New on remeron want to stop

Thank you Kelly. I've had the phone to phone convo with dr and the best advice was come into the office.....which is next week. I'm stopping it on my own since it's only been 3 days and if we both feel it's best I'll restart or go on another med

Thank you for the well wishes Calmer. The remeron would have taken the place of the benzo and Xanax wo any WD symptoms but I'll restart both and stay off the Mirtz until I see the Dr.

To be honest, reading some of these threads has made me more than a little scared of this med. I'm leaning more and more toward the cymbalta my regular dr wanted me in last year.

It took me almost a full year to taper off benzos after taking them for every day for 1.5 years or so, back around 2002. Ugh. 

My second doctor put me on mirtazapine to get through ativan withdrawal, along with switching me from ativan to valium because it has a much longer half life so it's easier to quit. (Shorter half lives are much more difficult to stop, benzos with longer half lives like Xanax and Ativan are harder to quit.) My original doctor gave me ativan for panic attacks and told me to take it as needed. Which I did, with impunity. I had to take more and more to feel the effects because I didn't know it was addictive and how quickly your body builds a tolerance against it. Benzo withdrawal, I'm telling you, is hell on earth. That is true, debilitating, want-to-die, going-insane withdrawal.

After starting my benzo taper I still went through withdrawal, but with mirtazpaine I could manage it, the panic attacks stopped and I could sleep. Since then I always keep one benzo on me at all times, just in case, but I've only taken maybe 3 benzos in the last 12 years. And now I make sure I research everything I put in my body. I'm still so angry that my first doctor never warned me about benzos—I was young and I was panicking all the time after my dad died and I trusted my doctor completely so it didn't even enter my mind that it could be unsafe.

Conversely, I quit mirtazapine cold turkey and had to only deal with maybe 10 days of increased anxiety and general weirdness. Also, I didn't just come off an SSRI and I wasn't taking any other ADs or anxiety meds.

As far as reading scary stuff in this forum, remember, 99.99% of the time, people come here because they're having a hard time on whatever med they're on. They're at the end of their rope and they're desperate for relief and peace. So 99.99% of the posts you read here are going to be from people freaking out, thinking mirtazapine is ruining their lives, when, in fact, it's usually depression or anxiety symtoms coming back after they stopped taking mirtazapine, or because they stopped taking another drug before going on mirtazapine, or they're taking another drug concurrently.

In my experience, I have yet to meet anyone online or in person that had a hard time starting mirtazapine if they weren't taking or coming off of any other drug. It appears that, at least with the people I've spoken too, the problems seem to arise when another drug is or was recently in your system. I'm not saying mirtazapine problems don't exist. I'm just saying that it's generally accepted to be better tolerated than SSRIs—esepcially because there are no sexual side effects like with Paxil—and that if you have anxiety there may not be a better, more effective, faster-acting, non-addictive drug on the planet than mirtazapine.

Sorry that was so long!

You've made some great points Mud. Sigh. I have a lot to think about not the least of which is this major depressive disorder I've been diagnosed with. You're def right about ppl coming here to mostly complain about their experiences with a drug and seek out advice from others.

It's so scary trying new drugs and even tho we know we need them those2 horrible words scare us to death.....side effects....wreaks havoc with our minds, which at least in my case is already compromised. Pile on top of that are Drs too busy to adequately monitor and treat patients and there you have it. The whole reason for this board! After my psych ER overnight stay I was told to schedule an appt w psychologist and psychiatrist - well I was put on a 30 patient waiting list. So off to my regular dr. I feel like I'm in a zoo.

Sorry for my long response. Thanks for listening everyone, it does help to know someone out there is like me-I'm not alone.

Hi Mud

Thats an interesting angle, folks sensitised nervous system due to swapping and changing AD's, Benzo's, Z drugs ... I also believe that once a person has a sensitised nervous system due to incorrect use, upping and downing the dosages, or tapering having an adverse reaction, well they seem to be the hardest affected and need special care.

And Tess, I hear what you are saying when you say "remeron would have taken the place of the benzo and Xanax wo any WD symptoms" I doubt it would be that easy in mho, different drug.

Its the paragraph when you said  ridiculously high I then took the second half and it didn't help at all. I only slept 4 hours. 

the 'ridiculously high' part sounds like a reaction, maybe I'm wrong, not saying you were, just to be aware that taper would be needed after being on so long - just worth noting, just in case ...

Hmmm interesting. I don't know. My daughter said maybe it was bc I had slept so much the past 2 days before that I just wasn't tired but I was feel like I was high. Great mood, talkative, not in the least sleepy.... Wanted to watch tv and talk all night. So was well rested or high? I took the Xanax bc my thoughts were racing and I insisted on staying in bed. I don't have an answer.