[deuce]

When I was first put on Adivan it was 1mg dosage. I saw my Pdoc a month ago and told her that adivan wasn't working any longer. She perscribed me 2mg and told me to get back on Depakote. She said it was like putting out a fire with a fire extinguisher and not having a fire truck available (depakote). Well to say the least I am back on Depakote and 1 mg of Adivan still does nothing for me. I know you sometimes build up a tolerance for it over time if taken often. I also read somewhere not sure if it's true or not but they say if your addicted to the drug that is when your tolerance builds. 2mg works good for me like the 1mg use to work for me. I don't take adivan to often, the last time I've taken it before today was about a week a go so I don't understand what is happening here, Any ideas?

[Persephone]

Tolerance is different than addiction. Addiction is when you physically or psychologically feel you need the drug. Are you using Ativan for anxiety or sleep? Sleepiness is side effect from benzos, and almost everyone gets tolerant to it eventually. I had to switch from Temazepam to Ativan because Temezepam no longer put me to sleep. This is normal. Just make sure you never up your dose without running it by your pdoc, and you'll probably be fine.

[celestia]

deuce, on 30 August 2009 - 06:31 PM, said:

I also read somewhere not sure if it's true or not but they say if your addicted to the drug that is when your tolerance builds. 2mg works good for me like the 1mg use to work for me. I don't take adivan to often, the last time I've taken it before today was about a week a go so I don't understand what is happening here, Any ideas?

Habituation is different from addiction. Habituation is when you develop tolerance and need more medication. Addiction is kind of the same, except it includes abuse of prescriptions (self-medicating), and thinking about the particular drug all the time, doing things you otherwise would not to get the drug(s), "drug seeking behavior," IOW. If you are only taking it once or twice a week I doubt you are either habituated or addicted. But it's good to be aware of the high potential of either one or both with benzos.

The thing you need to know about benzos is that you can't go off them cold turkey. You go off them with your pdoc in the loop. Going cold turkey can cause you to have seizures.

This post has been edited by S9: 30 August 2009 - 06:14 PM