[wishing.girl]

I have been struggling with panic for 1.5 months. It started terribly & my doctor treated it with Ativan (.5 mg - 1 mg 3x daily). I took that as needed. They also recommended Citalopram, but I had a terrible reaction to it (night sweats, awful dreams, increased anxiety) so they took me off of it. After a week of not being on anything, my anxiety just went away.

I got a little cocky and thought I had beat it. I started drinking coffee again and quit doing yoga (I had been going 2-3 times a week). Well, last week panic hit with a vengeance. I have a LOT of stress at my work right now. I've lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks (a lot for me) because I'm rarely hungry. Mostly I'm nauseous and I have diarrhea all the time. I even wake up at 2-3 a.m. to have diarrhea, so I’m also really tired.

My doc prescribed Prozac and I’ve been on it for a week. She is really paranoid about people getting “hooked” on Ativan, but honestly, I’ve tried to go days without it & being anxious eats up my whole day. My body shakes, I can’t eat, I spend the entire day doing deep breathing and trying to calm myself. My fiancé is being a trooper but it is cutting into my time with him.

Has anyone had positive experiences on Ativan, or do you have positive thoughts to share? I have the prescription and would like to be taking it daily, as it is prescribed—at least until the Prozac kicks in. I know the doc has to warn about addiction potential, but I just don’t see that happening in me. My friends all say I’m one of the strongest people they know and are blown away that I’m even having all of this panic.

[josh14]

Originally Posted by wishing.girl

I have been struggling with panic for 1.5 months. It started terribly & my doctor treated it with Ativan (.5 mg - 1 mg 3x daily). I took that as needed. They also recommended Citalopram, but I had a terrible reaction to it (night sweats, awful dreams, increased anxiety) so they took me off of it. After a week of not being on anything, my anxiety just went away.

I got a little cocky and thought I had beat it. I started drinking coffee again and quit doing yoga (I had been going 2-3 times a week). Well, last week panic hit with a vengeance. I have a LOT of stress at my work right now. I've lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks (a lot for me) because I'm rarely hungry. Mostly I'm nauseous and I have diarrhea all the time. I even wake up at 2-3 a.m. to have diarrhea, so I’m also really tired.

My doc prescribed Prozac and I’ve been on it for a week. She is really paranoid about people getting “hooked” on Ativan, but honestly, I’ve tried to go days without it & being anxious eats up my whole day. My body shakes, I can’t eat, I spend the entire day doing deep breathing and trying to calm myself. My fiancé is being a trooper but it is cutting into my time with him.

Has anyone had positive experiences on Ativan, or do you have positive thoughts to share? I have the prescription and would like to be taking it daily, as it is prescribed—at least until the Prozac kicks in. I know the doc has to warn about addiction potential, but I just don’t see that happening in me. My friends all say I’m one of the strongest people they know and are blown away that I’m even having all of this panic.

i have experience with ativan. i first started taking it in 2005 after a er visit because of a panic attack. they gave me a 1 month prescribtion and its was just like your doses .5/3 times a day. well, i was idk either a coward or either way i was so frienghten of the panicks by then i just started taking them 3/day hoping this would cause the panicks never to come back(it was causing severe problems with my job that eventually had to quit because of panicks). anyways, after i run out i went to general practioner and he gave me 1 month but he said thats all cause he knows its addictive. well, i took the month meds everyday so this is like several months. i run out and i said ah the heck with it no more im tired of buggin doctors to give me meds, so i just stopped cold turkey after taking for several months daily. well, i had to miss the next 3 days of work including no sleep at night those days until i couldnt take it anymore i had to call the doctor and explain what going on and he refilled the prescribtion. so see here im already addicted. then i took them everyday till about jan07. i was entirely dependent on them and was using alcohol also which i was told is very dangerous. so by this time i got a new pyschaitrist and he said since i was drinking he was not going to give me no more. i said fine i just been in the er when i run out. he gave me some kind of med, i don't remember the name that would taper of the withdrawals as the doses slowly got smaller at the same time. i was taking 3-1mg a day at this time. to my shock it worked. i was off ativan almost entirely until dec of the same year i got another job that was stressing me out. i wasn't getting the full blown panicks yet, but it was lingering. so i actually happened to have 1 refill left that i never got refilt. so, i stupidly got it refilled and gradually got back to taking it daily again. so, this is 2011, now a little over 3 years ive been on it the second time, and the first time i was on it for almost 2 years. right now im prescribed for 1mg twice a day. but for most of the 3 years ive only been taking 1mg in the morning unless feeling more anxious then i take another towards night. but, the last 1 1/2 months my panicks have gotten idk 10 times worse, so ive been taking up to 3 and 4 doses a day sometims 2 at once during a severe panick. im extremely dependent on the medication. i have to take it everywhere i go in my truck or if im not with my truck its needs to be with me in my pocket. i wished when i first got it prescribed i would had attempted to avoid taking it daily unless i just couldn't manage otherwise. because yes for me it is extremely addictive. but also i was addicted to alcohol and ciggarettes and other thing real bad in the past too so it just might be my personality. thats my advice if you take it try your best to take it as little as possible. but i also feel bad for you cause i know how horrible this can feel. i heard and read that klonopin is a better medication and less addictive and less side-effects. i hope this helped and somehow didn't scare you away from getting help. i hope you get help, i know its out there. God bless you and God protect you during this desperate time
josh

[buttrfli42481]

I am on ativan and have been taking it for a little over a year. It was originally prescribed 1mg at bedtime and 1mg prn. I am now down to taking it just at bedtime, as I have learned some coping skills to deal with my attacks. There have been a few times that I really thought that I needed one prn, but didn't take one. I ran out the other day and am waiting for my pdoc to get it to the pharmacy. I have been off it for the past 4 days, and my sleep is really affected by it. I am not sleeping as well as I do when I am on it.

[wishing.girl]

Josh, Thanks for your story & your support. Panic really is awful--I never had any idea how bad it could be, but some of my panic attacks were lasting more than 2 hours (vomiting, etc). I do not have any problems with addiction, so I am hoping that being careful will help things. This week I started taking .5 mg 2x/day, but today I only took .5 mg once in the morning (and I didn't have any problems this afternoon and evening).

I'm really sorry to hear how bad your panic attacks are. I hope that you get some relief soon, and I'm glad that you're willing to share your story about how easy it is to start relying on these pills.

I started going to therapy and doing deep breathing and meditation exercises 1-2x a day (at lunch and before bed). In the evenings I take Melatonin for sleep instead of Ativan, and that is working so far. I'm hoping that soon the Prozac will kick in so I can ditch the Ativan. I'm also planning on not taking Ativan during weekends (a kind of "drug holiday") and just using other coping skills. Thanks again for your story--it didn't scare me off--I'm still going to need the Ativan for a little while (without it I'm not keeping any food down b/c I'm so anxious), but I will be careful with it.

[Franz Rudolf]

[quote=wishing.girl;1832332]
I am sorry, but I have yet to see anybody being cured by medicine when having panic attacks. Prozac, the happy pill, Ativan and all the other pills just calm it down and push it forward in order to actually increase the problem, since they only confirm to the brain, that the problem is reel.
As Dr. Stahl showed on his video on utube, panic attacks have a cause and can be cured, not only kept alive by medicines. I was a panic attack patient and was cured many years ago with hypno-therapy, and it never came back. I know of many patients cured with this method they call RPB or reprogramming of the brain. Thats why I have such difficulties to understand why people all the time take pills that wont help them!
Franz

[Cyran0]

wishing.girl, I have been in a similar boat, taking Ativan while waiting for a longer term med to take effect (Zoloft, in my case) and now that it finally is, I find I'm rarely turning to Ativan for relief. So yes, in my opinion, use the med responsibly until you get relief from your other med and you should be fine. Just don't use more than directed.

Cyran0

[thea_kronborg]

me too. my anti-depressants are really starting to work and I have only taken one ativan in the past week.

thea

[ECHOES]

Are you seeing a therapist too, for help with the causes of your panic?

[wishing.girl]

@ ECHO - Yes, I've been meeting with a psychologist, as well.

As an update (hopefully, to give others hope!) I am feeling much better lately. I have not taken Ativan for about 2 weeks, except when I needed to go to a job interview for promotion (the thing I had been stressed about). I aced the interview & got the job. Things on that front are looking up.

I also worked with my psychologist a lot on examining the roots of my anxiety. First we just did problem solving/symptom management type of stuff & he provided some great techniques that I used first, before turning to Ativan. Now I've got a better understanding of where my anxiety is coming from.

I'm still taking Prozac and think that it has started to work. I'm going to switch from taking it at night to the morning, because I've had terrible sleep since beginning it. I wake up around 4-5 a.m. every day & can't get back to sleep (after 6-7 hrs sleep; I need 8-9). They gave me 1st Melatonin & 2nd Trazadone to counter that, but those things aren't very effective for me.

Thanks, everyone for the feedback & support. I think I'm going to sign off of these forums until future notice. I need some time to get my head in a good place & not think as much about anxiety.

[ECHOES]

Thanks for the update, wishing.girl, and I'm glad you are feeling much better!!

[Leed]

I too suffered from panic attacks and they were horrible. My doctor put me on Xanax, and I got addicted to it. I had to withdraw from it, and that was miserable.

I did manage to teach myself how to STOP having panic attacks. It took me a little while, but it worked. It was actually kind of easy tho -- All I did was ask myself "What's the worst that can happen?" My answer was always "I'll probably faint, and someone will call an ambulance.'" Well i figured that's not horrible, and it's not going to kill me. Plus i discovered that if I pressed on the carotid artery in my neck (the big one where you can feel your pulse) that i could slow down my pulse, and the rapid heartbeat would slow down too -- thus calming down the panic attack.

Once I did these two things, I was able to calm myself down -- it took a few tries and some concentration but it worked. I haven't had a panic attack in quite awhile -- but when I do, I immediately go back into doing those 2 things.

I wish everyone the very best - I know this is miserable. God bless.. hugs, Lee