Re: Am I addicted?

OMG a "harmless dose"? Now that's frightening. It's also really sad to receive such a dismissive statement from a medical professional in charge of your care. I do hope your doctor is taking your full health into consideration, as your mental health is a vital part of your living.

That said... my disclaimer is that I've never taken ativan. I was on a SSRI and went through numerous withdrawals. I have a friend who was on it, but that is still offset from my personal knowledge. Please take all information/advice with a grain of salt, including from doctors.

In either case, ativan is addictive and you certainly can experience withdrawal symptoms. It calms the nervous symptom, so now you're excitable and jumpy, all while being depressed. Some do go through more apparent withdrawal than others, and I would guess you are feeling even more because your anxiety has not been treated (has it?).

Are you really ready to get off this medication? Just for history, a couple of times I tried to get off an SSRI, I really wasn't ready to deal with life head on, so went back onto the meds until I was. That time came around Feb. of this year. I weaned off as slowly as I could considering the amount of pills I had left. Since then I've been able to cope reasonably well, minus normal Depression glitches. It -can- be done. It -can-. But you'll have to put in a lot of work and possibly with serious support from a 3rd party (psych, support groups, etc).

In any case, please do something -now- while you have this great clarity (yep, you have great clarity as seen from your post and are fully recognizing your symptoms, a good thing). You'll have to decide what step that would be - work with what you're feeling and storm through it, take meds and wean yourself off over a long period of time (you can get down to 1/16th dosage and still get effects), see/talk to someone.

I wish you the absolute best! Tweet