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Mirtazapine withdrawal - tips and experiences thread

Posted , 44 users are following.

evergreen
evergreen

This is a follow up thread to 'Coming off mirtazapine', for people to share their experiences and tips, and give support to one another.

Mirtazapine is a very powerful drug and an exceptional antidepressant which works much more quickly than others, sometimes within days. It has many very good attributes, but also has some bad side effects such as weight gain for some, which means there are many people trying to withdraw from it.

What most doctors don't tell you, is that it is not an easy drug to come off. You will usually be advised to halve your dose for two weeks and then come off it. Sometimes, people are told to just stop it and start another AD with disasterous results. This thread is for those people who have successfully withdrawn from mirtazapine to tell others how they did it, or for those currently part way through the journey, or for those who are facing the withdrawal process and are daunted by the thought of it.

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  • JD2307
    JD2307 evergreen

    Posted

    Finally i took the 0.9 dose and in an hour the anxiety and nausea lifted and i could sleep peacefully. so i think it is withdrawal symptoms that were plaguing me. I took it because i have to go to work today and i cannot go another night without sleep and pumped with anxiety. Thank you for helping me through this. I feel so tired today because of anxiety and lack of sleep the past three days but i will survive. done this before. it's a long drive to my work. i will stick to this dose for some time and see what happens.
    • evergreen
      evergreen JD2307

      Posted

      Good thinking. a few weeks at least and then come off 0.1mg at a time like I did. You can make your own liquid to accurately do this.
  • richard19872
    richard19872 evergreen

    Posted

    Hi everyone,

    Just wanted to share a little success story.I suffered from depression for many years which unknown to me then was due to my cheating wife. The doctor gave me Mirt 15mg which I was on for a year. Like a lot of you I have never slept as good. However the weight gain and cravings were hard to control. I spoke to my GP about coming off it and about the side effects, he told me if you had broke your arm you would still be in pain if you took the pot off early, the same with an antidepressent. Well with my problem wife now out of the picture and a year on I thought it was time to try and come off. My GP said to do 1 15mg every other day for 2 week. During this time i felt groggy occasional bad headaches and a very short temper. After 2 weeks my GP said I could now try and come off them totally. I stopped taking them from that day and felt pretty good expexting some more side affects. 3 weeks on I feel fantastic and  no waves of depression, feeling low or bad temper. Hope this can give someone a bit of hope that it can be done, I know everyone is different perhaps I was lucky. xx

     

    • Staz
      Staz richard19872

      Posted

      Good to here Richard. I hope things continue well for you. I've seen plenty of other forums where people come off of AD's including mirt no problem but these people don't tend to post much giving the impression everyone who's been on mirt has withdraw problems. Some do and the advice on here is good for those that do especially from Evergreen. I'm going to go slow on WD just in case. No prizes for comming off more quicklywink
    • evergreen
      evergreen richard19872

      Posted

      Thanks for that, Richard. It is very good to hear that you came off the mirt without problems. Not many people stick around to post good news about coming off ADs like mirtazapine and it can give an unbalanced view about coming off which can terrify people and stop them even trying. You came off very fast. I tried to once and failed due to terrible WDs, but came off quite easily when I took it more slowly. Just shows how different we all are. I hope you continue to be well.
    • kathy50523
      kathy50523 richard19872

      Posted

      Excellent news Richard.  I hope I am as lucky.  I have only been on Mirt for 2.5 months.  Was up to 30mg for 16 days then tapered down to 22.5 for about 17 days and now at 15mg for 6 days.  I feel so tired, headaces, and nausea.  Are these some you exoerienced.  I also take clonazepam for the anxiety and seeing a Natural Path doctor that has given me Passion Flower to take with my Klon.  It is a natural benzo.  So don't know whiich one is making me so tired probably combination.  So you are on no meds now?
    • kathy50523
      kathy50523

      Posted

      As well would like off the Clonazepam and going more of the natural way.
    • richard19872
      richard19872 kathy50523

      Posted

      Hi Kathy,

      I never had more than 15mg, so not sure what its like tapering off more. But coming off 15 i had headaches that paracetomol didnt shift (i rarely get headaches and tablets always sort it) and had the odd groggy day too. However these were intermittent and i didnt feel low so i persivered. Over 3 weeks now and i still feel great, but i had an idear i was ready to come off. For me when i started on 15mg the side effects took around 2 month to subside so in my opinion dont expect a quick fix. Hope you feel well soon x

    • kathy50523
      kathy50523 richard19872

      Posted

      Thanks Richard I am sure I will do fine just this fatigue and headaches at night get to me as I don't usually get heahaces.  Great you are doing well. I should have got off sooner as was not working for me.
  • JD2307
    JD2307 evergreen

    Posted

    Hi!

    I've reinstated the .95 mg Mirt after suffering for a week since i stopped Mirt. It has taken 2 weeks to feel o.k. again after reinstating. I found out that there are some triggers that make withdrawal worse for me like caffeine in any form, even chocolates, especially brownies, all foods that i cannot tolerate like lactose, raw veggies, including salads, greasy or difficult to digest foods, eating too late in the night, especially sugary foods. Things that help me are going to bed on time at the same time, sticking to a routine, prayer and getting together with friends and distracting myself in some constructive way.

    • evergreen
      evergreen JD2307

      Posted

      Interesting observations. Thank you. I am pleased you are starting to feel better now. Two weeks is an unusually long time, but at least you are a bit better now. Good luck next time you try.
  • kevin85212
    kevin85212 evergreen

    Posted

    Ok so I've been on 45mg for about nearly 5 weeks and told the dr that my symptoms got worse and there advise was wait till I see phychiatrist I really want to taper of this medication and thinkn the longer I'm on it the harder it will become

  • kerrynmatt
    kerrynmatt evergreen

    Posted

    Hi.I have been using 15mg of metazerpine since last September.. I halved this to 7.5 in December.. I decided to just stop this last Monday and was fine until the weekend.. When I just crashed.. Nausea, anxiety, dizzyness, no appetite and shakes...

    OMG It was just awful so went to my Dr's who told me to go back on 7.5 until I feel better for a couple of months then reduce to take 7.5 every other day for 2 weeks then every 3 days for 2 weeks then off... I pray this works as I couldn't bare going through this again... He did give me the option to ride it out but couldn't say how long it would take...

    I hope I made the right decision..

    .

    • Calmer
      Calmer kerrynmatt

      Posted

      Hi, I hope you dont mind me replying.  7.5 mg is of course too high of a dose to just stop ... have you retaken the 7.5 mg dose now?  

      I would stay on that dose until you feel stable again if I were in your shoes, at least 2 weeks.  I'm sorry to say that doctors, p.docs even, do not have the experience or know how to taper the Mirtazapine/Remeron, and that advice your doc has given you is a little harsh.  

      It is better to taper no more than 10% every 3-4 weeks, some even do a 5% every 2 weeks, either using Mirtazapine Sol Tablets to make a liquid - and which are readily available, or Liquid Mirt which is available only in the UK, or by crushing tablets to make a liquid.

      All the above is available through this forum, click on my name and follow the links under my status, or give us a shout for more advice. x

    • Calmer
      Calmer evergreen

      Posted

      Bless you Evergreen.  I hope you are OK?  Have you been following the article in the Daily Mail this week regarding Insomnia?  It is written by Professor Jason Ellis, Director of the Northumbria Sleep Research Laboratory ~ pretty impressive.  I think we can access this on-line through the Daily Mail site; you will need the sleep diary, and as far as I can make out they are sending it out free of charge smile  

      xx

    • evergreen
      evergreen Calmer

      Posted

      No, I hadn't seen that, thanks. I'll have a look. I'm still on the temazepam every night. I am now having other sleep problems brought on by the omeprazole I have been put on (because of my IBS complaints). Since taking it I have had continuous dreaming all through the night, sometimes nightmares and sleep walking, lol. My BMI has droopped to 18, but finally today I am feeling some relief so maybe the omeprazole is kicking in or it may be that I am also avoiding lactose, who knows. But I'm eating again. How are you doing?

    • Calmer
      Calmer evergreen

      Posted

      Hi

      WOW 18 ... thats very low, have you not been able to eat at all?  Thats sure to affect your sleeping too.  My you have been through the wars !

      I'm doing alright really, its about 3 weeks since I stopped Mirt' now and all's well ... I understand I can expect my system to take a little time to return to normal, whatever 'normal' is, I was waking very early to begin with - Phenergen worked well for me, I was taking 25 mg before bed and 25 mg if I woke and was unable to get back to sleep, but now its just one 25 mg in the middle of the night ... so I now have to try and stop this.  Not really worried as its only anti-histamine and its early days yet.  I remember very well that the Phenergen didn't work for you - ugh ..., horrid for you.

      Hope you manage to increase a little with the BMI, make you feel stronger then hopefully.  Take care, nice to chat again, been a while since we were both tapering together x

       

    • evergreen
      evergreen Calmer

      Posted

      Good to hear that all seems well since coming off the mirt. Yes, the phenergen was a nightmare for me, although I think I took 50mg so mmaybe it was just too much. I'm not going to try less though! I know that eventually I am going to have to taper off the temazepam. I just don't feel ready just yet as have a lot of horrible stress going on right now. Just one thing at a time. x

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