Ativan and Alcohol Question

I was prescribed ativan yesterday for a flight and a dental appointement. When he handed me the prescription he said "No alcohol with these pills"
So I'm heading home feeling just a little bit stresses and take one. Get home and as usual have a glass of wine, thinking The doctor meant don't have 10 drinlks with these pills.
I was going to BBQ steak, mushrooms, corn on cob,m salad etc...It's Sun night long weekend, my boyfriends starved.
I woke up at 1am. Couldn't remember anything. didn't know if I made dinner or not. Total blackout.Turns out, he said, I fell asleep out cold after 1 drink, def did not make dinner.
F'in scary! Anyways could have been worse, like my blackouts in my 20'S, too scary.

This is a scary mix. A few years back I forgot about the ativan I had taken to sleep and ended up getting woken up to go out to a party with some friends. I drank 8 beer and it was the stupidest thing ever. I lost 16 hours of my memory and I was so incredibly sick for 2 days. I have no idea what I did within those 16 hours and I lost a few friends over it. Totally not worth it. My pharmacist said I am lucky to be alive due to my size and the amount - I think I took 3mgs. It's not worth it at all!

I'm a 17 Year old female and i take 4mg of Ativan a day.
I'm usually a heavy drinker, and on my 18th in a few days I know my mates are making me do 18 shots. Is there any way this could be potentially dangerous?

Anyone who already has an alcohol problem or might even think they do should never start taking Ativan unless they ween themselves off alcohol first. I know from experience unfortunately. I had a very stressful job and was accustomed to drinking a couple of glasses of wine every night to help me sleep. I eventually started having panic attacks at work so severe that I would often times have to go sit in my office with the door closed for long periods of time and take deep breaths. I went to my doctor and he prescribed Ativan 1 mg twice a day. It immediately calmed me down, however I was not warned about the effects of mixing it with alcohol. One night I was at a restaraunt down the street from my house having a couple glasses of wine. The next thing I know I blacked out and woke up in the ER with a cop sitting beside me. Apparently I had decided to walk home because I was so intoxicated and 2 cars had almost hit me. They called the police and when they came I apparently fought with the officers and slid my hands out of the handcuffs which sliced my hand open , which is why I went to the emergency room. I was taken immediately to jail from the hospital and spent 4 days there before being sent directly to rehab. I was charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. I was 29 years old at the time and had never been arrested or in any legal trouble. Please heed my warning that mixing Ativan and alcohol can change your life forever, that is if you are lucky enough to survive.

drugman wrote:

cmon guys this is s bunch of bs. Having liven a pretty long life in addiction, i can tell you what you need to know if your wondering about taking atavin. yes, it is true. you CAN take Ativan with alcohol and you get a bit more of a buzz (ativan is a benzodiazipine like xanax klonopin valuim restori) all of these benzos can be taken with alcohol. but you have to be carefull because my dad who works at a mourge said day after day they have people come in and they've died due to a benzo/alcohol coctail. However, it is very funn to experiment with benzo's and alcohol. it gives you that "holy shit im so fucked up" stage. but its fun. also, it is very important that small girls take the lowest doses and drink very little. its def fun, but you have to be very carefull

Agreed.......although I took 2 3.5mg in one day due to traumatic time, I also mixed this later on with copious amounts of alcohol. Although nothing happened to me physically, mentally I became aggressive which could of been due to the current situation. Anyway I remember very little passed a certain point of the night and one incident I have absolutely no memory of at all!!
I think it just increases the effects of the alcohol so yes be very careful mixing the two !!

I just took 8 1mg ativans will I be ok?

i mixed 10 mgs of valium with heavy amounts of alcohol for 2 years then 3 one mg clonazepams with a 12 pack or so now this year i take 4 mgs of ativan and drink like a 12 pack fuckin fun buzz but definitely dangerous i have blacked out thousands of time treatment 4 times jail 13 times due 2 it not a good mix

Canada wrote:

If you like booze, a deadlier drug than Ativan, as far as I'm concerned, then you are creating an anxiety problem for which Ativan might be required (you must be honest with your doctor). However, most deceptive addicts, like me, will continue to drink, even on the Ativan 'and', use the Ativan primarily to get over the acute anxiety of an alcoholic hangover. Welcome to hell.
-- Peter

Peter - This might be my inevitable situation. I deal with a small bit of anxiety during the work week. The worst is on Sundays after two night of boozing with my buddies. How has this worked out for you? Do you step down the dosage thursday and friday or simply not take it leading into the weekend? I understand this is not the recommended method, but I just want to hear it from someone.

giveittosome1whoneedsit wrote:

ativan cures my anxiety from a hangover everytime primarily the only time i take it. just wait for the jitters to start kicking pop a 1mg and im good to go...

I used to do that ...til one day it didnt work the same way!!! DONT DO THAT!! It is dangerous!! I NEVER DID IT AGAIN~~~!!!!!!!

Well I tried drinking a few beers yesterday while taking Effexor XR, only drank 7 and only got tipsy but afterwards stayed in the ER 4hrs major and I mean MAJOR panic attacks and now today I feel depressed and and jittery, I never feel depressed, so for all who is taken meds and thinking about drinking dont do it, it is Hell, a few hours of fun is not worth it

I've mixed lorazepam and alcohol one too many times and the end result was blackouts. When I've blacked out, I got myself into potentially lethal dangers, idiotic behavior beyond recognition, and possessed a spirit so mean as if I were the devil himself. The worst part of it all was the target, my beloved husband. I'm so ashamed, I can't even look him in the eye. I can only ask for his forgiveness and help. Do not mix drugs and alcohol. The reprecussions are not worth the party.

I have been having 1 glass of wine with lunch, then 0.5 Lorazepam about 6 pm and have not had any noticeable problems, except I do have a ringing in my head, supposedly tinnitus, but I doubt that.

Jmack,
Trust me you can give it a try and think your doing ok but theres no way possible of doing this on your own. You will need help. I thought the same thing.......immpossible!

I took Ativan this morning at 8:30am and it's been 12hrs since I took it can I start drinking ?.....this was my 3 time ever when I used those pills ..I need a fix

I don't know about all of you, but I enjoy a drink now and then at the end of a hard day. What James said earlier on this blog is true. Ativan can double/triple the effect of one drink of alcohol. If you take Ativan daily and have a tolerance in your body (it is built up over time) alcohol won't have as much of an effect. However, the day after I was put on Ativan, I had one shot of rum and blacked out for 6 hours while making an ass of myself at a family function. Nobody was even drinking at this function, but Ativan lowers your inhibitions (just like alcohol does) and I stumbled upon the liquor cabinet and all Hell broke loose. I stopped remembering this family event during the car ride there. I don't remember getting into the alcohol or drinking it... I don't even like hard alcohol. Anyway, I ended up stumbling, falling and vomiting in the bathroom for several hours with my cousin, mother and aunt(all three of them nurses) by my side. I also said some rude things and told all kinds of private things about myself. If it wasn't for my family or friends... I could have passed out and drowned in toilet water or fallen and broken my neck. This happened to me on 1mg. I didn't drink for several months after this event and my dose is now 2mg every 6 hours as needed for anxiety. I take about 4mg a day. However, I can now handle a drink or two (nothing higher than like 12% wine) and only if I have a person who is "guarding me" to make sure I don't drink more. Again (as James said earlier) it is a doubling effect. Plus, when many of us drink, we lose track of how much we have had to drink to begin with. Add Ativan to the mix and things could go downhill VERY fast. I also have become a master of the art of adding club soda to white wine. Anyway, these two CNS depressants are not for playing around with and I would never advocate taking both at the same time (for example, washing down Ativan with wine or a beer). Even though I have never blacked out since that second day of taking the drug, there have still been times I have been drinking and had the drug in me. The results are phone calls or tweeted or texted messages. Plus, I don't remember doing so the next day (they also are often embarrassingly very sexual in nature). So, I am not going to tell you to stop drinking or taking the Ativan. I am just warning you that it can kill you if you mix it with other things. Look at any celebrity autopsy since benzodiazepines have been around and you will find traces of Ativan, Valium, Xanax, Versed, Klonopin, or Murelax in three fourths of the toxicology report. Enough said.

How long does Ativan stay in your urine?

'I too had a bad experience bein an alcholic, i got so bad that i started adding ADDERALL and OXY's and in one night all that combined, i passed out on my right leg for 11 hrs!!! and i died three different times while in the hospital, but the worst part was that they couldn't save my leg so it was amputated!!!! one night of bad decisions and now the rest of my life suckks ass, walking on one leg, they had to cut it off all the way to the hip, so no chance of a prosthetic!!!! so my life is ruined from mixing bad pills and alchohol!! hope you all open your eyes, cause it could just as easily been one of you

this is my first post on this site and I can say that after reading some of the posts & responses I probably should have been on here sooner. So here it goes...At the moment I'm drinking close to a bottle of wine a night...sometimes more(proabably over a 4 hour span) then prior to bed I take 3mg of lunesta and 1 mg of Ativan for which I would call is insomnia. This has gone now for well over a year. Couldn't sleep without my cocktail of wine and meds. Sounds sad but I'm honestly a succesful business man that supports my wife and kids quite well. With that said, I know what I'm doing is wrong and this habit will have long terms affects along with the fact that I will most likely become tolents to the amounts of meds I'm taking which could lead to higher doeses. As of two week I started the process (on my own) of trying to wean off all the drugs and alchohol. Should I focus on tappering the alchohol first and then move to ativan? I know everyoe's going to say go see your doctor...but I at least want to try to do this on my own with having to admit I need help.
Definitely stop drinking 1st
There is a decent chance that you won't wake up in the morning at all
That is a deadly mix - trust me
After you stop drinking see your dr about upping your sleep meds
If your sleep meds were working then you wouldn't need the wine
I feel your pain

I'm pretty experieced with mixing benzos and alcohol and all I can tell you is that this combo didn't work so good for me. Extremely sleepy and out-of-it, and I actually fell in the hallway, totally unexpectedly. Nothing to serious, just a couple bruised and a lot of embarrassment, Never happened with Xanax or Klonopin. As with any med, you have to see how it will effect you individually. No heavy machinery, guys. I'd stay away from the blender, too til you know for sure ;)

I sadly, am an alcoholic and drink excessive amounts regularly. I also suffer from anxiety. I rarely use ativan but am having much trouble sleeping lately and have not been able to sleep and cope with my migraines enough to go to work in the last few days. I just want to make sure if I take 1-2 ativan, after consuming a large amount of alcohol, that I will not overdose. I suck. But, I need to somehow manage and go on. I suck.