ativan can be used as a muscle relaxant but i don't believe it's a 1st choice med for your problem. it's also a sedative. i wouldn't take it during the day because it may make you too sleepy.

plus, the more you take the more tolerant you may become. that means that it will take more drug to give you the same effect. and if you come off it you may experience withdrawal sx's.

i'd explore other options with your dr. ask for several choices and describe you type of pain. then you can google them and make a good decision.

I haven't been able to use it! I want to....but it's just too painful. I watched the video they sent with it. seems easy enough....definitely low impact. But my arms are just too achy to do that right now. :(

I tried it and it seemed easy enough but just wore me out. Plus, I figure it'll take twice as long for the soreness to go away if I use it while I'm already in pain.

I agree with everyone else. That's a pretty high dose for someone who hasn't taken a benzo before. I really think you should try a half of one at bed time. I want you to feel better :)!

I take klonopin (it's the same type of med) for tremors and anxiety every day. My neuro prescribed 1 mg twice a day but I only take one in the morning. It lasts longer than Ativan (about 6 to 8 hours).

Klonopin (least the Canadian version) has an extremely long half life.

I wish I didn't have to take it daily. I break the .5 mg tablets in half and take 1 half 3 times daily. I tried decreasing to 2, but I had breakthrough pain and had to go back up to 3 halves daily.

I don't like to take it regularly, but I've faced the facts - it helps, nothing else did, so I'll continue on it (.75mg daily isn't such a large dose anyways). :)

Kitty,

Cut the pill in half and see how that works for you. I would not recommend taking the full dose without starting out slow.

I use Klonopin and my rx is 1mg 3x a day. I have an anxiety disorder and I have used up to 6mg in a day. My doctor, a Psychiatrist, is aware. I will tell you at 6mg the Klonopin affected my legs in a negative way...they became jello.

Fo the most part I use the Klonopin on an as needed basis. Benzos do help with tremors, spasticity and the pain of spasticity.

Well, as soon as I got the script filled the pain in my arms got better. :rolleyes:

It's still achy but not as bad as before. I haven't taken any of the Ativan yet. :o I'll save it for when the pain is too much for the Aleve to handle. Did I mention I hate taking meds? :mad:

I just found two 1mg ativan's in a pill bottle in my room. (unlabeled pill bottle)

I had to google the numbers on the pill to find out what they were. They're really not much bigger in size than the .5mg pills. At least I found them and they're now in with the .5mg ativans (I wrote on the bottle that the bigger pills were the 1mg tablets. Not planning on using them anytime soon)

Good thing that I knew to google the numbers on the pills tho. I was thinking they were aspirins. (would have sucked if I'd taken them thinking they were aspirin.)

Kelly,
 

I started out taking .5 of the Lorazapam at bedtime. Now it has been upped to 1.0 It has helped me sleep better. It just was getting to the point that needing sleep was outweighing the 'not wanting to take another med'.

I hope your arm continues to do better. I know the Lorazapam can be habit forming, but the doctor explained that given the right dosage and when using for the right reason I didn't have anything to worry about.

Good luck.:hug: