I have been on Mirt for about 5 weeks now.
I started on 30mg but the side effects are horrendous for me - it started with just a few aches, that gradually got worse by the day until every muscle in my body hurt (even my fingers and toes) and had put on almost a stone in weight. After 3wks on 30mg I had a follow up appointment with the Doctor, after mentioning all the problems I was having, he decreased my dose to 15mg and said a reduced dose would help with the side effects - it did for a few days, but the past week all of the above side effects have returned and are again getting worse each day.
I am going to stop taking them. Yes - I do feel I need something for my low moods - but my Doctor was reluctant to change the medication and the side effects are making me feel terrible physically.
So without the lectures of 'go back to your dr' etc etc, I am after some advice on how to stop taking this medication? Do I just stop? Do I lower my dose again, or take the dose every other day and over how long a time period?
Hi there. You should always taper off very gradually from antidepressants and similar drugs.
Cut your 15 mg tablet in half with a sharp knife and try that for a week or two. If you are feeling okay, you can try cutting the half in half, and try that for a week or two.
In my experience, it will take a while to get the stuff out of your system. When I stopped taking 7.5 mgs without tapering down further, I suffered from horrible anxiety.
It is possible to take diazepam if you are having terrible anxiety from withdrawal. There is a very good website by a doctor who is based in the UK to help people come off prescription drugs. Google "coming off metazapine" and I think the site will come up. It has schedules showing how much diazepam to take as you taper.
I should have done that, but did not. Took a couple of months for the withdrawal symptoms to ease off.
Do NOT try taking the dose every other day. Just keep cutting the pills in half. Sometimes a compounding pharmacist can make a liquid for you and you can put a few drops in a glass of water.
Thank you, I will try taking 7.5mg for a couple of weeks, if the anxiety gets bad, I will look up the website you mentioned - tbh, my anxiety seems to have got worse whilst taking mirt :-(