ativan is highly addictive, and one of the symptoms of addiction is tollerance - requiring more to get the same effect. That's why Ativan should not be used for long term therapy. I'm on Clonazapam (same family of drugs) 1 mg 3 x / day for anxiety and I've been on it for about a year. I've noticed that I don't get the same immediated relief that I got with Ativan, but it stays in your system longer so you don't get the same crashes / rebound anxiety that you get with Ativan. Actually when I say I'm on 3 mg a day that's a bit of an exageration as I often forget to take it, so realistically I'm probably only taking 1 mg most days.

You might also want to explore Buspar with your Dr., I've never tried it, but it's supposed to be for anxiety and non-addicting.

Good luck.

---splitimage