How Long Does Ativan Stay in Your System?

Looking at the Duration of Lorazepam in the Body

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When you’re worried about passing a drug test, you might wonder how long it takes for you to clear a specific drug from your system. Ativan addiction is rampant with an incredible 4.8 million people who are abusing prescription benzodiazepines each year. With that in mind, many people are aptly worried about drug testing.

How long does Ativan stay in your system and how can you pass a drug test?

It takes about five half-lives for Ativan to leave your system with each one lasting roughly twelve hours. Metabolizing the drug may be faster or slower depending on your body composition, age, tolerance, and other factors. Urine tests can detect lorazepam for a week or more whereas saliva tests are good only for a few hours.

Hair samples, on the other hand, can detect Ativan for a much longer period compared to urine and saliva tests.

Purpose Healing Center wants to help you walk into a life free from substance abuse. From medical detox to intensive outpatient treatment, we offer everything you need for sober living. Keep reading to learn more about how long Ativan will stay in your system.

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Ativan Half-Life: How Long Does It Take to Clear Lorazepam from the Body?

The first thing to consider when determining how long Ativan will stay in your system is Ativan’s half-life. This is the amount of time it takes for your body composition to break down the drug to half of its strength at the point of measurement. With each progressive half-life, you have less of the drug in the body.

Most doctors agree that it takes roughly five half-lives for a drug to fully clear your system, but a half-life is different for every prescription. What is Ativan’s half-life and how long does it take to clear your system altogether?

While there are some individual differences in how the body processes lorazepam, it usually takes about ten to twenty hours for a half-life to take place. The average hovers somewhere around twelve hours. If you follow this out to its conclusion, it means that Ativan should leave your system sixty hours after your last dose.

However, it could stay in your system slightly longer with some reporting that it doesn’t fully leave for about five days.

What Influences How Long Ativan Will Stay in Your System?

Not everyone will process their lorazepam at the same rate, making its elimination from the body more guesswork than scientific fact. Here are some of the factors that you may want to consider when you think about how long this drug will remain in your system:

Age: Younger people tend to burn through the drug more quickly whereas older people will metabolize the drug more slowly.
Weight: People with higher body weights tend to metabolize lorazepam faster than others.
Hydration: If you want to eliminate Ativan from your system faster, you may want to chug water. There is some evidence that points to the idea that being well-hydrated is a factor in metabolizing the drug a bit more efficiently.
Heavy drug use: Many people use Ativan to treat anxiety, which means they’re taking it regularly. The more you take the drug, the longer it takes for it to leave your system. You may have built up a higher tolerance for the drug which influences how much and how frequently you take it.
Mixing it with other drugs: Drinking or using other drugs alongside Ativan can influence metabolic rates. If your substance abuse extends beyond lorazepam and into alcohol abuse or other drugs, it usually takes longer for the drug to clear your system.

As you can see, there are no easy one-size-fits-all answers for how Ativan withdrawal will impact your body and at what point it will show up. Withdrawal symptoms hold off until the drug leaves the body, but that could be sooner or later depending on these factors.

Ativan Withdrawal Symptoms as the Detox Process Emerges

As lorazepam leaves your body, you might start to exhibit some common benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms if you are determined not to take another dose. This is a sign that the drug is leaving your system and that your body is becoming dependent on it to function.

These effects usually hit one to two days after the last dose. Some common withdrawal symptoms you might encounter are:

Headache
Hand tremors
Excessive sweating
Confusion
High blood pressure
Racing heartbeat
Nausea and vomiting
Irritability
Anxiety or panic attacks

It’s best to be under the care of a medical team during the early days without Ativan. Our team offers medication-assisted treatment that can combat symptoms like nausea, vomiting, or anxiety. Plus, our skilled clinicians can help you work through those anxieties and panic attacks so that you are equipped with new coping skills long-term.

Much like alcohol withdrawal symptoms, being surrounded by medical professionals is a great idea to kick the habit once and for all. Let Purpose Healing Center answer your questions and help you feel at ease with our detox program.

When Will Ativan Show Up on Drug Tests?

On many drug screenings, you may be worried about how your benzodiazepine drug use will show up to an employer or other professional entity. While not all screenings include benzos like lorazepam, many will include them in a basic panel. How long does Ativan stay in your system according to common drug tests?

Urine Tests for the Most Comprehensive Screenings

Many professionals favor urine tests when it comes to determining Ativan addiction. Urine can hold the drug in the system longer than many other tests, allowing them to detect usage over the past week or potentially even longer. A single dose of lorazepam can show up in urine for six to nine days.

Of course, this doesn’t account for someone who is taking Ativan extensively over a longer period. If you have a buildup of the drug in your system, then you may pop positive on urine tests for longer. It could last longer than a week to a week and a half for heavy users.

Blood Tests for Medium-Range Detection Times

Urine tests can detect lorazepam for a long time, but blood tests might be another option. They have a decent range of being able to detect Ativan use with a detection window of three to five days after you take the last dose. If you only took one dose, it may not show up on a blood test toward the outskirts of this detection window.

Ativan tends to be a fast-acting drug compared to other benzodiazepines. This means that it gets into your system quickly and leaves it just as quickly. Unless it builds up in your system, you may not have positive blood tests at that three- to five-day mark.

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Hair Tests for Long-Term Benzo Use

Sometimes, you might want a snapshot of how someone has been using benzos. Hair tests can detect the longest window of drug use. Ativan surfaces in the hair just a few days after your dose and can be detected for up to thirty days, making this the most comprehensive testing tool for how long lorazepam will stay in your system.

Saliva Tests for Quick and Easy Answers

Saliva tests are another option for testing someone you suspect might be abusing Ativan. These are fairly simple to collect and give quick answers about recent drug use, usually within about 5 to 48 hours. They can usually detect Ativan within an eight-hour window from the time the drug was taken and the time the test was collected.

Enroll in Medical Detox at Purpose Healing Center to Treat Ativan Abuse

Have you crossed the line into Ativan addiction, even if you originally started taking it under a doctor’s orders for anxiety disorders? Prescription drugs can often get out of hand, and Purpose Healing Center is here to help you regain control of your life with a comprehensive medical detox.

Our process allows us to make you more comfortable during withdrawal symptoms and offers 24/7 care to ensure that all of your needs are met.

From counselors to medical professionals, we offer medical benzo detox alongside every level of care needed to get lorazepam use under control and treat co-occurring mental health conditions.

Let our enrollment team walk you through the process of kicking the habit. Give us a call today to let our enrollment team tell you about our evidence-based programs and verify your insurance benefits!