T
TimrousBeastie
Guest
My step-father has just recently come off of Ativan. He was on it for ten years and, though I'm not 100% on the dosage, I think he took 2.5 mg daily. He started taking it as his daughter was dying of brain cancer and his doctor just sort of let him keep taking it until eventually the drug started to rebound and the anxiety it was fighting came back with a vengeance.
He went to the hospital to withdraw from the drug, but the doctor (and we have since learned that this was a terrible terrible idea) decided it was a good idea to take him off of it cold turkey. He has gone psychotic, he's severely paranoid, he makes small noises like hoots and moans, he has severe anxiety, sleep deprivation, and a complete inability to make decisions. The man worked in the food industry for for ten years and he was so bad he couldn't figure out how to cook a frozen fish out of a package with the cooking instructions written on it. He's now convinced that my mother will be arrested for drug dealing (because she still has a couple of his pills in the house) and that the hospital staff is actively out to get him and trying to get rid of her. He's completely delusional. We thought that these symptoms might die down as we waited, but that was a full four months ago. He's been in and out of hospitals since then because we simply can't deal with him at home.
People have suggested putting him back on the benzos and then slowly tapering him off of them, but none of these people have been medical professionals and it's been such a long time since he went off them in the first place that it might be a bad idea to try it. We checked him into a rehab program but they mostly dealt with helping people stop craving their drug. He has no problem with that - the only times he wants the Ativan back are when the symptoms are so severe that he just desperately wants to get rid of them. Even then, he doesn't crave them. He was so bad that the rehab program couldn't figure out how to deal with him and put him back in the hospital (they claimed he was sick -- he wasn't).
Does anyone know what to do? None of his doctors are really trying to help us, hospitals keep kicking him out, and CAMH - the Center for Addiction and Mental Health - won't respond to our emails. We live in Toronto. Please help.
He went to the hospital to withdraw from the drug, but the doctor (and we have since learned that this was a terrible terrible idea) decided it was a good idea to take him off of it cold turkey. He has gone psychotic, he's severely paranoid, he makes small noises like hoots and moans, he has severe anxiety, sleep deprivation, and a complete inability to make decisions. The man worked in the food industry for for ten years and he was so bad he couldn't figure out how to cook a frozen fish out of a package with the cooking instructions written on it. He's now convinced that my mother will be arrested for drug dealing (because she still has a couple of his pills in the house) and that the hospital staff is actively out to get him and trying to get rid of her. He's completely delusional. We thought that these symptoms might die down as we waited, but that was a full four months ago. He's been in and out of hospitals since then because we simply can't deal with him at home.
People have suggested putting him back on the benzos and then slowly tapering him off of them, but none of these people have been medical professionals and it's been such a long time since he went off them in the first place that it might be a bad idea to try it. We checked him into a rehab program but they mostly dealt with helping people stop craving their drug. He has no problem with that - the only times he wants the Ativan back are when the symptoms are so severe that he just desperately wants to get rid of them. Even then, he doesn't crave them. He was so bad that the rehab program couldn't figure out how to deal with him and put him back in the hospital (they claimed he was sick -- he wasn't).
Does anyone know what to do? None of his doctors are really trying to help us, hospitals keep kicking him out, and CAMH - the Center for Addiction and Mental Health - won't respond to our emails. We live in Toronto. Please help.