I had 3 real spinning attacks today, again,( I am only on my verapamil and have not yet started nori or paxil, which I will in a few days) so I pop in a xanax. It’s a half of a .5mg. Does the trick everytime, helps stop the spinning and if I sit still for about 15 minutes, I dare open my eyes for a “peek” to see if I am still spinning . I literally have to keep my eyes closed throughout any attack and just wait it out. I LOVE my xanax.
Dr. Hain does NOT love my xanax. He said to wean off it slowly and change to lorazapam. He didn’t mention Valium? Wonder why? Anyone take lorazapam? Maybe dr. thinks it’s less addictive,but I take so little of the xanax, and at this point, not sure I care too much about being dependent on it. It helps and that’s what I’m after. So. Lorazapam anyone??? ( I did take .75 mg xanx today and it’s only 4pm. spinning lady
I take Ativan and like it. Have never taken Xanax or Valium, although I have an unfilled prescription for Valium that I want to fill just to try it since so many people here love it so much.
I believe that the short half-life of Xanax is why doctors may not care for it–it can have a hard crash. But Ativan doesn’t have as long of a half-life as Valium, but I’ve never had any issues with it. It feels pretty smooth to me, and I usually only take half of a tab when I do take it. Not sure why he wouldn’t have mentioned it.
I’ve only had two real spinning attacks, and I took a meclizine and Ativan to get it to stop. God they are awful! I hope you can get them under control fast.
Hi Meredith
Ativan (lorazepam) has been fine for me. I took it for about a year in 2003 and had no trouble weaning myself off. Have been taking .5mg since MAV began - had to come off when I had all the ear tests done - did that over a week and no problems. My doc seems quite happy for me to have it as a ‘standby’ when thing get ropey. Never taken the xanax or valium but lots of guys do think it’s great so another case of finding a med that suits. Good luck with you med regime and anything you can tolerate to get rid of the spins.
Barb
Thanks gals, Well, there comes a point where I am almost willing to try anything. I have the kind of MAV where I have had what Dr. hain calls severe vertigo. Spin takes me to the ground, I shut my eyes tight and have to hold on to whatever is there, i.e. grass, a table, the chair, one time the golf cart, as I feel like I am spinning so fast that if I let go, I will spin across the room going millions of miles per hour. I have to endure this until it starts to subside, which usually lasts about 3-4 minutes, then I get violent nausea and sick, and husband picks me up and puts me in the bed for a few hours. Then I recover. All that stopped when I started finally taking verapamil. The hard spin stopped and so did the migraine headaches, but in the place of that, I now have spinning all the time, but gentle spinning, or what I consider gentle. All the time.
Tonight it a big night. Husband is down cutting paxil ( 20mg tablets) into 4ths for me to start at 5mg. tonight. Very nervous about it. Also, am going to start replacing a xanax with lorazapam slowly until I am on just the lorazapam. Cutting the .5 dose in half. Tomorrow, I get my Nori that I had made at the compounding pharm, 5 mg. Don’t want to start at 10mg and they are capsules so can’t cut them. Wish me luck. Thank you for your advice, too. Glad to see you are taking lorazapam, too. Spinning lady, meredith
Wow, Meredith, your symptoms sound awful. I don’t spin (lucky me) and don’t have such bad symptoms as most people here. So my experiences with these two drugs might not be typical.
Ativan (lorazepam) made me DIZZIER. Not right away, but a few hours after taking it I would invariably feel unusually dizzy, much more so than usual. Same when I once took a pre-MRI Valium.
Xanax I tried for a longer period. It did give me a kind of odd “smooth” feeling, but it had absolutely no effect (that I could tell) on the dizzy-wooziness. And it made me feel like a rag doll–TOO relaxed. So I quit.
But I know these drugs help a lot of people. My experience with them seems atypical.
Good luck with your trial!
Nancy