Share your Mirtazapine rebound insomnia story
Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I am currently at the end of my Mirt taper but have trouble coming off it completely due to rebound insomnia. In my search for advice I found some relevant stories, but still don't get the full picture:
– how long does it last?
– if doing a taper prevents it from occurring, then what did I do wrong?
– what can I do to help speed up the recovery time?
It seems to be on the most common WD symptoms. I thought it would be helpful not only for me to have a thread about it.
KINDLY SHARE YOUR STORY WITH THE FOLLOWING DETAILS:
1. How long were you on Mirt? At what dose? Did you taper or CT? If taper – dose reduction or dose elimination? (a few success stories I found used elimination) At what dose did you stop?
2. Did you get rebound insomnia with dose reducion or only when stopping completely? How soon after did it hit you?
3. How bad was it? Most people just say "terrible". But is it "fell-asleep-after-3am" terrible or "didn't-sleep-for-3-nights-straight" terrible? How many hours did you get on average? What's the longest you went with no sleep? If you had insomnia before Mirt, how does it compare?
4. How soon did you notice improvement?
5. Did you find any alternative solutions that helped? (supplements, acupuncture etc)
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING!
Below is my story:
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1. I was on Mirt for about 4 month total, including taper (Jan-May 2017). Started at 15mg (for severe acute insomnia + anxiety brought on by insomnia). That dose was too sedating on the next day. Went down to 7.5mg after 2 weeks. Then down to 5mg after another 2 weeks. And from there on did a 0.5 reduction every 2 weeks or so. Finally jumped off after being at 0.5mg for 5 days.
2. I had some rebound insomnia with earlier tapers, but once I got below 4 mg it was pretty smooth (because of the lower reduction, I guess?). It would hit me sometimes at the night of the reduction, sometimes few days later, and once 2 weeks after the dose drop. When I jumped off back in June for the first 10 days I felt great. But slowly sleep started getting worse and worse: and at 2 week mark to the day it hit me hard.
3. After a dose drop I would get 1-2 rough nights (2-4h of sleep) then things would level and even improve. But after I jumped off, at 2 weeks off mark I got 0 hours a night. I panicked and reinstated at 1mg. I'm now trying a slower taper: over the last 2 weeks went 1 – 0.7 – 0.6 mg. Been having some massive ups and downs: from immediate relief at 1mg, followed by some good nights (7-8h), followed by "meh" nights (3-4h), followed by s****y nights (0h). Then some relief again. Etc.
Before Mir I would often get a garden variety insomnia: I'm an owl and a "busy brain". This rebound insomnia is quite different as in it feels very chemical: something it my body prevents me from sleeping. On some nights I would be nicely tired and relax, but as I'm drifting off to sleep, I would be awakened by this "wave": pounding heart, sometimes with a hot flash (not a panick attack!) I would shake it off, settle down, but it would happen again and again until I either fall asleep at a crack of dawn or not at all. Some nights I just feel bright awake even though I'm exhausted. I also wake up more than once after I fall asleep (luckily, for brief moments most of the time).
There's also an emotional component that goes with it: I can manage on 2-3 hours of sleep. But 0 hours night send me on an anxiety rollercoaster the next day. I'm a working mom, my days are long and hard, and after a really bad night I just feel powerless, frustrated and emotionally exhausted. I'm teary and fearful. Could this also be part of WD, with some anxiety creeping in?
4. I'm still in the midst of it, trying to figure out my next steps.
5. Here are a few alternative things I'm trying:
– 200-400mg L-THEANINE 1h before bed (seems calming before going to bed and I don't wake up as often during the night).
– 400mg Magnesium (don't know if it's helping, but was told it's good)
– fish oil, vitamin D, B in the morning (same – can't take if they help, but good for overall support)
– starting acupuncture next week
– starting HOLY BASEL to hopefully help with the cortisol spike awakenings
I really hope to read your stories to get some inspiration and power through this tough stretch!
1 like, 19 replies
switchman02263 maria15596
Posted
I reached out to Maria the other day and not heard back. Sometimes people need to get a break from this forum as it just may cause more fear and anxiety. I am 3 mounts off the MIRT and still having issues, mostly with insomnia, seems to get better then days of no sleep again it hits in waves. And it is very difficult to gage how much sleep I am getting as it is so broken up, dosing in and out all night long. The strange sensation I feel also in my body when trying to sleep that keeps me awake, Could be cortisol levels to high, I have read that Mirtazapine lowers cortisol , so when trying to get off it may go up during the withdraw process. Anyway I went to get mine checked, have not heard back yet from the test results. One thing I did notice is doxylamine or Benadryl never work during the first two months of the withdraws, I needed something stronger like Ambien which I did not take every day, the other night I tried a doxylamine (antihistamine) and I was able to sleep most the night. But also note this could have been a fluke as nothing has been consistent while withdrawing from this drug.
maria15596
Posted
Hi everyone, it's been awhile since I checked back. But wanted to answer those who asked how my story unfolded.
Back in July after gathering some info on the subject I decided to taper from 1.2 mg veeeeery slow and let my body adjust. I'm in no rush and if slower taper = less problems, then be it.
I got 0.1 mg pills from the compounding pharmacy and was reducing every 3-4 weeks. I'm currently at 0.7 mg. I had almost no problems with reductions so far: only one 0 sleep night in 5 month and a few bad nights (3-4 hours). I'll give myself few more months to go down to 0.1 mg and then try taking it every other day before I jump off (this is following one success story I read). I might still be hit with some withdrawal afterwards but I'm hoping it will be less severe since I give my body longer time to adjust.
I also take 1mg Melatonin before bed every night. And on a night I feel more wound up I try to take natural sedatives few hours before bed: Valerian Root or Tran Q. And I think I just grew more confident and freak out less when I can't sleep: I know the sleep will be back, like it's been before, I just need to ride this bad wave.
Hope this helps. And I will post an update once I'm off the meds completely.
Hang in there if you are fighting this fight!
sarah70443 maria15596
Posted
Hey... i know its a long time ago but what did you do and how are things now? i am in the same boat, only 3 weeks off and its a living hell. no idea what to do. i was advise wrongly by doctor so basically gone cold turkey. the way you have described the waking is spot on.
Sarah
Ramya86 sarah70443
Posted
Hi Sarah .. am in the same boat as you . Doctor advised to come off 15 mg without tapering saying it was the lowest dose. Its been 3 weeks and doesnt seem to be getting any better .