I am deathly afriad of flying and surgical procedures. I have Crohns disease and I used to always be in the hospital. I would always scream (not literally) and cry hysterically (literally) before a simple procedure, but it was scarey to me! They wanted to draw fluid from my belly through a needle while I was awake, NO WAY! the gave me valium, I freaked out more, theygave me more, I still was too freaked out. They took me back to my room, let me relax, gave me 2 mg of Ativan before I went back down, and I came back up from the procedure , not only having had the needle thing done, but also having a tube put in my belly, draining an abcess. I have aboslutely no memory of this what so ever.
I had to get to Amsterdam and had no idea how I was gonna make the 8 hour flight. Someone I knew had some Ativan (I have had previous experience with it, only intravenously, before surgeries or procedures, in a hospital) and I asked if I could have some for the flight. I took .5 mg right after take off, and .5 mg more because I figured the only .5 wouldnt work. I was out for the next 6 hours or so.
Ativan can be a positive experience as long as it is NOT abused. Even though all of my experiences with Ativan were positive and medically necessay (besides the flight, in which case I still only took a small amount), I can DEFINITELY see how someone might get addicted to them. They made me feel extremely good and took away all anxiety or fear I may have had.