Help i am bedridden with a long term neurological condition. I have become extremely depressed

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I have been having bad anxiety attacks . After four years of amitriptyline i got worse. My g. p. prescribed mirtazapine, stopped the ami cold turkey. Its been 4 weeks now but i am having really bad vibrating and pins and needles all in my face and body. I also feel very depressed. I have been bedridden with my illness for many years and always coped . Now i cant be bothered with anyone or anything , i feel all i have to look forwards to is this illness. Please can anyone advise me about the mirtazapine. I have tried many anti ds but could not tolerate ssri ones at all.

1 like, 12 replies

12 Replies

  • Posted

    sorry to hear this carol but mirtrazapine has made me feel jus more depressed like u said cant be bothered , but not knowing any thing the best thing u csn do is ask dr to try something else soz cant advise u good luck x
  • Posted

    I'm on Mirtazapine too and have been for four weeks. It's helping me sleep but hasn't yet increased my appetite.

    I'm having better days where I can cope and bad days but haven't had no days of yet where I feel great or back to normal.

    My doc said it will take 6 weeks upwards so I guess I'm going to have to take his word for it.

    I so understand where you ladies are coming from. It feels like this is never going to end.

    Xx

  • Posted

    Hi Carol. I am very sorry to hear how you are feeling. I have been on Mirtazapine for 8 and half years. Speaking from personal experience, i have found it to be a difficult tablet to be on. One thing it most definitely does is rob you of any motivation to do anything, it is almost as if it drains you of energy and replaces it with varying amounts of exhaustion and makes you feel isolated. But please don't despair - speak to your doctor and have him change your medication: undoubtedly you know yourself from your experiences that different tablets work for different people. The very best of luck to you x

     

  • Posted

    its differet f everone but this drug didnt help me it made me worse was on it 2 mnths bin of cold turkey 9 days bin realy ill bak at drs tmor c wat they advise but i will neva take this drug again

  • Posted

    @carole Sorry to hear of your situation. I take 45 mg of Mirt. and it helps me sleep to counteract the insomnia caused by 2 meds I take for epilepsy. After 4 years of Mirt. and going cold turkey is one of the biggest problems people seem have with it. I tried Prozac first, an SSRI, but it only intensified my mood. There is a web site called mentalhealthdaily and they have a long list of side effects when you suddenly stop taking mirtazapine. They also tell you how to gradually cut the dose down and it can take 2 or 3 months to get off of it without withdraw symptoms! But since you stopped it cold turkey, I don’t know what to tell you.

    @s79667 I also have a problem with motivation. I pay my bills late and keep telling myself things I have to do but my mind is like a brick wall sometimes. One thing that helps is forcing myself to go for a walk when my mind will listen. I asked my Dr. if there’s something for motivation, but there isn’t. Besides getting sleep, one effect I like is dreaming. With the 2 anti-seizure meds I take, I didn’t know of any dreams for 6 years prior to taking Mirt. Not all my dreams are good, but at least I dream now.

    As an ironic side note, I also take Zolpidem (Ambien) when I think I need it. I take 45 mg Mirt. about an hour before going to bed. I watched an intense move last week and my mind was too wound up to sleep, so I thought I better take the Zol. before going to bed. But 5 min. later, I realized I had accidently taken another 45 mg of Mirt. and wondered if I was going to wake up the next day. I got 8 hours of sleep but was pretty groggy.

  • Posted

    I have ME and have found mirtazapine to make it worse as far as getting out of bed. Though I was bed bound for 7 years but was on another antidepressant and I went through horrific withdrawal. I am no longer bed bound but that is due to coming off a nasty antidepressant called seroxat which was making my condition so much worse. I do get up every day, but after 2 and a half years on mirtazapine I feel that it is making it hard for me to get out of bed and have motivation to get up.
  • Posted

    Hi Carole,

    Sounds to me like a combination of withdrawl symptoms. If they should last longer than a month you may have to visit your Dr. May have some neuropathy involved here. I had the same thing coming off statins and HBP meds.

    Good luck to you....I know this isn't much help, but it does get better.

  • Posted

    Anyone got any idea if all of my tingling in face head pressure dizziness internal vibrating etc could be something to do with the noradrenaline reuptake part of the mirtazapine.Nearly six weeks on 15mg now and so depressed with it all. Its driving me insane. Would be grateful for anyone elses opinions.
    • Posted

      Hi, did you work out if the internal vibration was the mirtazapine?
    • Posted

      Hi Carlissa. Before i went on mirt 15mg, i was on amitriptyline for four years. Cannot tolerate ssris at all. I have reactive depression and anxiety due to a long term illness which has robbed me of a life. I started vibrating etc on the ami and had fast heartbeats. Doc as a last resort gave me the mirt. Since on the mirt i have constant inner body vibrations pins and needles in face head and body high blood pressure tinnitus constant dizziness pressure in face and head, bone pains restless legs to name but a few. I do believe these to be side effects from these tablets. Doc wont change them and tells me to increase dose, no way! My depression has got a little better but what a price to pay.! Some people dont get any side effects and say they are a good tablet. But for me they are bad. If i did not worry the depression to the point of suicidal thoughts would come back i would get off them. I believe they mess with all bodily systems and the amitrip was the start of it all. Sorry for long answer but cant be explained in a nut shell so to speak. Carole.
    • Posted

      Hi, I only took 6 weeks of 3.75 of mirt for sleeping and I had some weird side effects. I don't know if this was related but about 2 weeks after I started taking it I had inner quivering during the nigh and constant rushes of horrible energy coming from my chest head. Anyway I came off it 3 weeks ago and while this has calmed down a lot, it is still happening slightly. This tablet helps a lot of people but it did not agree with me
  • Posted

    Hi Carole

    Sorry to hear of your latest developments

    I was on mirt roughly for 2 month

    It was the worst 2 month of my life

    It gave me symptoms similar to that of fibromyalgia , every bone / joint in my

    Body ached I was so lethargic a snail

    Could have walked faster , it was like being

    In a balloon paying no attention to nothing

    I was crying aswell I had an overwhelming sense of guilt fr no reason

    It was so damaging I quit cold turkey

    I was better before I went on it lol

    I'm now on flux and doing so much better

    Although it's early doors

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