Side effects after being off mirtazapine for about a month?

The hallucintions that are currently repeatedly occuring are the appearance someone, it's clearly a human but with no face and I can feel them push me down and hold me, like putting a lot of pressure on me and I can feel and smell their breath. They vanish and then I hear screeching in my ears.. It happened three times last night

I don't know if maybe mirtazapine was keeping these issues at bay without me knowing and now I'm no longer on them they've decided to attack me full force. I'm very confused and unnerved..

I think what you could be experiencing are night terrors and sleep paralysis. Google sleep paralysis. Basically, when we are dreaming the body goes into a type of paralysis which prevents us from acting out our dreams. Sometimes, often at times of stress or mental conflict/guilt/depression, this mechanism can go wrong so that the person wakes up but is still in paralysis. This makes the brain try to make sense of it by 'inventing' something which is holding them down. Often these things can be terrifying apparitions such as demons, and various other attackers. But it is all generated from the imagination and feels very real. I think you probably need to be referred to a sleep specialist. Of course there are other possibilities such as psychotic depression or even schizophrenia. You need to go back to your GP for a referral.

My guess is the condition, probably sleep paralysis was kept largely at bay by the very sedating mirtazapine, and now you no longer have the drug, these problems have resurfaced.

I came off it by lowering the dosage over a period of months, I tried cold turkey but the insomnia and paranoia was unmanagable and then used a sleep aid for a few nights but have been sleeping on my own without help ever since. I experienced no withdrawal that was evident (thankfully).

I was on 45mg for about six months then asked for 30mg but after a while I began to break those tablets in half and the month before I stopped taking them completely I was literally breaking them into quarters (as well as can be done I guess). My doctor offered no help when I asked to come off them they never gave me any benefit apart from allowing me to sleep relatively peacefully

Thank you for you reply and help!

Thank you for your reply.

The first hallucinations (at age 19) began just as shadows and whispering in my ear completely out of the blue and it terrified me, they lessened whilst I took mirtazapine (I would see the odd shadow and sometimes get confused with if I was dreaming or not) and now they are more sinister. I had the same hallucination three times last night.. A person with a blurred face knelt on me and held me and I could feel them and smell their breath and once they evaporated my ears heard screeching vibrations, if that makes sense? It happened three times.. Nothing like I have ever experienced before and I will admit I am very nervous about going to sleep tonight.

i am not sure if you believe in spirits etc, but i think it may be what you are experiencing

When someone is being terrified by hallucinations, this kind of comment is going to make them feel much worse.

how can i make them feel worse? society has taught us not to believe in spirits etc,, sort of brain washing.

No, you are scaring her by suggesting that it is something supernatural attacking her when it is a very common sleep disorder. Please go and google sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. Loads of people have them. I have had some of them in the past when I was going through a lot of mental conflict. I dealt with it by realising it was my own mind creating the apparitions and that I could therefore control it myself. I have only had one such experience in the last ten years. And it was in my current home which is over 100 miles away from where I had my previous experiences. Sleep paralysis is a terrifying affliction, and the last thing a sufferer needs is for someone to suggest that the attacker is a real spirit. Whatever you choose to believe, have some compasion for the OP.

Also, research has shown the condition is often genetic, and indeed, my mother also suffers from them occasionally.

okay, end of discussion... how do i delete this crap lol

I personally don't believe in them (though my entire family believes that there is something out there) but I am a very cynical person. I can completely understand though that if someone experienced this and believed that yes it would probably seem like an actual real thing happening.

I'm very stuck in my ways of 'for it to exist I have to know it's there' kind of thing, but I do understand what you mean. 

I asked my Mom and apparently I had hallucinations when I was younger too, to the point where I would scream because I was so scared. She told I could hear things shooting across the ceiling and I could see sharp movement of light or someting.. I completely forgot these even happened. She asked the doctor and he said yes - night terrors but it wouldn't be a problem for long and left it at that..

Will I be dealing with this for the rest of my life? Nothing has triggered this apart from stopping meds.. The way I see it, as long as I'm free of medication my mind can do what it wants is this right do you think?

Because mirtazapine is so sedating, stopping it can make you hyper-alert and it can take quite some time for you to return to a normal state. So it will probably get a little bit better slowly. However, as you have suffered from these kinds of experiences all of your life, then the actual cause of them cannot be the mirt. I really would urge you to go to your GP about what you are experiencing because it sounds as though you may need some further investigations. Living with these scary things happening to you is no way to live. It really does need investigating so please go to your doctor.

Yes, it seems to be the best option now. Better safe than sorry. ha thank you for your replies.

Each to their own though my experiences are different to others

It may surprise you to learn that I actually do believe in ghosts. I even write novels about them which sell quite well. But in this case I do not believe the spirit world has anything to do with what the op is experiencing.