Finally finished my taper
After a 1 year and 5 months taper of Lorazepam, I have finally made the jump!
Too make a long story short, I was put on this medication in 2012 by a doctor ( at the mayo clinic) due to a gastroparesis flare up that was making me severely nauseous and lose weight. No other medicine was helping, so he decided 1mg of Lorazepam would help. It helped for maybe a month or two, but ultimately didn't do much and the flare up calmed down. I tried taper it in 2015, but I just started my degree and proposed to my then girlfriend so I didn't want to throw a taper into the mix.
Years past and I just kept putting it off which the long use of it without upping the dose was giving me interdose withdrawal symptoms the past few years. Last year I made it a goal to finally start a taper which my doctor agreed with and helped me with a plan to go slow and try to minimize symptoms.
The first few months was very rough , but after about 6 months each cut was not as bad. I had every symptom you can think of. Anxiety, panic attacks, flare ups of my gastroparesis, dysautomia flare up, DP/DR, and any other symptom possible I was having. Couldn't focus on work, barely slept, and didn't see anyone for months due to this. Thankfully I work from home because if I had to be back in the office there was no way I could function.
The last cut to .0125 every other day was the roughest, but after a month at that dose I decided to fully make the jump off on 8/12. I am still having some pretty rough symptoms which I suspect will last for a bit, but I got this far and I have no intention of ever going back on it.
I just wanted to make this post as a way to encourage anyone that it does get better and you will eventually heal which is an amazing feeling. I've read hundreds of your guys stories and would just breakdown knowing what all you are going through while also knowing that so many of you have had it even more rough than I have. I hope everyone who is currently going through this or planning on tapering has all the luck in the world and I wouldn't wish going through this hell on my worst enemy.
If anyone needs help through this or just someone to talk to while in the midst of a taper or potential taper my inbox is always open.