30mg Mirtazapine for 1 Month, Will I feel withdrawals tapering off?:(

My tablets are 30mg, last night I broke one in half and seperated one half into a quarter (22.5mg). Feeling nausea, palpitations, mood swings every two minutes but ill ride it out see how it goes this week, thanks for your advice. To be honest, (because mirtaz is anti nausea) I would happily throw up and cry my way out of it. This drug feeds off of hopelessness and i'm so numb, wouldn't recommend this drug to my worst enemy

You must be very sensitive with regards to tapering the Mirt' ... if you're asking my advice, I would say give it a few days at 22.5mg, and if it gets worse, step back to the 30 mg ... and reduce very slowly from there.  There are ways to do a 10% cut every 3 to 4 weeks as recommended.

Click on my name above, and see the link in my profile to get a full "informed choice" of the safe way to reduce - you don't want to get further into any withdrawal suffering - the Mirt' can be difficult if you don't go the kind route.

It's OK, you'll be fine, just this big drop from 30 to 22.5 (25% drop instead of 10%) may not be the way to go for you personally.  It's not a big deal to start again, see how you go, how you feel.

Keep posting Liam, oh and bear in mind that most doctors don't know how to WD from Mirt' they think you can just come off within a week or two, that's why we're all here, trying to help one another.

Best wishes.

 

Last night i took 15mg and slept normal, what i'm trying to do is take this numb depression horrible feeling away by lowering the dose...Btw, have you had an experience on mirtazapine? Thx

Well you should know, that dropping from 30 to 15mg may not take off the numbness exactly, but may bring on anxiety as you are dropping faster than recommended, but you know best, it's your body, we're all different, so you will do it your way.

The lower doses are more sedating, oddly enough.  If you want to come off it try to go slow, if you stop you may feel much worse.

Yes I had been on Mirt' for a year before I started a slow taper, I did lots of research of how to withdraw because Mirt is known to be the most difficult AD to come off.  I have been dropping 10% per month, or to be more precise and more friendly to my system 5% every 2 weeks.  I managed to get the liquid form of Mirt so it is easier to work out the drops.

Be kind to yourself Liam, I know the sedation is debilitating and numbing, but get off safely & slowly without the interruptions of nasty wd effects and you'll be great in time.

 

I also needed to tell you that last friday, I got really drunk and missed a nights dose.(I drink once every few months) Did missing that nights dose affect me? And also i only took the risk of going down to 15mg so quickly  because i have only been using for a month

It's interesting how you missed a dose because you forgot last friday after getting drunk; versus the 25% cut when you said, and I quote "Feeling nausea, palpitations, mood swings every two minutes " - didn't you experience that with the hangover also ??

It's strange, for two days after drinking i felt very normal was eating lots and lots, very stable. But it was 3 days after drinking the depression smacked me in the face

Probably the missed 30 mg dose then, it can hit you on day 4, that is common, for me too.  

So do you plan to stay at 15 mg for now, don't go lower I would say, not for 2 weeks

 

yeah, will try my best to and I will update you on how im going x

Yes, that's the best way, as you've already had a nasty effect you're wise to do that.  Keep us in the loop

Wishing you well x

Last night around 7pm I burst into tears because of the despair, after crying I felt little relief   But around 9pm-12am my mood was better and was feeling a nice tired sort of way. Here is where you might be disappointed, I took half of 7.5mg mirt this time and it really made me sleep, i'm testing the reaction  and deep inside of me I feel the despair is because im still on mirt, depression always comes first then it causes anxiety and the rest of the symptoms

Half of 7.5 ... so you took 3.75 mg.  Hmmm ... let us know how it goes for you Liam.  

Remember the lower doses are more sedating !  It's the kick back of withdrawal that is concerning.  Look after yourself.

No my mistake i halved 15mg still got the massive depression which started around 6 again, can only desribe it as a burning sand paper head zap of despair, but im definitley staying at 7.5mg for as long as feels okay.

Also, i went for a run today lasting around half an hour to keep the withdrawals as mild as possible but still the devil managed to possess me

I've heard a lot about people overcoming Depression with CV exercise; I'll bet if you can run, you can beat depression without any meds ... have you read "Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig"  ???  It is a very uplifting, easy read book, not scarey at all, he's not suicidal or anything.  I think this little star of a book could help you.  More advice in that little book than most I have read, it's in all the book shops, Amazaon too.

Is 6 pm the bewitching hour when everything goes dark for you then?  Maybe this is when you should go for your run?  

You can get zaps in your head with withdrawal, they come and go quickly but can be quite a jolt, not harmful but nevertheless a bit frightening to some, they come they go.  

Yes stay at 7.5, at least 2 weeks, if you get anxiety mid evening you could always take your pill a little earlier, but not too far away from bed time.

 

will give reasons to stay alive a read, 6pm till 9pm roughly my zaps come, to calm the heat in my head I take 10mg propranolol which barely helps. My mum tells me to take 0.25mg clonazepam to ease the symptoms but im terrified to use a benzo because the withdrawal from them are hell too

okay calmer i'm going to be honest now, yesterday night I didnt take anything and couldnt sleep understandably, well managed to dose off for an hour during the night but not heavily

Now im going through hell but i need to know if this feeling is peak discontinuation syndrome through the half life just ending about an hour ago, i need to know that in particular im going insane!

Hi Liam

Well what you are experiencing now, is what you will experience if you "JUST STOP" - which is what I have been trying hard to tell you not to do, because these anxiety state come on and they are frightening right?

I don't think this is peak, neither do I think the anxiety will get any worse for you.  It isn't about half life, the half life of Mirt may be 20-40 hours but it doesn't stop there, the withdrawal goes on for most people.  You can look up all about Mirt on the Mind . org web site  it explains.  I can't put web addresses on here because the moderator will remove my post, and just lately the moderator has booted people off too.

The Propranalol (Beta Blocker) at 10 mg is a low dose, speak to your doctor about wether youu can take a higher dose.  

Just stopping Mirt' causes Insomnia, insomnia causes anxiety, anxiety causes panic - you're not going mad, you're just caught up with going virtually cold turkey.  Take the Mirt' tonight, go back a step, go to 22.5mg, take it easy, be kind to yourself, cold turkey never worked for anyone.

As for the Benzo, there is time enough for them later  if you need them, but I think your body is craving the Mirt' now.  Speak to your doctor tomorrow, tell them what you've done and that you're having a reaction to stopping too quickly, it'll be fine, follow the advice, take the pill about 8.30 and go to bed when you feel tired.  

Let us know how it goes

its a double edged sword because if im back on mirt, ill still lose my mind during the day because i despise the drug it gives me major depression waves   im sorry for not going with your advice but will 0.25mg be enough of klonopin dosage for addiction? Thanks alot x

I think if you start a Benzo you will need it for a while, it's hard to say.  But no one could blame you for wanting relief, your doctor would be best to tell you though.  

 

Thats what im worried about, how long my symptoms will last because i stopped cold turkey,"Reactions following SSRI withdrawal have been reviewed by many authors. (10-16) Symptoms appear 1-10 days after stopping cold turkey"

I gave in yesterday, i took 0.25 clonazepam and 30 minutes later my brain zaps stopped... was able to sleep an hour after taking it, my mum told me I sleep walked an hour after going to sleep not sure what caused that. As for today im stable and quite relaxed, will tell you how im feeling after the clonazepam half life wears off

That's great Liam, quality sleep is everything when withdrawing, I hope you continue to feel well, and will soon be back to normal..

Have a look at Inositol for anxiety, should it return.  

Last night i slept without a benzo but waking up every 30 minutes, also had nightmares    Day 3 clean of mirtazapine now and im sat on my sofa just extremely irritated and my thoughts are swinging between positive and negative but im sticking with what all these authors say discontinuation syndrome should only last 10-16 days because im a short term user of mirtaz

Keeping busy helps, if you're sat thinking it might be harder for you.  Put a good comedy on, or read, did you order the book?

 

yeah ordered the book today, went for another run today at 2pm.

But my goodness mania is really horrible nothing can stop these vacillating thoughts, not sure if I mentioned this but ive been taking a natural supplement called lithium orotate since two days.

But day 4 free of mirtazapine and my anhedonia continues, hopefully it's not chronic which is my biggest fear