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Delayed withdrawls, weeks later?

Posted , 7 users are following.

jason888
jason888

I reduced my dosage from 7.5mg to 3.75 three weeks ago. I felt relatively OK w that cut, sleep hasn’t been as good, had some anxiety for a few days. But now, sleep has been getting bad for the last few days, really bad insomnia! Some nights only 2 hours sleep, but that seems to be getting slightly better.

However, today is the first day of feeling bad during the day as well: depressed mood and horrible anxiety and restlessness. Can’t focus, brain isn’t clear and can’t seem to calm down. The same feelings I had when I first made the cut.

Is it normal for withdrawals to ramp up like this, weeks after a cut? How long should they last for? Anything I can do to help them? I’m taking magnesium glycinate.

Also, I’m cutting a dissolvable 15mg tablet into 4 pieces. The quartered chunks can be irregular in size, some are bigger, some are smaller. Could these variations in size be causing these symptoms as well?

Thank you!

0 likes, 17 replies

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  • Morning_Rain
    Morning_Rain jason888

    Posted

    MIRTAZAPINE HALF LIFE

    • Half life is the time required for an AD (or other pharm) to “decrease” by half. Typically five half lives equate to 100%. Meaning 100% gone.

    • When we withdraw from mirtazapine, the half life is 20-40 hrs x5 half lives, which is 200 hours or roughly 8 days. This can vary based on how one metabolizes (liver) and percent of dose drop and/or if they CT.

    • Once all the half lives (drug) are gone from your body (liver), that is typically when full withdrawal BEGINS.

    • Your body was dependent (addicted) to mirtazapine, and now after all half lives are gone, it’s complaining (aka withdrawal or discontinuance syndrome).

  • Morning_Rain
    Morning_Rain jason888

    Posted

    Hi Jason

    Just a warning about using AH.

    DANGERS OF ANTIHISTAMINE (AH) USE DURING TAPER & DISCONTINUANCE OF MIRTAZAPINE

    Please be very careful with anything with antihistamine whether it be OTC or script, etc.

    Mirtazapine has antihistamine properties in a very BIG way. When you taper or withdraw your very complex histamine receptors are struggling to normalize (homeostasis) by up and down regulating.

    Taking an antihistamine can not only impede that healing but also can result in undesireable effects. An overflow of histamine toppling your histamine receptor flood gates.

    In a support group there were two members who presented with "anaphylaxis" after using antihistamines (OTC / Pharm based).

    One member was prescribed an AH by their provider knowing they were tapering! The other member was completely off mirtazapine taking OTC AH.

    They both had to be hospitalized. One in the ER and the other in Resus, and both eventually came home with an epy pen.

    Please be careful!

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