In this article, I’m going to teach you how to use Ativan for opiate withdrawal. Opiate withdrawal wouldn’t be all that bad if you only experienced the physical symptoms. Unfortunately, the anxiety, psychological terror, and insomnia can make withdrawal a living hell. Several years ago I was addicted to opiates. Every few weeks or months I would not be able to get any more opiates. Sometimes my dealer was out, but usually, it was because I was out of money.
Whenever this happened, I knew that I had about twelve hours after my last dose before the withdrawal symptoms would start coming on. During this time, I would text everyone I knew to see if I could score some Xanax for opiate withdrawal symptoms. Actually, I didn’t even care if it was Xanax. Other pills such as Ativan, Klonopin or Valium would work extremely well too.
Note: These medications are in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. Commonly referred to as “benzos”, these pills are very effective at reducing anxiety and easing nervous tension. They also relax muscles and help you fall and stay asleep, thus Ativan can help with opiate withdrawal.
Ativan for Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms
Ativan is a brand name for the anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) medication known as lorazepam. Ativan is commonly prescribed for anxiety and panic disorder, though many opiate abusers have used Ativan for opiate withdrawal.
Using Ativan for opiate withdrawal has become popular due to its remarkable ability at treating the following symptoms:
- Anxiety
- Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)
- Muscle tension and soreness
- Psychological terror
- Insomnia
- Poor appetite
When determining whether or not you should use Ativan for opiate withdrawal, please consider the following key points:
- Everyone is biochemically unique; so while Ativan worked well for me and countless others, it won’t help everyone ease their symptoms.
- For some individuals, Ativan will work well, though Valium, Xanax, Librium or Klonopin might work better.
- Many individuals say Ativan helps them calm anxiety and fall asleep, though a small minority complain that it makes them too much like a zombie.
- Ativan and other benzos can be habit-forming.
- Taking too much Ativan can lead to an overdose.
How to Use Ativan for Opiate Withdrawal
Taking Ativan for opiate withdrawal can be a lifesaver if done properly.
The following key points illustrate a very safe way to use Ativan for opiate withdrawal symptoms relief:
- Always take Ativan under the supervision of a physician.
- Ativan comes in tablets that have the following strengths (0.5 mg, 1.0 mg, 2.0 mg).
- Due to differences in severity of addiction and biochemical uniqueness, there is no set Ativan for opiate withdrawal dosage.
- Take the least amount of Ativan necessary to achieve opiate withdrawal symptoms relief.
- Discontinue Ativan after 3-4 days; the worst of the withdrawals should be over by day 5, and this way you won’t develop a physical dependence on Ativan.
- Most individuals will benefit from as little as 1 mg per dose, though some will need up to 4 mg, especially at night before bed.
What if you can’t get Ativan for Opiate Withdrawal?
If you’re going through opiate withdrawal right now and can’t get Ativan from a doctor or drug dealer, I feel your pain. Fortunately, there are two herbs that work in very similar ways to Ativan. Ativan benefits for opiate withdrawal are due to it binding to GABAA receptors in the brain. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that acts as a mental relaxant. GABA is basically our natural Ativan, though our bodies produce it in the precise amounts we were designed to handle.
Valerian root and passion flower are herbs that activate your GABA receptors like Valium does. They both have been shown to naturally reduce anxiety and insomnia. In one study, 75 participants with nonorganic insomnia were put into two different groups. One group received 600 mg of standardized valerian extract, while the other group received 10 mg of oxazepam (a benzodiazepine medication) for 28 days. Assessment tools used to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerance of the interventions included validated sleep, mood scale, and anxiety questionnaires as well as sleep rating by a physician.
Results: Both groups had the same improvement in sleep quality but the valerian group reported fewer side effects than did the oxazepam group.
I used valerian root and passion flower many times for opiate withdrawal anxiety and insomnia. Passion flower is also very beneficial for relieving gastrointestinal upset due to narcotic drug withdrawal. These two herbs are not as strong as Ativan for opiate withdrawal, but they still work very well, especially when combined with other herbs, vitamins, minerals and amino acids used in the treatment of withdrawal.
Note: If you can’t get Ativan for opiate withdrawal, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking passion flower and valerian root as a natural and safe alternative. These will help with anxiety, insomnia, and muscle relaxation, but they will not treat other symptoms. They do nothing for fatigue, hot and cold flashes, diarrhea or sweating. Furthermore, they don’t help replenish your brain with dopamine. I always encourage people going through opiate withdrawal to take a concentrated supplement specifically designed to treat all of these symptoms in a holistic and synergistic way.
*This Opiate Withdrawal Supplement is an extremely potent opiate withdrawal formula that can work well on its own without Ativan. However, if you can manage to get Ativan or another benzo, the Opiate Withdrawal Supplement and Imodium AD, and take all of these together…you’re sure to have the easiest withdrawal ever. If you can afford it, I also highly recommend taking this awesome supplement, because the benefits are just too good to pass up.
Click here now to view my best home detox program. If you have any questions on how to use Ativan for opiate withdrawal symptoms, please feel free to post them in the comment box below.
I too have been taking way more percoset than prescribed and when I run out have to count the days until I can get another refill. Those in-between days are brutal but My Doc. only gives me enough for 20 days.
If you ask your dr for Suboxen to get off oxycodone, is it a flag on your record? Are you banned from ever getting pain meds again? I have bad back probs and most likely will go ahead with surgery. Scared they will check that portal where they see what narcotics you have gotten and Suboxen will cause a problem.
Well yes and no. Depends on the state and doctor. Before any pain medication is to be dispensed, the portal is checked. If are currently taking the Suboxone, its doubtful to many doctors would you leave you high and dry. You wont get much, but they may offer it as a very short term substitute until you can go back on suboxone.
If it was in the past, just explain your reAsons to your doctor. And he will decide the best course of action. Either way, I doubt, unless its a punk kid newly trained surgeon, theyd leave you high and dry.
Will Ativan help with the diarrhea and sweating and stomache pain while withdrawing from heroin
Hi Kyle,
It should help with the sweating and perhaps a little stomach pain but I doubt it will stop the diarrhea. Luckily loperamide HCL, the ingredient in Imodium AD, helps that very well. Please refer to the article below:
How To Use Loperamide For Opiate Withdrawal>>
I have been using Dilaudid now for 3 or 4 yr. I have fibromyalgia. And i get compression fractures in my lower. I have run out early many time. Went through some rough times. Im now trying ativan. It works great. Let u know how I sleep. The worst is the nausea.
I have been addicted to norcos an percs for 3 years now and I’m attempting my second and final withdrawal…. I’m in a loving relationship now and I Dont want him to know my habit so I’m quitting again. Wish me luck
And here I am going through hell withdrawing from Ativan. I took klonopin for 24 years and coming off of that was no big deal, but Ativan has been horrible. The doctor refused to refill or respond to my calls. I called pharmacist an another doctor and they said it is wrong to stop someone’s Ativan cold. I finally got an advocate to demand to refill script and I got 60 1 mg tabs. Can I titrate off Ativan with this amount of Ativan? I initially was taking 2 mg a day per dr order. I’m on .05 at night and .25 during the day…it is miserable…can I do it with the one script? I’m so angry at the doctor..she never responded and I’m the one going through hell.
How did you get a advocate? Because my doctor put me on tramadol for severe pain and ativan for anxiety I had went to visit my sister in conn 2 and a half hours away when my sister bought me back home from staying the weekend I realised later that evening when it was time for my next dose that I couldn’t find them my sister then called me to inform me that I had left my purse sitting on her kitchen counter, where my meds were in. So the next morning I informed my doctor of what happened and her medical assistant said if she were to fill them I would most likely have to pay for it which would of been fine with me! The medical assistant said she would get back to me after running it by my doctor so I was sure everything was going to be ok! Unfortunately the medical assistant said my doctor was not in fact going to fill my two prescriptions of tramadol and ativan but that she would fill the gabepentin because she said the other 2 are a controlled substance. Any how so you can imagine how I felt, so to go on the next day I started feeling withdrawal symptoms I went that entire day having a runny nose,sweats, and headaches. Then in Wednesday the day following I had added symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, and stomach pains so I called my doctors office back and and spoke to the medical assistant once again and I let her know that now I’m getting withdrawals from not having MY tramadol in my system I also informed her that I did run a check online and it said a doctor or a patient should NOT stop tramadol cold turkey as the withdrawal effects WILL go from moderate to severe. And even though I know it was my accident of leaving my purse at my sisters it was my fault! But I felt as her being my doctor that she would look after my well being as many people make mistakes! And a honest one at that! So again the medical assistant said she would run that info to my doctor and get back to me, at this point in in tears because I know I’m sick and I know it’s only going to get worse so we hung up the phones and I waited a couple of hours for a phone call from the medical assistant because my doctor never gives me personal phone calls wich I guess is standard procedure. When I got the phone call back from the you know who I was told that my doctor doesn’t believe that I’m experiencing withdrawals after only being on tramadol almost 3 weeks and that she doesn’t feel comfortable filling another prescription due to me not keeping my medication safe! And to add insult to injury she had out in a referral for me to go to pain management and they denied me due to a situation on there part that I had no choice but to file a complaint against a particular doctor many years ago! So she took it upon herself to call them and of course they gave her some bad news about me as if it was my fault they told her I was non compliant so with her information from them she now said she will no longer be treating me for any controlled substances. Now I’m like wow your my doctor and it is your job to make sure I am cared for in a proper manner especially because of the chronic neck issues that I have not to mention severe anxiety of which I suffer from severe depression and have been on anxiety medicine for many of many years! I do in fact receive disability due to my issues that says enough. So now she is just completely not treating me at all what so ever in these two issues! I’m wondering is she able to do this all on a allocation that the pain management clinic gave her on me? I’m thinking she can listen to what she wants but at the end of the day she is my doctor and she should be treating me as she was because of the appropriatness and now because of what a pain management doctor told her! If that pain doctor told her to jump off of a bridge would she had? Or would she do what was best for herself? Most likely she would of done what was best for herself and not to jump off a bridge, and I feel I deserved the same respect! I honestly feel so belittled right by someone I’m suppose to leave my well being to! Is there anything I can do or do I just leave be as many people do? Because at the end of the day they always win over patients! And I honestly believe it is so unfair that patients such as myself have to just take it and not be able to stand up for ourselves because doctors have more power over us just as the police do! Sorry to have to put police in this mix but it is a true factor!
Yes.mthey can do whatever the he’ll they want.n16 years on morphine due to Dr prescription for my issues. Now..at regular visit was told I would now go on Suboxone immediately. No chance to really absorb the plan. No help for withdrawal or for the pain I am being treated for.
And wouldn’t you think they would give me a booklet or printout of what to expect? Instead I am left to search the reliable and always accurate internet. What a dickheads move Dr. Carnevale! You shouldn’t be allowed to treat a hamster.
I’m trying to get actual advice on suboxone for a person who has NEVER taken more than prescribed amount of morphine. Dr. is treating me like (No offense) a regular street drug user/seeker.
Could you possibly find another Doctor who understands and cares about what you are faced with. There has to be some out there. Call your insurance company.
I have taken various amounts of lorazepam for 43 years now
10 years ago I hurt my back and got caught up taking morphine
long story short
I am now taking 3 morphine tabs a day(60)mg
and 13 lorazepam (1mg) daily for the past ten years
HOW AM I STILL ALIVE???
NO ONE KNOWS
I HAVE SEEN AT LEAST 10 DOCTORS/PYSCHIATRISTS/ETC/pain specialists……
I wish to stop at least the morphine but the pain is intense(lower back pain-ruptured discs)
the Ativan seems to do nothing to my body accept get rid of the massive panic attacks I have dealt with for over 60 years….this is no joke..i am being sincere
any suggestions would be appreciated as I do not wish to die
do I just have an incredible resistance to medications???
every doctor/ specialist/nurse/medical person I have spoken with feels I should have died 35 years ago…..yet here I am……I am now suffering with insomnia…..which is bad as sleep is so very important for a healthy body…anyways that is the short form of my story…………………
I would try your hardest to get your hands on some Suboxone seeing how it helps with almost EVERYTHING you just described your going thru. Especially the aches and insomnia. If It wasn’t for Suboxone I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. And with all the new generic kinds out now it’s easier and cheaper to get. Suboxone does wonders for back pain and pretty much any kind of pain. Yes it’s prescribed for opiate users to get off heroin and PERCOCET or any type of opiate but it also is a miracle drug for severe lower and mid back pain.
Worse then heroin and pain pills combined to get off tho
Hi I’m not sure you were suppose to die as you should already know that it defiantly not your time, if it were you would of been gone already! And I do feel for you!! What I can suggest if you will is that you have your doctor wean you off of the morphine as you did state that was one of the medications you wish to come off of. Your doctor could medically wean you down by atleast 5 mgs every two weeks then another 5mgs totaling 10mgs for an additional two weeks and so on and so forth until you get to the 15mg stage from there it will get so much easier for you to get off of that last 15mgs! That would be my suggestion if you are truly ready to be done with that medication. Because my doctor actually refused to fill a prescription that she had put me on for 3 weeks I started getting withdrawal symptoms and she didn’t believe me and I did ask her then if she can just fill it and,wean me off so that I wouldn’t have to be on that particular medication again and she still refused so now I have no choice but to start a withdrawal clinic that will give me something to keep me off of narcotics altogether I start this Tuesday coming I did that myself without my doctors help! And that is something you may want to look into yourself it is called suboxone clinic or a methadone clinic which may be more appropriate for you! I hope this helped you as much as pissible! Sincerely kj.
Hello, I’m Nate and I have had chronic headaches, a severe blood disorder and other chronic pain and fatigue/ severe weakness. I have been on norco for YEARS but I have an uncontrollable migraine for 4 days with no sleep, food! I stopped talking the norco because I thought it might be keeping me up and now, I have a serious headache AND withdrawal symptoms! I don’t want to live anymore. I can’t control this and, I’m going crazy! I also have depression, anxiety and panic disorder and, I’m literally feeling INSANE! Please, someone, SOMEBODY HELP ME!
DUDE IVE BEEN THERE…. DO THIS IF YOU CAN ! GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AND TELL THEM THIS, THY HAVE GIVEN ME WITHDRAWL MEDS FOR A WEEK ATIVAN, SUBOXIN. OR TRY N SCORE SOME BENZO’S OFF ANYONE YOU KJNOW… go to the hospital, trust me !
Yeah, I can comprehend it all and when it comes down to it, I know I need pain medication. It sux but, it’s a reality. I had what I thought to be a brother, steal about 2weeks worth of my norco and I am climbing up the freaking walls!
I take my meds responsibly, as I can tolerate, but, I have no rescue, and this is my first withdrawal! I can’t get help because I don’t want to turn in my b. Any and all advice will most definitely be appreciated. By the way, I have some Tylenol 3 from a bit ago, would that help me through this? I take norco 10/325 . Could that help? And thank you.
Won’t they tell my doc? Then , I know I would be screwed!
I feel your pain. Being addicted to Opiates for 3 years. I have severe depression and at the time I was at an all time low. I started taking Percocet 30mgers. It took it all away. I was happy, motivated, it was like I was finally a human. Then I started to take a lot of percocet. I was doing 10 30mg percs a day. Usually all at once. Then they became very expensive and I made the transition to dope. My tolerance is disgusting to opiates, and now it is making me severely depressed because I am realizing that its destroying my life. I went into hard withdrawl sunday. Went to work monday and had to go home, and today i called out. I am going to lose my job, I am going to lose everything. I am losing my mind. My anxiety is through the roof. I feel as i am going insane. I need to get off this shit, but with the way I am feeling it is making it impossible. I dont know what to do. I dont want to live like this anymore. I dont want to live, period. I just scored some Ativan and took 4 of them to start. This is awful. I am sorry to hear what you’re going through.
I think your best bet would to go into rehab and as much as you wouldn’t want your job to know this they may be more understanding then you think because you would be doing something to better yourself! You would only have to go detox for 7 days they will give you meds to get you completely comfortable along with anxiety meds and depressants trust me this may be the only thing to truly save your life and completely give you your life back! I hope this. Helped as much as possible sincerely kj.
Nate,
I know it’s been a couple if months since you originally posted your message, so I hope you didn’t have to feel miserable for long & doing better now! I just found this site but thought I’d reply with helpful information that you or others may need in the future.
KRATOM! Google it*Research the numerous strains*Buy it in bulk right away (online or in many tobacco shops)*Be tough and ingest as much as necessary but beware that the taste is incredibly horrendous!
It did wonders for my physical and mental withdrawal symptoms because each strain has different benefits.
Let me know if you have any questions over it.
Best of luck to you all!
I’m with drawling from methadone.can lorazpam help me calm down and relax/ sleep???
Doctors often prescribe it for this reason. Here is study that shows it to be effective for insomnia:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9543313
how long after you take 4mg of Ativan should you wait to take another dose of 2mg? I am taking 4mg tonight to combat rls but if I wake up say 4 hours later can I take another 2mg?
Please ask your doctor what the correct dosage is for you.
How often do I take the Ativan? I actually have Xanax. I’m trying desperately to get off of norco. I’ve been a slave to it for 7 years. I’ve gone cold turkey before and the withdrawals were torture. I had help then. I don’t have help this time. I’ve tried several times. The headaches and mental torment is horrific..but I really really want to do this. Is it take as needed? Example every 4 hours? Or just in the morning and night? Just not sure how often.. Thanks
Hi Maria,
Since you have Xanax, you might benefit from using the Finch Formula. Please refer to the article below to see the details:
The Finch Formula is a Super Potent Opiate Withdrawal Remedy
And as for your question, everyone is different, but it’s usually best to use the least amount possible to get relief. And a higher dose at night to get to sleep is often used. Most people only take benzos for 3-4 days during the acute phase of withdrawal as to not become dependent on another medication. Talk to your doctor for specific dosages for your own personal needs.
Disclaimer: I am a Strategic Intervention Coach, not a doctor, so I can’t give professional advice regarding aspects of the body, only the mind. This comment is for informational use only. It’s not intended to treat, diagnose or prevent any disease. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, trying any new supplements, medications, exercise or opiate tapering programs.
I have been struggling for so long with opiate addiction I just want out. I even looked up were addiction is in the brain so I can try and concentrate on that area and will it out. Thanks for the info on ativan I hope that’s the same as lorazepam
Thanks for the comment Jill. Good for you for studying up on addiction in the brain! And Ativan is indeed lorazepam. Good luck to you.
Sounds good
Yes it does. Ativan has helped many people during opiate withdrawal.
I JUST RECEIVED MY ATIVAN AND GABAPENTIN SCRIPTS FROM MY DOCTOR TODAY. I’M FINALLY SAYING GOOD BUY TO METHADONE TREATMENT. ALSO I WILL BE FINISHING MY COURSES IN THE MEAN TIME. I’M SO THANKFUL FOR FINDING YOU MATT WHEN I DID. MY LIFE MEANS SO MUCH MORE TO ME AND I’VE NEVER BEEN MORE FOCUSED THEN NOW. I FEEL GREAT WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE 2 WEEKS GONE AND MY JOURNEY OF SOBRIETY AFTERWARDS 🙂
Amanda,
Way to go! Sounds like you’re on your way! Keep us updated and let us know how you’re doing.
Go Amanda!!!! I am so proud of you! What you did is totally incredible. Don’t look back! Welcome to your new life free of addiction my friend! Thanks for sharing the great news. 🙂