Ran out of xanax, taking lorazepam

I did a bad thing. I ran out of alazropram, xanax. What to do? Doctor is away and PCP not open until MON.

Well I decided to take my son's unused lorazopram. Same .50 dose. I did not want withdrawal symptoms over Thanksgiving. I also need to work.

I'm not advocating to ever do this. I'm just curious if there will be bad side effects? Everything I've read says they're in the same family and interchangeable.

They are both benzodiazepines, but I'm not sure they are interchangeable. Ativan (lorazepam) is fast acting and less potent I believe. I am not absolutely sure. What I do know is that it is equivalent to Klonopin (clonanazepam) but only a fourth the strength and doesn't stay in your body as long.

That said, withdrawal from benzos can be very bad so taking something in the same family is the best you can do for now. I would try to see if you can find out if the dosage is right. Perhaps look at the PDR, or call a pharmacist when you can.

Idk if the doses are equivalent, but you should be fine! I'd double ck with a pharmacist if you're worried! But, Xanax has a very short half life and is probably already out of your system anyway so switching to Ativan is probably a better choice, since it is very similar but is longer acting and less addictive. Btw .50 is a small dose for both meds! Best of luck!!

if you were taking .5 of Xanax you need to take 1mg Ativan to match its strength

I think so too. .50mg doesn't even seem to work, but 1mg does.

Xanax is one of the strongest Benzo,s I mg Xanax is the same strength has 2 mg ATIVAN and 20mg valium , so 1 Ativan is .5 xanax 10mg valium hope that makes it easier to work out.

You are not doing anything bad by taking the ativan, you are preventing yourself from going through really terrible withdrawals. I stopped taking Xanax cold turkey and it was very unpleasant. Taking another benzo such as ativan should really help prevent this. Try to get your correct px asap.

Xanax and Ativan are fast acting and they wear off faster making them both easier to build up a tolerance and addiction.

Valium and Klonopin are stronger IMHO, and they also last a lot longer to which slows down the tolerance build up making them less addicting unless abused.

I prefer Klonopin. But that's just me, I'm stuck with Xanax for now, they wear off way to fast for me.

Not much difference between ativan and xanax except for the mg ratio. You should not notice any difference however your doc is going to be a little mad at you

BENZOS are very very addictive to some , that's the good part the bad part is coming off them . I have taken Ativan since it came out over 30 years none stop , first take when needed , then massive doses of 12 mg a day and now 4mg that I will be on for life. I don't mind that it has saved my life many times , the only time it nearly killed me is when they stopped it at a very high dose. But Ativan and other fast acting benzos give you that couple of hours out the death zone if on the edge of life. I would sooner have a tolerance to a benzo than die.

Well I'm back on the Xanax. I went to my psych dr Tuesday for our scheduled appointment to find the door locked. I called the office # to find he was on vacation. He's private practice so no MD was covering him. I called my PCP who agreed to a week prescription for now. Thank God!!

I can already feel the difference after 1 day. The Lorazopram didn't work for me.

glad your ok! ativan would have worked but their mg rating is different meaning you would have needed a higher amount of ativan to equal what you were use too. I didn't care for ativan either because it just seemed whacked to me too.

I think most have said, but they are both in the benzo class. Xanax being the more addicting of the two. you are fine to use the other, if on prn basis if you ran out. won't cause any issues.

So I told my doc what I did. He said it was a good idea and was ok. He did increase my xanax to 1mg for a more therapeutic dose. He also said that lorazepam leaves a flatter effect than xanax.