Coming off mirtazapine

Treatment and medication
1

Hi everyone 

Just looking for some advice I have been tapering down my mirtazapine for the last month , I was on 15mg cut down to 7.5 for two weeks and then to 3.75 for another two weeks , my plan was to now do 3.75 every other night for two weeks and then come off ? However I am feeling ok through the dosage changes I had slight sickness at first so I'm wondering if I could maybe drop down to 0 now ? Has anyone managed to do this ? I go on holiday in a week and a half and was hoping to be off by then

Also is it once your completely off mirtazapine that the worse side effects of WD kick in ?

Would appreciate some advice thankyou 

X

2

Hi rebecca:   Keep in mind that how my body processes Mirt, may not be the way your body does.  With that said, Since I thot Mirt was no longer working for me, I started to taper from 30 mgs pretty must the same as you did; altho, the first week, I alternated 30 mgs. one night and 15 mgs the next too, etc.

Took me about 6 weeks to get down to where I was ready to cut the 7.5 mgs tab in half.  Planned to take that 3.5 for two weeks and then off.  I thot I was going to pull this off without too many side effects but the second week on 7.5 and all the original symptoms that make me go onto the med in the first place came roaring back with a vengance.  On top of all the horrid physical side effects, I began seeing things out of the corner of my eyes that weren't there and feeling like there were people next to me when there wasn't  (like my b/f sitting on the sofa next to me -- had a very strong feeling he was there when he wasn't).  I would try to take a nap and would wake up with a jerk and every now and then my body would jerk.  I couldn't take it.  Scared me.

To make this long story short, I'm staying on 7.5 mgs. until I see my doc on Thursday when I want to tell him what I've typed here and I may consider going on Cymbalta  that also seems to deal with joint paid (which I have).  If he says go for it, I will just quit Mirt and start Cymbalta and put myself thru the starting side effects of yet another antidepressant.  I took Mirt for over 20+ years. 

So to answer your question, NO i was unable to get off Mirt without going thru terrible side effects which I could not handle.  So I'm still on the med.  Like I typed tho your body may handle withdrawal much better than mine did because I've been on Mirt for such a long time.  I guess my answer is experiment.  If you can kick it, try it.  You can always go back on the small  dose and try again.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

3

Rebecca, I was on the very similar situation, so let me share with my experience coming off from myrt.

1. Background:

I was on 15mg for 4 months and before that on 7,5mg for 1 month. After struggling with daily fatigue, lethargy and foggy brain (note that I am not talking about all other side effects that have been gone after 1st month), I decided to taper off. So after reading some horror-stories in this group, I came up with a plan.

2. May plan

-- 15mg -> 10mg, 4 days. No issues, except light panic attack on 1st day, but totally manageable,

-- 10mg -> 7,5mg, 4 days. No issues, sense of relief,

-- 7,5mg -> 3mg, 3 days. No issues,

-- 3mg -> 0, 2 days.

After 2nd day of a 0 doze, started feeling nausea that last for 3 days, but also manageable, not a big deal.... Since I did that taper during my trip to Europe from US, I used Ambien almost every day to fight a jet-lag. Now I am back to the US, and I expect some insomnia to come back soon. But so far things are good, so overall this was okay experience.

Lesson learned: just be careful at the very last step (when you' re stopping it). I would do 3mg -> 1mg to avoid nausea, this was a step I missed. 

4

Having a difficult time gettinf from 7.5 but trying for last few weeks to go slowly down.  Apart from the low moods and anxiety, i seem to have developed low back pain. Others seem to have it too.  Is your backache related to your mirtazapine do you think.?