Hi guys,
I quit Mirtazapine four weeks ago after a relatively slow taper. Not 10% every four weeks, but still, pretty slow. I feel better now, and sleep seems to come around as well. The past weeks have been rough and I am still not sure I won't have a setback, but right now I feel good and let's hope it stays this way. So far so good. My only question is regarding my weight and I am curious if anyone has an answer. I gained 3,5 kg (almost a stone) in weight. I remember two friends that took the same med also gained, but later shed the weight without any effort. But I am still 3,5 kg above my normal weight. Curious if anyone has any insights.
Hi I'm on mirtazapine and having a problem with waight too. Every 2 weeks I going up 1 lbs. So fast I gain15 lbs. I'm trying to come off this drug. Hate the waigh and give me headache this med.
Can I ask how much remeron you were taking and how you came off. I'm struggling to come off. I'm right now 3 mg.
Thanks
I took 15 mg. Weight gain is one of the biggest side effects. 3 mg is not so much, you're getting there!
You may need to some excercise to shed the weight. It's always easier to gain weight than lose it.
I have kept a record of my weight every day for 2 years and also my dose of mirtazapine when I was on it. I gained around 8kg when I was on 30mg of mirtazapine. I went on a strict diet with daily workouts and it took me a year to lose 6kg (whilst still on 30mg of mirt). When I started to come off mirtazapine I kept up my exercise but when I got down to 5 mg I ate my normal diet and gained some weight again (around 1kg) . I didn't start to lose weight until I had been off it completely for around 4 weeks, then I lost loads. I found out I had hyperthyroidism though and became very ill. I am now too thin. I am sure you will start to lose the weight soon so long as you eat healthily and not over eat.
Thanx for your reply evergreen, I just started to loose weight this week! Hope this goes on. I know weight gain is one of the biggest side effects, so I am not surprised you gained 8 kg. Actually very suprised you managed to loose weight while you were on Mirta.
How are you doing now? Do you feel better?
I'm not great really, but better than I was when I first went on ADs. I still suffer from insomnia and anxiety. However, I am pleased not to be on any antidepressants anymore. I do have to take temazepam at night to sleep, but find it gives me no side effects and it suits me really well.
Great to know that you're at last seeing light at the end of the tunnel as I'm now three weeks being "Mirt free" after tapering off 7.5 mg a moonth from 30 mg. I still feel wretched, worse than at any other stage of tapering down and just hope that given another week or two I will have turned the corner. It's a bad time of year to be doing doing this with the grey short days which get you down at the best of times! .
As far as your weight's concerned my experience has been different as when my dose reduced I had less and less appetite and correspondingly have shed the half stone I put on when I started. Maybe your weight loss is more graduate and will come with time.
Good luck.
I still use benzo's twice a week when I really can't sleep. But I am getting there. Still have some trouble sleeping sometimes, but I decided to not let it get me down too much.
I was thinking the same thing, if it was wise to quit around this time. But on the other side, I also had withdrawal midsummer, so I am not sure if the weather is the largest factor.
Anyway, I have been losing some weight. Might take some time though. Especially with all the Christmas eating. 😉
Slept very bad last night. Around 5, I managed to get 2,5 hours of sleep. I feel totally worn out now. The night before last night I slept, but woke like 5 times. I am going back to the doc to discuss reinstating. Maybe this is not the best time for me to hang in there.
If lack of sleep is your major problem maybe you could discuss something to help that with your doctor, rather than going back on Mirt? When you're so short of sleep it affects the whole day and how you cope with it.
Lack of sleep isn't, touch wood, a problem I've had since coming off Mirt, just feel nauseous for which I've some pills from the drs which help a bit and a general "down" feeling all the time which as you say isnt helped by the time of year and the dark days.
Going back on a low dose of Mirt maybe right for you, I went down that road a year ago having been off it for about six weeks and I'm determined not to go down that road again.
Good luck, let us know how things pan out when you've seen your doctor.
Both doc and I agree that taking a low dose of Mirtazapine again is an option, but we want to explore other options first. So we agreed that I will take melatonin (3 mg max) and Oxazepam to give me better sleep. If this works for a few nights I regain some strength hopefully to lift me over the dark cloud of December. I usually feel like halfway through January is already a totally different time. Much lighter.
For me this is an especially dark month due to a traumatic experience I had half December. Anyway, thanks for you support greta! How are you doing today? Hope you find your way up soon.
Glad to hear you've something that will hopefully help with your sleeping. Better option in my opinion than straight back on Mirt. I do hope it works for you and you get some good sleep.
I'm definitely very slowly improving each day but it's so much slower now I'm off Mirt completely than when I was just tapering. However well the day begins it only takes one small thing to confront me during the day to send me on a downturn as I had today. Laughably small things but but my coping ability, usually no problem, seems very thin. So the trauma you were talking about suffering must have really set you back.
I agree, let's get through to mid January and things hopefully will start to look better!
Take care, have a good Christmas.
You nailed it! Tapering seemed to be easier than quitting. I don't know why. Today I got a cold, and this seems part of withdrawal as well. I also looked up stories today and a lot of people agree 6 weeks seems to be the turning point where withdrawal seems to pass. But everybody is different, and if I have to reïnstate, I will.
I was hoping that last night I could just sleep without a benzo, but I couldn't. Had my third night this week of less than 5 hours sleep. But the night before that I slept really well. My mood is all over the place. But I survived Christmas today and tomorrow I have zero family obligations. So that's something.
I hope you are doing fine and you are enjoying Christmas.
I do hope you manage to establish a decent sleep pattern without going back on Mirt, you've come so far without it, but I do sympathise as I've found it difficult the last few days. I find Christmas such a trying time at the best of times and stuck in the middle of winter, we've both chosen a daft time to try and come off it!
You seem to be 2 weeks in advance of me and my local pharmacist said it's at least 4-6 weeks before you will see any improvement. At the moment my mood is so low a lot of the time but I'm hoping that with the lengthening and lighter days things will get easier. I'm going to try and hang on until the end of January which will be 8 weeks since quitting completely and if I'm still suffering I suppose I'll have to trek back to the GP.
Meanwhile I watch your posts with interest. Best of luck with tonight's sleep!
Hi Greta,
How are you doing now? I am still not my old self again, but to be honest, I can't really complain about my sleep. I slept 6 hours last night, and the two nights before that, slept 8 hours. That is actually pretty decent, although last night was broken up, because I was awake between 2 am and 5 am. I was sure I wasn't going to sleep again, but I had a glass of milk and some peanuts and still managed to sleep around 5 am. And the good news is, I didn't take a benzo or something like that, so that's definitely a plus. But I do feel 'off'. And that is worrying me.
My trackrecord of getting past the winter blues is not so great. I'm usually getting better halfway through february. I can hold on for a while longer, but next week I have to go back to work again, and I am definitely not looking forward to that. Hope you are starting to feel better again.
Hi Whosthatgirl
Great to hear your sleeping is so much better, specially as you've managed to avoid Benzo so far. Don't need to get hooked on anything else!
I know what you mean about the days, it varies, my mood is so low a lot of the time but for me I think a lot of it is the Christmas thing throwing everything out of sinc not to mention the long lonely evenings which really do my head in. I started taking Mirt two and a half years ago when my husband was diagnosed terminally ill and after he died needless to say I continued to need the support. I tried to give them up a year ago though, but due to a fairly fast taper (didn't know any better then!) and then not recognising the withdrawal symptoms, thought I was just going back to my old problems, I went back onto them.
Big mistake in retrospect but I have done more research since then and am sure that this is something I just have to get through as right now I'm determined not to go back on them. Like I said before though, really bad time for us to do it, but we are where we are.
Do keep in touch and let me know how you go, and I do hope you can handle life when you get back to work next week, as long as you can get some sleep I'm sure you'll be halfway there.
Hang on in there!
PS How's the weight loss going? Still losing the excess hopefully?
Hi Greta,
I am so sorry for your loss! Life can be so unfair and I am sure that's not helping. And Christmas is always a moment where the pressure of being happy and loved can weigh down on us. I personally hate Christmas. The pressure of being cheerful and 'the most wonderful time of the year'. Are you kidding me? Most wonderful time of the year is clearly summer, not winter! ;-)
Anyway, I am feeling better these last few days. Sleeping is better again and I am sleeping full nights again of 8 to 9 hours sleep. Who would've thought. Like I wrote you in my other post, I also use the 5-htp (50 mg which is a really low dose) and light therapy. This helps my mood and it helpst me sleep.
Weight loss is kinda stable. I won't be losing weight this week with all the eating, but I am def. not gaining and I did loose some weight last week. I can go hours without eating again, so I am sure I will lose the Mirta weight soon.
Hang in there Greta. We already had the solstice, so it gets a little bit lighter every day. 