getting off mirtazapine

Hi there cat did you taper down from 30 mg to 15mg   or did you just go from 30mg to 15mg straight away.  ive been on 30mg for 5months felt great depresssion lifted,was sleeping great too  but i also started putting weight on.  One morning i got up to feel really depressed  feeling sick anxious panic attacks  thought i just had a bug  but 2 weeks after was still feeling same      went to doctors who upped my dose from 30mg to 45mg.  only been on the 45 for 3 days  so cant say im improving much yet,     but alot of people told me about the withdrawel symptoms   and they are all the same as what i exsperianced in that 2 weeks,  I do believe that the drug had stopped working for me,   if you look into discontinuation from mirtazapine  youll find that 1 of the side effects is depression  which you are probably having due to you dropping from 30 to 15mg    it also says the weight should come of after stopping this drug as your appetite decreases  but may take some time.   I also want off this drug but im to scared of the side effects     Good luck hun xx

Hi Cat

I'm not quite 'off' Mirt' yet, at 3 mg on a slow taper, but to answer your question, yes, my weight is reducing now, I no longer get the cravings ~ especially the one's that kick in after the evening meal when I felt like I couuld eat for England!  

I started to lose weight & food cravings around the 7.5 mg marker, but I wouldn't advise driopping down to this dose in one go.  See how you are after going 30mg to 15mg for at least 2-3 weeks, then make a decision.  Sometimes discontinuation symptoms kick in at 2 weeks, so only then do folk know how the tapering affects them.

Good luck  

hi Cat, I can't give you any advice for the weight gain symptom. Since joining  these forums a couple of months ago I strongly get the impression that Mirt is a high risk drug as regards side effects. The sleep effect seems to be beneficial but other than that this drug has a massive interactions with other drugs, alcohol etc. My advice would be for everyone to be very very careful going down the Mirt path. I have stopped taking Anti depressants for a month or so now,( mirt ,fluoxetine..not together obviously ). and I feel back in control. Regular counselling and a bit of regular exercise.  i have a fall back of sleeping tablets( zopiclone) which I rarely use but are there as a sleep "crutch" if needs be.....use once a month

Hi Cat, you absolutely will lose all the weight once you come off mirtazapine. It is also possible to lose weight whilst on it. I dieted for a year whilst on 30mg and lost a stone. But it was hard and I had to work out each day and count every calorie. I found that I needed around 400 calories less each day to stay the same weight as I did before and after the mirt. Shortly after coming off it, I dropped another stone and was then diagnosed with Graves disease which causes hyperthyroidism. This made me lose too much weight and I looked haggered. I am now on anti-thyroid drugs and have put back on half a stone but a now HYPOthyroid - so a bit like when I was on the mirt - de ja vu! Hoping to get my meds sorted out soon. But at least I am free of mirtazapine which also caused me to have stage 3 kidney failure. It's poison IMO.

I was on 15mg for 4 months. I started a taper down to 3/4 of a pill for 5 days. Then on to 1/2 for 5 days then 1/4 for 5 days and then none. I'll let you know how it goes. As far as weight gain goes you have use will power, excercise, and don't keep sweets or junk food in your home. Mertazapine isn't fattening; what you eat is.