asking for a switch to Xanax/Klonopin/Valium

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