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Well, since Ativan and Klonopin are both benzos you're probably already familiar with the addictive potential. But I'll copy and paste here what I posted on another thread about K-pin:
I was prescribed K-pin roughly 30 years ago, 1 mg./day (bedtime). Benzos were very popular back then. For the first about two years the K-pin was an excellent medication to reduce anxiety and to help me sleep. After that I started to build up a tolerance to it, so I had some anxiety again. My pdoc added 1 mg. in the morning.
I remained on the 2mg./day, with occasional increases to 3mg. per day. So here I am, still taking Klonopin. It isn't doing anything to decrease anxiety, nor is it helping with sleep. The problem is that my body is addicted to the stuff. In November I began decreasing the dose, so now I'm taking .5mg. in the morning and 1mg. at bedtime. Next week I'm going to try to eliminate the AM dose altogether.
I will feel successful if I can make it to .5 mg./day. At that point I will shave off minuscule bits with the goal of stopping the K-pin, altogether. But it will take about a year to stop it, if I can without having a terrible ongoing withdrawal syndrome. I want to stop taking the K-pin because it has definitely caused me to have cognitive problems. There is some strong evidence that long-term benzo use can cause dementia.
So that's my "benzo story."
With all of that, I still believe that benzos are an excellent medication as long as the same dose isn't used daily for more than about 6 months. It needs to be either a prn med, or taken for a while, then either reduced or stopped, then used again. (I would use otc sleep meds to alternate with the benzo.)
Moose, I'll add that I was prescribed Ativan once, many years ago, and found it really strange. I had black-outs on it. For example, I went to a festival with my niece and all I could recall the next day was riding in her car and getting out of her car. I lost the rest of the day and have never recovered the memory. I didn't stay on Ativan for very long.
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