Lorazepam causing memory loss

I was an ativan user for almost 3 years--pure hell coming off this drug but I can only blame myself I was the one asking for the refills even though i new it was causing huge problems in all areas of my life. Dont take this drug people it will destroy your soul and your mind trust me on this. After a year of withdrwal symptoms and now going on 4 years not taking this drug I realize how impaired I was while taking this c**p. I just thank God I dont take this stuff anymore and have become a person with feelings, emotions and living a life out of the haze it a big lie people. Stop while you can.

You said it right. This med should be classifed with morphine and heroin. Only heart palp or serious individuals should take. People should know that 3 mos is considered CHRONIC USE. It has is a long process to withdraw and very hard on the body. Even with the most modest taper plan, I had severe withdrawal issues a month later. STAY AWAY unless hospital prescribed.

I was on Lorazepam for two years, because of severe anxiety. At night I would have anxiety attacks for no apparent reason, so severe that my heart would speed up and I would literally think I was dying. Because of this, my doctor prescibed this med for me, I had to put a tablet of lorazepam under my tongue at night to sleep. I remember very very little of these two years. I got tired of living this way and just learned to cope on my own and learned breathing and mind changing techniques for my anxiety, and took myself off of the drug. A couple years later I had brought it up to another doctor that I didn't remember much of these two years that I was on that med, and he told me that it is a VERY dangerous and powerful drug, and he felt it was overperscribed, that they never should have had me on it for that long. Also told me that memory loss and black outs are quite common with this drug. So yes, it is most likely the Lorazepam.

I take 3-6 ativan 1mg a day to get me through. I literally wake up every morning where i am or what ive done. IT is awesome! I no longer have panic attacks so if forgettting every bad day is a side effect, Ill take it!

I have been taking Lorazepam .05mg. at bedtime for 8 years to help with sleep.  I was digonised with Primary Insomnia a month ago and the Dr. told me the condition has no cure.  But, he also informed me if i continued using Lorazepam I would start to lose my memory.  Well, it has started! But, without the Lorazepam I am awake for 3 to 4 days and then my body is so completed exhausted and I can't control the anxiety, and the stress my body starts going thru!. Its like catch 22! I have tried everything and nothing else works, so I give in and take the Lorazepam and I go to sleep.  So what else can we do??

I am on Lorazepam 5 times a day, 40mg of Hydromorphone tablets a day, 40mg of Hydromorphone liquid under the tongue every hour, Atenolol 2 times a day & 3 Temazepam at night.

I find I cant think or remember anything I did yesterday, and this post helps explain a lot of questions. Thanks

HydromoHydromorphone

I too am quite shocked at how this drug can blot out your memory.  I took a few pills about two months ago, perhaps 10-15 mg altogether.  I had a glass of wine or two.  And then as far as I can remember, I went to sleep eventually.  Two month's later, I'm checking my second email inbox (the first one has my full name in it so it is less anonymous), and there are all these responses to a question I posted in an on-line discussion group.  I logged on to see my question, which was reasonably long and should've been memorable, and I had totally forgotten that I did it!  I had NO memory of doing it.  It freaked me out totally.  I kept reading and re-reading my post, and it was like someone else had written it.  I checked, thought there some be some mistake, checked all my profile info on this website/discussion group.... it was all correct, had my passwords and personal info in the profile.  And it WAS about something I had been thinking about so it's not unbelievable.  Just unbelievable in that I have no memory whatsoever of it.  I also responded that same night a couple of times to people who had responded to my intial question!!!  It was so freaky!  Like someone else said here - it was like someone else had been in my body that night and did all this stuff that had nothing to do with me!!!  Anyway, just wanted to say that ALL benzodiazepines can do this weird thing to your brain!  I don't understand it - they really go deep, much deeper than we realise.

The other weird thing about them is, for me, even though I had taken a few pills and had a couple of drinks, my posts were totally lucid and well-written, my mind was obviously clear, NOTHING about what I wrote appeared intoxicated or out of character or under the influence of anything!  And I also supposedly spoke to a friend on the phone that night who said I sounded completely normal, NOT drunk or even tipsy in any way!  So they don't even make you "out of it" necessarily, just, switches part of your brain off.  A BIG part.  Like the woman who said hear earlier about how she drove her friend to the doctor's and couldn't remember it.  She obviously wasn't "stoned" or she wouldn't have been able to drive, nor would her friend have allowed her to!

Freaky drugs, never again.

I don't know why there are all those cap A's in my post before every new sentence! Annoying, but I can't edit it!

Thank you all for posting, I have been taking ativan on & off for many yers, no more than 1mg at a time andonly to sleep.I have been tking itevery night now since last May and now can hardley remember anything.I'm going to tryto stop taking it,I hopethe memory loss isn't perminate

 

Right on! Well said from one with obvious learning experience.

I thank God you asked this question in a public forum and I am equally thankful for all the responses; it is becoming clear to me now why my memory has been short circuiting. I've been taking 1-2 milligrams of Ativan daily for the last 3 years. I too, like some other posters, have missed out on some wonderful life moments and have also been thinking I am going crazy or haveearly onset Alzheimer's (I'm 43) because lately I've been having blackout memory lapses. I even went so far as to schedule an MRI to make sure I didn't have a brain tumor or something. The test came back normal. I guess the thing to do is stop taking it and see what happens. Now I will be in search of someone who can tell me how long it takes or if its possible to get your memory back again after stopping.

I'm just astonished. You took a medication that you were not prescribed, have no knowledge of, at a dosage you're completely unaware of and then added wine to the mix??? All before a very important day in your and your son's life? I don't see how you blame the medication for this you made terrible choices and should have known that there could be terrible results. You should consider yourself lucky that the results were not worse. That was an unwise, dangerous choice you made.

She may have made a mistake but who among us has never made a bad choice??? Perhaps you. I congratulate this woman for coming forward and sharing her experience thereby helping others avoid getting into the same situation. it sounds like you feel the need to judge her actions because you believe they were irresponsible, however I feel just the opposite!! I believe She deserves thanks and compassion for being willing to share what this drug can do regardless of it being prescribed or not. I feel she showed a great level of responsibility by sharing Her experience in a public forum as a warning to others NOT to do what she did!. making people wrong for being human and judging them harshly for making wrong choices is not a reflection on them it's a reflection on you.

Well sweetheart, if you need someone to tell you not to do that then you're not too bright yourself. That's common sense to most of us. If you think it's corageous to talk about after the fact, fine. It was still incredibly wrong to begin with. Could have been a diff result and maybe she wouldn't be here to tell her story. Losing your keys is a mistake. This was something else entirely. You don't need to like what I said, I couldn't care less. It's true and I stand by it. 

Man, I feel sorry for you! It must be very painful to walk with that huge Superior Stick rammed so far up your ass. not to mention how idiotic it looks! It must be such a great burden to carry having the sole responsibility of judging your inferiors and thinking of effective ways to publicly announce your superiority and put us all in our places. But, then again, you must have some measure of comfort hiding behind the anonymity of the internet, I mean after all, let's face it, here you can insult people and not get beaten until you sh!t on yourself by somebody in the group having a PTSD flashback. I would love to see you go into an actual drug support group and say anything close to what you just said. I don't know what happened to you as a kid, but get over it already! thanks for the entertainment, but I'm bored with this and will be moving on now. Have a great life, & I hope you get help soon.