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If anyone could share some of their experiences and perhaps advise on when this nightmare is going to end I'd really appreciate it.
I’m 34, otherwise healthy, started Mirtazapine (in some sense against my instincts) about two years ago due to severe anxiety (no depression at all) and panic attacks. My Doctor prescribed Mirtazapine 30mg, to be tapered upwards from 7.5mg.
I remember the first few days I felt a weird sensation when swallowing (simply felt like uncoordinated swallowing, where the food/drink seemed to be going at the wrong velocity towards its target). However, after a while and increasing dosage this symptom vanished more or less.
Fast forward about a year and a half forward, and (apart from helping my IBS by making me numb) - the drug was totally useless anxiety-wise. I was still feeling very bad. True, I had not gotten many panic attacks, but I found that they were just transposed with a very generalized anxiety which I believe (self-diagnosed) had almost become a phobia: I became afraid of trying new things altogether from fear of having e.g., an allergic reaction (never had any of those ever in my life and never feared them before either). I had quit sports because I could not stand the sensations involving an increase in heart rate or blood flow. Done all of the tests and all is fine with my heart and everything else for that matter. It’s all in the head but the head controls your body and your mind.
The Mirtazapine just made me numb; I could feel less love to my fiancée (now wife!) and cared less about the world in general. Realizing that I had just become more anxious (if less panicky) the Doc upped the dosage to 45mg. What a disaster. More than a month afterwards I was just getting more and more anxious on a daily basis.
Eventually, AMA, I decided that going on Mirtazapine was the biggest mistake of my life. I started tapering, very VERY slowly. I think I went from 45 to 15mg with relative ease, taking more than two weeks at a time to decrease the dosage by 3-4mg at a time. Each time, I would feel great for 2 days, then start developing quite severe cramps and feel lousy for another week or so, then I’d get slightly better. Knowing that I am really ultrasensitive to any change in physiological parameters I tapered from 15mg to 3.75mg in a turtle’s pace: 3.75mg at a time, with more than a month (and even two sometimes) between each taper. I have a PhD in Chemistry so I know what I’m doing. Again, every time, after 2-3 victorious days where I’d feel like I’ve conquered mount Everest, I’d then feel lousy for 4-8 days; but then things would seem to be a bit better. Weirdly, at the lower doses of 7.5mg and 3.75mg I started again experiencing swallowing difficulties; I started choking on water and became very mindful of my swallowing dyscoordination. Still I felt altogether quite alright – and I believed that the remainder would be similar.
How wrong was I. I have come off it completely exactly two weeks ago. Again 2-3 days where I felt fine, then a few more days with cramps. Then, good old panic hit, with terrible anxiety that just keeps getting worse and worse. I feel terrible weakness, zero energy, I have withered due to loss of appetite (since when I eat my stomach just cramps a few hours later; actually not so bad since I had put on some weight during my time on Mirtazapine). I feel completely overwhelmed by the symptoms: every time there is something new. I feel weird tingling sensations and I have strange feelings of pressure in my stomach. I get dizzy a lot and then just feel weak. My muscles are sore without any reason. I was certain that these issues would resolve in a few days; Mirtazapine’s half-life is quite long and I know that receptors can take 2-3 weeks to get re-modulated (actually that’s why they always say that the beneficial effects of Mirtazapine will take around 2-3 weeks to become effective when you go on it). But I did not expect this gradual and horrible worsening of symptoms over the last 14 days. I have had to start treatment with Benzo’s (as needed, I try to avoid them but sometimes there’s just no way around it) and they seem to help in some instances, whereas in others they only seem to do a moderate/poor job at managing the symptoms. For the first time in my life yesterday I suffered from ED. Never happened to me before and despite a very supporting and loving wife, I felt that was yet another crushing blow. The weird thing is that all these things are not getting me depressed – just really anxious.
I can only hope that things will start to get better. I have no idea when these things would begin to get back on track. Doctors seem to be quite oblivious to my suffering, not really believing that withdrawal could be so powerful yet not finding ANYTHING else wrong. The situation is really frustrating.
One thing is clear to me: I’m never, EVER going back on this horrendous drug. It was a huge mistake beginning with it, and for all of you who need these kind of drugs: ask your GP or Psychiatrist what are the withdrawal difficulties expected for the medication. I know I sure wish I had asked it.
If anyone could share whether they’d experienced similar withdrawal symptoms and how long they’d persisted, I’d really appreciate your comments. I hope that by posting this someone else will also benefit as the internet searches are really frustrating as well.
4 likes, 536 replies
manuelmanuel n95192
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manuelmanuel n95192
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n95192 manuelmanuel
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Before I tell you what I did, let me just reiterate that I am not an MD and anything I write is from my personal experience and not based on medical training (although I am a researcher in the Neurosciences...).
My slow slow tapering began after an increase in dosage from 30mg (which I had been on for around a year and half) to 45mg (which I had been on for less than two months). I started by testing the effects upon going down by 7.5mg at a time, but very, very slowly. I found that at the higher dosages, going down was not so terrible and after around two weeks I could taper another dosage. Going down like this from 45-->15 took around 3 months or so. The real problems started when I started tapering from 15mg to 0. Since I figured that what really matters is the precentage in which you decrease rather than only the actual dose, I started going from 15mg downwards by 3.75mg at a time. This already started to be much more difficult than going from the 45-->15... and the side effects were not good. I therefore took it very slowly, each time staying on the new dosage, sometimes for more than a month, until I felt that things were more or less OK, then I'd take another dose off. This lasted around 4-5 months until I reached 3.75mg.
Now - 3.75mg is less than 12% of what you'd normally take (30-45mg) and I stayed on that for 2 months, and I felt rather OK for over 1 month before I dared to stop altogether. Could be that I should have made an effort to go downwards to 3.75/2 but I felt that given my 73kg, that would really amount to a tiny increment.... and I also take into consideration that the (idiot) psychiatrist I was seeing suggested the following taper plan: "take 30mg for two weeks then 15mg for another week, then stop completely." It's quite unbelievable and it's hard for me to imagine how badly I'd feel had I done that.
In any case, it's really tough, but now I feel I have to ride it out. To me it also appears that since I stopped any form of sports or exercise, all these issues are exacerbated...
I was also thinking on an interesting fact: just as the "beneficial" effects take 2-3 weeks to appear when on Remeron, it could well be that the worse of the withdrawal effects would also appear around these times. I just hope they won't persist...
All the Best
manuelmanuel n95192
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deborah52506 n95192
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remeron or mirtazapine as its called im on a very low dose half of the 15mg or 7.5, and i won't go any higher, there should only be withdrawals for a few days beyond that if your feeling down you need to replace this with another antideppressant.
Deborah A.Davis, B.A.,M.A.
esther07884 deborah52506
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norma72045 n95192
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dave1948 norma72045
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norma72045 dave1948
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dave1948 norma72045
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norma72045 dave1948
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kristine58413 norma72045
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jean87388 n95192
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Trouble is there are so may side effects when coming off this drug that you don't know if it is the drug or something else.
I found a group called CITA - Council for Information on Tranquillisers and Antidepressants. they have a helpline and they have been heaven sent for me as, at times I have felt so wretched that I have considered going back on the drug. They have a book called Back to Life which is so helpful. Although I know I have a long way to go I do have the odd few days when I feel that I am improving so my advice is to hang in there and take each day at a time.
manuelmanuel jean87388
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jo97038 jean87388
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well done for sticking it out. May I ask what was your final dose of Mirtazapine? It's helpful for others to know when withdrawing themselves.
I too contacted CITA, they are brilliant and a godsend, especially as GP's don't acknowledge WD's, so you can end up feeling alone!
many rhanks
jo x
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