So I was taking 15mgs of Mirtazapine a day for a couple of years to address insomnia and health anxiety, and then tapered down to 7.5mgs for about a month or so and then at the end of July I stopped altogether. The first month off saw me experiencing problems with sleep, itching skin etc, but all of that seemed to pass in time and I thought I was through the worst of it. However for the last week and a half I’ve had increasingly bad pains in my feet, legs, hands and sometimes arms too, the pains are especially bad at night and especially when lying on my front or either side, like the pressure of my body pressing down against the mattress is causing them, but also just when lying on my back, to the point where I struggle to sleep every single night.
The pain is similar to the pain you get when you constrict the blood flow to a limb by accident, and I don’t mean pins and needles or numbness, but actual pain, the pains are quite short and sharp and feel neuropathic in nature. I also experience them throughout the day but I perhaps notice them less as I’m distracted with other things, and sometimes it’s painful just touching things or leaning against things, and sometimes it’s not exactly pain but like an awareness of the bones and it feels like they’re against a hard surface all the time, especially the bones in my feet as I walk along.
The doc didn’t seem to have a clue about what this could be as I stopped the Mirtazapine over 6 weeks ago now, and sent me for various blood tests and his main advice was to go back on the Mirtazapine, but I am reluctant to do that as if these pains are caused by the withdrawal, how bad will they be further down the line if I keep taking the medication?! Both my aunts have MS so I’m really terrified that these pains might be the start of MS, although I want to believe it’s part of the withdrawal from the Mirtazapine. Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this so long after stopping the medication? If anyone’s got any advice or insight I would be super grateful.