Mirtazapine 30mg - feeling worse?
Posted , 10 users are following.
I'm new to this website, it' been interesting reading some of he varied reaction to Mirtazapine so I thought id give my experience with it.
I was prescribed 15mg to start with for about 3-weeks for anxiety. Was helping me sleep like a baby and found it hard to get up in the morning. Apart from sleeping, It only helped me that way.
I was upped to 30mg about three and half weeks ago and its knocks me for six in the mornings. Weeks before last I could see a good change happening and could feel myself get better as the day went on. This week has been a complete nightmare, I have even had a week off sick from the doctor. I've had - Anxiety, no appetite, tired all the time, light-headed and can' deal with stressful situations. I know that last Saturday I forgot to take my 30mg tablet after I ended up having a few too many pints down the pub, but since that saturday I have been so ill with bad nerves. I don't think I want to touch alcohol again.
Since been on Mirt my appetite hasnt really got better at all, in fact worse I think. I sometimes feel my blood sugars drop during the day which in itself to me is quite frightening. I'm not sure if that's a sign of the medication or perhaps because I havent been eating, Im not sure. But I do try to force myself to eat.
Yesterday, I went to pick up my repeat prescription and was getting extremely panicky in the car that I had to drive back home and go to bed. Im so glad I have time off work to chill out.
I'm starting a new job with the hospital in two weeks and Im hoping to get myself better by then. Im not sure if I should keep taking my 30mg and hope for the best Im not sure.
0 likes, 13 replies
betsy0603 owen87
Edited
You are suffering a lot of side effects from mirt. These are caused by an imbalance of neuroreceptors due to the action of the drug. The drug blocks receptors causing a rise of neurotransmitters in the gap between nerves, an un-natural situation for the nervous system, causing symptoms. If you push through, your nervous system will push back and make modifications to try to bring about homeostasis, at which point the side effects will hopefully subside. The problem with that is that if you feel the med still isn't helping you, those adaptations make coming back off difficult, with withdrawal symptoms due to imbalance in reverse, because the modifications are there not as well-opposed as the drug is dropped. That is what makes Mirt one of the most difficult to get off of, though this happens with all psych drugs. So, before you commit yourself to that, maybe do more looking around to see on this forum what peoples' experiences are.
elainec33 betsy0603
Posted
betsy0603 elainec33
Posted
I'm sending you a PM with a link for tips on tapering citalopram.
doris64885 elainec33
Posted
Interesting to see you have suspected parathyroid adenoma as I, too, have thyroid/pituitary issues. See my reply to owen87 when it has been approved. I hope you are better now? Was the adenoma confirmed and did you have an operation? I understand they're now removed via the nasal channel?
elaine2447 doris64885
Edited
Hi Doris, this post is so old I can't even recollect it. The suspected or "mild hyperparathyroidism" was a nightmare, as firstly there is no such thing, would be like being mildly pregnant. Anyway, I was messed about so much by the NHS for nearly five years that I was advised by a well known surgeon in California via a video, to get an operation whatever the cost as it was ruining my life. He recommended Professor Palazzo and after seeing him in January February 2020, I booked in and had the operation three days before lockdown. He removed 3 of the 4 parathyroid glands with a tiny scar on my neck. I dont know where you heard they pull them down the nose. Maybe that applies to nasal polyps.
Anyway, I stayed just one night, it was very expensive, not so much the surgeon but the one night stay in the Cromwell Hospital. He was very pleased with me and wrote a polite diplomatic rollocking to the awful endo at our local hospital. I was also advised to put in an official complaint to PALS which i did which included a dreadful GP who for four years used to say every three months after the blood tests "above the normal range, to be expected"!!!!! Anyway, she retired thankfully. I told PALS i didnt wish to take it any further but wanted the head of the endo dept to be warned of this woman for any future victims of hers.
That was in the March 2020, sadly in the May I tripped in the garden one night and shut my finger in the door, paramedics took me and piece of finger off but they couldnt re attach so had to dress it myself every day and then try and email a photo to the hospital who would look at that and then phone me. Because i have severe osteoporosis (not helped with leaving the parathyroid problem for so long, I moderate an osteoporosis group and i didnt want to let them down but couldnt type so overused the mobile with a speech to text app, thus upsetting my neck, probably text neck. I went to a local chiropractor in the July who cracked my neck and I have had awful headaches since.
So the weeks went by, no dentist except only one who would extract or do temporary fillings, so in February 2021 found a fabulous private dentist and had a lot of work done. Because i have never been good with vaccines as a child I put off having the covid one until my dental treatment was completed in May. So, I went along to local place the doctor gave me the jab, I chose Pfizer which i have since read not a good idea with Hashimotos. She sat me down with an antihistimine for twenty minutes and i was fine. So I walked home calling in a getting a bit of shopping on the way back, it was only a little over two miles which is/was nothing to me, always being a walker, no car and my husband died when my daughter was nearly four. I felt fine, again by the evening fine, I thought what is all the fuss about expecting to feel nauseous or something like that but no, went to bed still fine. When i woke up the following morning, I could barely get out of bed and I have been like that since, getting progressively worse. Have had scans an MRI and an EMG test which confirmed peripheral neuropathy which is absolute hell and no cure. The consultant said regarding the vax, "quite likely as we never know what the long term effects of vaccines are".
So now from easily walking two miles some days I can hardly walk 200 yards
Prior to writing my first post here I did have a fall and I walked around with "unexplained back pain" for 13 months and then the rheumatologist decided to xray my spine only to find a compression fracture at T5 and that now is more painful than it was when i first did it.
I am still taking the 7.5mg mirtazapine. I was off everything but with the PN I am even more anxious and do pop quite a few diazepam or bromazepam as that is the only thing that keeps me going these days as life is so stressful and miserable.
My immune system is totally screwed up, my TSH went to 9 and so the GP asked permission from the head endo to put me on a small amount of thyroxine. The permission was for fear of me going hyper again which apparently 6 or 7 years ago when i had the 13 week non stop day and night tachycardia is the pre run of Hashimotos which then becomes hypo.
I have been taking 25mcg of Wockhard as I cannot tolerate Teva since April. TSH has come down to 2.79. I take it at night as it is too much messing about with four hour gaps between taking calcium and 1 hour for food etc etc.
I asked to go back on a small dose of mirtazapine as it is supposed to be better for sleeping (less is more) sometimes it doesn't help at all but my main concern was that it can suppress cortisol and mine is always far too high.
I bet you wished you hadnt asked how i was now ha ha.
Let's hope Betsy is okay now.
lorraine52317 owen87
Posted
I wonder if the dose is to high for you. I tried 30 and only lasted a week as was feeling rough. Dropped down to 15 over a couple of weeks and felt better again. It maybe that mirt isn't the right AD for you. It has many positive attributes but has some negative ones too! I'm now also on venlafaxine and it's the first thing that has made me feel truly better after a year of depression and trying 4 different ADs before finding one that works.
I would have a chat with your gp and ask him/her to review your meds.
Really wish you better Owen ♥
Calmer owen87
Posted
Owen, for your interest, I know you mentioned that you missed a dose around about the time you had a few drinks too many - you should take a look here, another person in the forum had the same thing. It took me a while, but I realised that having a sensitised nervous system, and drinking alcohol, just makes our nervous systems much worse, sadly !
the link: https://patient.info/forums/discuss/hangover-anxiety-since-stopping-mirtazapine-515261
Try really hard to eat, not eating will make your nervous system and that high alert agitated anxiety even more lousy - some folk suffering this way talk of making protein shakes with added banana, porridge flakes, whatever you can to calm the system.
Hope you soon feel better Owen.
elainec33 owen87
Edited
Calmer elainec33
Edited
doris64885 elainec33
Posted
No, but it made my restless leg syndrome much worse.
elaine2447 doris64885
Posted
If you are convinced it is the mirtazapine, best to wean yourself off it then.
doris64885 owen87
Edited
I'm new to this website today (November 2022) and I have the same as you. I was on 15mg mirtazapine for 5 weeks before my GP increased it to 30mg . I've been on this higher dose for just 11 days and the last 5 days my anxiety has been much worse. I'm also light headed, have no appetite and cant sleep. For the last 8 days I've had a lisp (circus sounds like thircuth) and my head feels like it belongs to someone else. I have panic attacks and become completely overwhelmed by EVERYTHING, even making a sandwich, cutting my nails, going to the shop alone, etc, etc. I haven't wanted to go on holiday or take part in any of my hobbies. Sometimes I'm so agitated that I pace up and down the hall or round and round the dining table. What is this stuff doing to our brains?! The mornings are the worst and, if I didn't have to get up and walk my dog, I dread to think what my thoughts would drive me to do. I was suicidal on sertraline and Trazadone but didn't expect to feel so bad on mirtazapine because I understood that, unlike SSRI's , it doesn't make you worse before you feel better. I've decided that as from tonight, I'll reduce my dose to 22.5mg for 10 days, then 15mg for 10 days and see how I feel then. I understand that lower doses are more effective for sleep. I welcome the views of other users. Like elainec33, I have thyroid/pituitary gland issues - in fact I never had a mental health issue until my GP over prescribed me with levothyroxine 2 years ago. I developed hyperthyroidism a few months later and went from 66kg to 55kg in a few months. Then an endocrinologist reduced my levothyroxine too much!! My thyroid is still not stable. If our thyroid is off kilter it can seriously affect our nervous system. The last 18 months have been hell for my husband and I. Yet, for the first 61 years of my life I was a confident, out going, sociable person. I flew overseas, alone, for my work and would confidently drive anywhere. Now, I'm a mere shadow of my former self.
stewart57904 owen87
Posted
hi did you have any anxiety on the 15 mg