mirtazapine withdrawl

I wanted to weigh in since I am also tapering Mirt.  The jump you took from 7.5 mg to 0 is a very large one.  I have been in touch with others who made the same jump but reinstated because the WD was so bad.  I am on a site called survivingantidepressants that recommends a 10%/month taper schedule to reduce suffering from withdrawal and increase your chances of success.  What I did was order a milligram scale, about $22 US from Amazon, and weigh out the amount.  From 7.5 mg you'd reduce by 0.75 mg. 

I am still at 22 mg, and have occasional diarrhea, cramps, headaches and burning/numbing sensations of the skin, but all very tolerable.  Mood is ok.

Be kind to yourself through WD, and know that neuro-emotions are what you are experiencing, not the real you.

Sorry for your suffering, it is a difficult AD to wd from.  However, it looks like you've done the right thing by tapering slowly since last winter, that will make a huge difference, unlike going cold turky.

I believe that going from 7.5 to nothing is not such a good idea for many people, although some get away with it and we are all very different.  I kn ow many fgolk on this forum have advised staying at 7.5 for 3 or 4 weeks and then alternating with 3.5 for 3 weeks before then staying at 3.5 for a month or more, or even 3.5 alternative nights.  

With you having been on this for so long I can't help but wonder if the above method would be better for you.  David has known much suffering since his cold turky and we are all grateful to him for staying on the forum to share his difficult journey.  

You can get Mirt/Remeron in 5mg I believe, so maybe that would be easy to break in half - at the risk of sounding boring may I repeat "going from 7.5 to nothing" is too much for most.

Wishing you well Kristine, and sending you warm wishes.

Search for Rose McKay on fbook, you won't find it searching from Mirt Support, you will see a red and white flower which is her cover photo.

x

I would like to share my story of reducing mirtazipine.. 

I started to use mirtazipine in January 2015, when it was chosen as a potential drug, which could help me to deal with my acute anxiety phase (with panic attacks) as well as prolonged acute (at least, that it what I was hoping for) insomnia period.

At the beginning I was prescribed Zoloft, which worked well for anxiety and panic but worsened my insomnia. At the end we stayed with mirtazipine, because, though it was not the best choice for me for the anxiety, it helped with my insomnia. 

I was also prescribe clonozepam (instead of xanax, which I was worried, was already my addiction) to deal with sudden episodes of anxiety.

I also would like to describe you a bit the context of the situation. I believe that all my problems were connected with major changes in my life, but as from February 2015 I became a long term student of a Chinese kung fu school, I decided that I slowly would reach the state when I do not use any medicine. Because the envirnoment for this seemed to be perfect. 

​For the first 3 months I was using 30 mg - my sleep was ok, my anxiety, if it appeared rarely, was manageable. Every 7-10 days I got a very bad night sleep but I could deal with it, with the help of clonazepam. I did not feel fresh in the mornings, but I did not mind, because I got the full night of sleep.

3 months ago I reduced my dosage to 15 mg, which was not a good dosage for me - I was having back my anxiety (including new weird expressions of social anxiety) as it was almost before I started to use a-depressants. My sleep got worse, I also got night terrors; however, I was dealing with it. More or less though with the help of clonazepam, which I started to use almost every second day.

7 days ago I went down to 7.5mg. The first interesting thing - my anxiety disappeared. But, but, but... For the first 2 nights my sleep was fantastic, because after many months it was the first time when I woke up totally refreshed and kind of rested. But starting from the 3rd night my insomnia started to creep back. I can still fall asleep (more or less) but I am waking up soaked in sweat every second hour, and for the last two nights, when I wake up around 3-4, I can not fall back asleep. Also, I feel so tired now.. Ironic thing is that I am in the kung fu school for half a year now, and I thought that it must be rather impossible to be a chronic insomniac here, with this training schedule and load. Maybe I will give myself more time to adjust, we will see. The problem is that I start to have sleep anxiety in the middle of the night. 

Hmmm, if I start to think about my emotional state during these days. I feel almost kind of high (emotionally freed), very light and with clear mind. Now I am wondering if this and the sudden feelings of falling in lovem which I experience during this last week, I can also write down to reduction of mirtazipine ) 

Anyway, it is not easy. I had previous phase of panic attacks and anxiety some 13 years ago, and then I solved it with the help of Fluoxetine. But then I did not have any insomnia.. It was very easy to find the right a-depressant then, and it was also easy to stop it.. But this time it is a bit like a nightmare. 

I would be looking forward to hear other stories and advices.

Kind regards,

​Kristine