Posted , 7 users are following.
Has anyone any info about taking 5-HTP to help with low mood and slight anxiety during withdrawal.
I am into my fourth week since quitting Mirt completely after a pretty slow taper. 5-HTP has been recommended to help with withdrawal symptoms and help stabilise seratonin levels.
Any comments please?
0 likes, 25 replies
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toni47195 greta63936
Posted
I am so happy you have quit mirtazapine. I am myself tapering since last July and am currently at 5.7mg. Planing to go lower today.
Anyway if you have only problems with anxiety in the morning and the sleep you can try a combination of Vitamine C and Magnesium at night before sleep.
Normally the anxiety in the morning is due to cortisol levels going up in order to give us power to face the day in front of us. Due to Mirt and a hurt CNS most probably your cortisol levels in the morning are higher then normal so in order to counteract that the Vitamine C is very productive.
Try this combination before 5-HTP... you can also take natural 5-HTP and Tryptophan by eating turkey meat which has big amounts of it. If you feel better than you can try concentrated 5HTP.
ANyway it is your choice. Stay the course of natural remedies do not go again on the AD-s way.
Good Luck.
greta63936 toni47195
Posted
Hi Toni
Thanks for your post, I already take magnesium but hadn't heard about the vitamin C aspect. I've just been reading up about in online and you certainly seem be on to something as far as my a.m. anxiety is concerned and I shall give it a try.
What dose of Mirt were you on when you started tapering? You seem to be doing it very sensibly, nice and slowly, which seems to be the secret. I reduced from 30 mg over four months and didn't really run into problems until I stopped completely. It's as though as long as your brain is being drip-fed with even the smallest amount it adjusts but throws a wobbly when it stops completely! I shall interested to hear how it goes as you gradually reduce even more.
Best of luck and, as you say, no way am I going back down the AD route again!
toni47195 greta63936
Posted
HI Greta
In case you need to read my story and know the torments that i have gone through this whole process there is a topic which i started and you can find it on this link.
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/weaning-off-mirtazapine-531188
I was on 15Mg when i started for two months and it literally did nothing for me as i dropped three months of benzo use and wd from Benzos is terrible. Anyway Mirt wd has not been a walk in the park. My life has changed a lot during this process and i am trying to catch up as i go out of the Mirt way. Currently i am going by lowering while carefully listening to my body. the worse dose for me was 7.5 and 7.2 Mg which made me really depressed and lethargic. No way i could use my brain for normal day to day tasks. Even through all this i managed to hold down my job (ofcourse with a lot of troubles) and some more started a new business at my hometown with the help of my father in law and my parents.
You have gone very fast from 30Mg to 0 and i really wish you will not face problems with this later. Anyway for the morning anxiety which was almost a trademark of all my spring and summer days i really advice Vitamine C. It is very natural and top it up with eating a lot of Oranges and Mandarins in the evening. It will protect u from seasonal flu but at the same time has cortisol regulating properties which will lead to less anxiety in the morning.
Try not to focus on WD... i was focused on it almost 100% of the time and it really took its toll. Currently i am trying to shift my focus to other things and i seldom enter into these forums. I enter time after time to just write a short update of the levels where i am in and go out.
Hang on Greta... you re not out of the woods yet. Just remember you will face windows and waves until the body clears itself of all the toxins it has accumulated. ANytime you re in a wave just say to your self "it is only a wave and it will pass" and after a good night's sleep it will eventually pass. I take a walk of around 7 KM every night after work and then take my dose at around 9.30Pm, drink my magnesium and vit c combo at around 10... eat a banana (it has natural melatonin) and then go to sleep. I haven't had a sleepless night since august as far as i remember. There are night i only sleep 6 hours but there are night when i sleep 7-8 hours with just a toilet wake up interruption.
One more thing if you re having troubles with waking early and then not being able to sleep again due to rumination or anxiety if you wake up at night to go to the toilet do not turn up any light and do not watch any phone or light emeting device. It is well known that as long as your eyes sense some sort of light the level of melatonin (sleep hormone) in the body drops really fast and this causes sleep not to return after the wake up.
Just some tips from me sis. Hope you will be safe. Just take care of your body. You can try 5-HTP as i was also inclined to try it but why risk while all the 5-htp and tryptophan you need you can get from adding turkey meat into your table.
Be patient we will make it.... :-) All the best and keep in touch.
greta63936 toni47195
Posted
Hi Toni Thanks for all the advice, the morning anxiety is becoming briefer and more manageable and I'll certainly try the vitamin C. As far as food such as turkey being beneficial, shall certainly try this but since giving up Mirt my appetite has plummeted along with my weight so although my eating is healthy quantities are small.
Considering the advice re getting off Mirt when I first tried it a year ago was to taper from 30 mg to zero over about 6-8 weeks (no wonder I failed and ended back on it) doing the same thing over four months seemed to me very acceptable under advice from a later GP. However we are where we are and all in all after 5 weeks off it, apart from the a.m. anxiety and slightly down mood some days, I seem to be coping and worth hanging on in there but I agree knowing what I know now from other peoples experiences it was still not an ideal way of doing it.
"Windows" of mental normality pop up now and again if only briefly so I'm sure I'll get there. Thanks for your interest.
gary59219 greta63936
Posted
i am coming off 7.5mg mirtazapine trying to taper and struggling getting sleep. i can take the other withdrawal symptoms but need help getting sleep. are there supplements that help? i thiught abiht 5-HTP to supplemnt the serotonin which js how infoubd this thread. taking magnesium and valerian and antihistimnes like unisom and hydroxyzine has gotten me down but it is nit ideal the dosage if antihistimes inhave ti take and side effects