Mirtazapine withdrawal - tips and experiences thread

I'm so grateful to have found these posts. In December of 2020 I had a major food allergy reaction and my allergist said I might be sensitive to some things for a bit. I was ok for the most part staying away from high histamine foods for 2 months. Then I was doing emdr on past ptsd then my mother in law died. I had a few mild panic attacks. So I was talking wellbutrin which was making me lose weight to the point where I had to get off of it. Then I was prescribed mirtazipine for sleep. Within 10 days I have violent reaction to a vitamin that resulted in tachycardia so severe I had to call an ambulance. The allergist thought this was not unusual due to the incident in December. For the next 4 months I began to have increased sensitivity to low histamine foods like oatmeal, coconut milk, apples, mung beans, and even quiona, and broccoli. I was tested by 2 other allergists and they could not figure out what was happnening. The docs just thought I was panicking while eating. I had about half a dozen severe tachycardia episodes where my heart rate would shoot above 150 and I thought I was going to die. Eating became so scary. I ended up doing an outpatient program for anxiety because the docs were telling me the food reactions were stress related. I was put on ativan twice a day and switched to klonopin. After 8 weeks I got off of them. Then as I increased the mirtzapine I had a panic attack so severe I was shaking and almost passed out. The next 3 days I had more panic attacks. I had kept immaculate date for months on when I took what at each time each day. So the only thing different was the increase in mirtazipine from 15mg to 22mg. Then I started reseaching mirtazapine more and found this posting and then on a withdrawl forum there were about 20 other expereinces of people becoming intolerant to various foods and supplements. I almost cried with relief to know I had was not crazy. I never put it together that the troubles increased shortly after starting the mirtaziapine because I was in so much grief. This medication also causes tachycardia and qt prolongation which thank god can be reversed. I stopped it immediately and went through 2 weeks of the most horrendous withdrawl where I thought I was going to die. I'm on day 25 off of it and have started zoloft. I can't sleep without a sleeping aid, but have faith it will return to normal. I reported it to the fda and told all of my doctors.

I wanted to share what helped me with the withdrawal symptoms. I took one dose of 7.5mg and I hated the sedation, as it made me drowsy and in bed for 3 days and then all the crazy withdrawal symptoms started. I had most of the ones I have seen listed at a severe level (although not vomiting but close a number of times), too many to mention and I don't want to place my focus on them. Its been a really tough 4 weeks and still calming my nervous system down from the shock.. This is what helped me and I was under the care of a herbalist for the detox and gaba.

1. Clearing the drug from system - 3 days of 1tsp of pectin 3 x a day. Min of 1tsp. This put me into a full detox.
2. 6 capsules of Pollitox capsules - more gentle liver detox and cornsilk and parsley tea for kidneys
3. For the crazy anxiety, heart palpitations, inability to sit still and racing thoughts - 750mg GABA 3 x day. I had to play around with dose as if you start too high it causes shortness of breath and tingling hands and feet. I found first thing when i woke up, mid-morning and late afternoon best for me, although people take at bed time for insomnia. This was a game changer for me, as the first time I took a dose all the anxiety stopped and I cried, as I thought to myself is this what normal people feel like? Although dose was a bit high as I had to lie down for a few hours as it made me so sleepy. Took a while to get used to feeling calmer at first as i was so used to anxiety - after 3 days I noticed that the tongue burning had calmed down.
4. Allowing myself to feel my feelings and let my body do what it need to do - cry be scared etc and just surrender to the waves of shaking, sweating, brain zaps when they came and breathe and smile (sends messages of safety).
5. Avoiding freak out (fear, frustration, anger, impatience) at symptoms - I avoided all message boards, googling my symptoms, as it was increasing my anxiety reading all the horror stories.
6. Lots of self soothing and mindset shift - this is only temporary, i am strong, i am capable, this too shall pass.
7. Did my best to get back on with my life and not focus so much attention on the wild symptoms - simple and its not fun or that easy.. At first I couldnt be indifferent, so I aimed not to freak out.
8. Focus on consistent messages of safety - Every activity I did, I would ask myself is this helping me to feel strong and capable or is it making me feel afraid and broken? I would do this with my thought patterns too and catch myself increasing my anxiety levels.
9. Support - told friends what i was going through and what support i wanted from them - to help calm me down if i started to freak out.
10. for the dark cloud in my head - 2 x heaped tsps of inositol morning and evening- really lifted my mood.

Hope this helps others.