Hello,
I hope someone can help me out. I am on mirtazapine for 4 months now. First i was on 7.5mg for a month, then 15mg. Soon i could not tolerate this dose, and reduced to 13mg. Was fine at this dose for a month. Then on Early september, i started to feel severe agitation on this dose and was force de to reduce. Reduced to 7.5mg, on the third day of this dose i was severly sedated, was Iike i wanted to be awake and my brain wanted to shut me off. I dont understand why this happened , because when i was at this dose the first time for one month, i didnt even felt near as sedated as i was. Now upon reducing, after being on 13mg for almost two months, how can this happen? So i reduced to 3.75, was on 7.5mg for 3 days only, because i was almost like fainting the entire day. On 3.75, after 3 days my sleep suffered for one night, but after 5 days, i felt much sedated, but not as much like on 7.5m, i persisted on 3.75mg, after 7 days and now it seems to be more stable. Never the less, i feel extremly tired during the day, hang over like a train as passed over me. I tried even to updose to 4mg, but felt too much agitation restless legs, returned to 3.7 and it called down. So it seems i am stock on this dose. Any body got this inverse reaction? Normally i heard it would be the opposite of sedation when reducing. If so, did you notice the same reaction after a drop in dosage again? Is like my brain is inverted.
Thank you.
I'm also trying to come off mirtazapine. I'm down to 3.75mg at mo and having all sorts of withdrawal issues. I'm going to carry on until I've done 3 weeks on this dose and then halve it again. I'm determined to get off all medication as I have had no benefit in over 2 years - in fact the opposite and I have lost faith in doctors. It helps to know other people feel the same and that others have managed to get through this.
I hope you can get trought it. My CNS has started to reject the drug and force me to reduce more. Last week was 3.3, yesterday the agitation started again, will now reduce to 2.7mg and see how it goes. I am still on Zoloft protracted withdrawal, that is why my body is too sensitive to drugs. How is your sleep? Are you having sedation when you drop?
I'm sleeping reasonably well luckily. Just chopping 15mg tablet into 4 at mo as it's not worth discussing alternatives with doc. My family are doing their best to help me through. I hope you have good support too.
The lower doses of Mirt can be more sedating for sure. If I were you I would slow the taper down now, stay at 3.75mg for at least 2 weeks, or to be sure as you have upped & downed the doses for 4 weeks, let your CNS settle for a while. I think the sedation will be the same - don't expect that to improve really, not until below 1 mg.
The way forward is to taper no more than 10% every 3-4 weeks to avoid all the WD symptoms. It is possible to make a liquid from Mirt so that enables smaller doses.
If you can
I am following your thread. As i am at this stage.
mirtazapine never really did much for me, i c ouldnt get the dose up above 22.5. Have been hovering around 7.5 for ages whilst trying others with no luck. Now down to 3.75 and i feel nauseous a lot, did also when higher dosage, and insomnia has kicked in. I am just so low doing things is a trial. I just want to know if this will start to feel better when i finish taking this med or am i going to have to take another anti dep instead. I have tried many and my body doesnt like them. Do you think i am just suffering withdrawals and thats why depressed. Are you on any other meds. I have diazepam, keeping it below 10mg so hope easier to get off.
I feel very much like you do but I am determined to get off all medication. I think we must hope that eventually these symptoms will ease. I think it helps to chat to people having similar issues.
Thanks for the advice. Can you tell me how you make a liquid mixture of mirtazapine.
I put this up recently, it is on this forum. It takes a while to work it out, take your time & good luck.
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/mirtazapine-making-a-liquid-to-help-tapering-614122
Thank you for your help Calmer. I have been reading many of your posts to support others in mirt widthdrawal and taper. It is very kind of you doing this and helping people. I appreciate your advice. So my problem now is not to let the CNS settle down. The problem is it doesnt want to settle and keeps rejecting the doses while im am trying to be linear. For example is was at 3.75mg a week ago, for 3 days. On the fourth i got extreme agitation. I lowered to 3.3mg and it settled down for 3 or 4 days also, then agitation again. Now i am at 3mg for 2 days now and i feel the CNS its on the verge of causing agitation again. But not yet. I hope i can settle between 2.5 and 3 i hope. I am afraid that by CNS is somehow trying to reject the drug or i am getting more sensitive to it each day. If it was not, it would not stop the agitation upon lowering, i believe. At least I cant find any other explanation .
I now some people who had to do CT because of adverse reactions months after use of some med. I hope i am not one of those and that the CNS is only adapting to the amount of drug i need. I also found that mirt is still masking my zoloft protracted withdrawal. I notice that when the half life reaches at 19:00pm i notice some symptoms of zoloft more stronger, like the impending doom feeling and the sound sensitivity. What do you think about this?
Caroline: Yes, my parents are one of my lines of help. I could not do it alone. But i also have a strong belief in God who is helping going trought this with my prayers. I am glad your sleeping. It removes lots of burdens.
I am also now suffering the symptom of needing more air, like air hunger. Is this normal? Seem like i am with loss of air. I remember i had this symptom when i begun mirtazapine. Anyone can relate?
Trouble is with Mirt tapering, symptoms can come & go, windows & waves, some days here next day gone to return again. There is no way of knowing which symptoms are from which drug (Mirt/Zoloft) but I do know its best to use the same taper for Zoloft i.e. no more than 10% every 3-4 weeks/or 5% every 2 weeks for the sensitive (me too).
That "impending doom" feeling comes and goes quite quickly right? Its not a "day dream" but a "nightmare dream" that passes quickly maybe ... ? If you didn't taper the Zoloft slowly I can understand you might have symptoms ~ I haven't experienced that, but if its too hard you might want to take a small dose perhaps to ease up the symptoms.
The agitation, yes, Mirt', best to hold each dose for 2 weeks, you're going way too fast, I would stay at your current dose for a minimum of 2 weeks. You might find those symptoms ease up, just wait, until the symptoms subside maybe?
Best wishes.
Hi, glad to see you are at same stage as me 3.75. I have stuck here for five weeks as i do not think my CNS has yer stabilised. I was on 7.5 for a long time. This med didnt really work for me anyway. I am still having days of anxiety and others of extreme nausea. Are you suffering these? I am scared to drop to 1.87 until i feel better. Having said that, i had nausea at the start which was one reason doc thought it was anxiety related. I would love to be off med but feel so ill some days. Have you gone any further down? Or have you any symptoms. I wonder if you were on this med for long, they say the longer youre on it the worse the coming off is.
I'm glad you have plenty of support. I've just dropped to 1.8mg so let's see what happens next. Bring it on Mr Mirtazapine!
Hi, i see you are ahead of me and down to 1.8, i am still,battling with nausea at 3.75. I am now not sure if the nausea is coming from something else as ive had it some of the time prior to dropping. I am very cautious about next drop. I would be grateful if you could let me know how you get on. Do you find the lowering has affected your sleep a lot?
Hi. Sleep seems ok although I'm not sleeping as long as I used to. Headaches and anxiety symptoms are there but I'm coping so far. I'm hoping to stick with this dose for 3 weeks and then stop altogether. Hope it goes well for you.
Hi Calmer,
Air hunger seems to be vanished. Still at 3mg.
The impending doom feeling is there most of times. I already tried zoloft reinstatement and it made my insomnia much more worst, had to drop. Tried pregabalin wich helped to attenuate symptoms, but had a bad reaction to it and had to drop it. When you did your taper of mirt, didnt you had high pressure rebound for the strong blocking of alpha2 receptors? I already had low pressure when started mirt, and it lowered even more, but one month and my body adapted, só i guess if i taper, i will get a high pressure rebound.
Other problem is that the pills produced here in my country have always 5% more or 5% less of error range, but i think its the same process in every country, i think? Did you knew that? When tapering or taking you are always in error. I could be taking 3.2 or 3 or 2.8 without knowing it.
Another importante thing. When i sleep on mirt, the sense of falling assleep doesnt exist anymore. I simply shut off without being aware of that usual feeling everyones have of falling asleep. And when i shut down i go directly to vivid dream filled sleep, only to be awake like 5 or 10 minutes later, and this cycle of going directly to vivid dreams continues with lots of waking up in between them. I think zoloft destroyed completly my hability to fall and stay asleep. No sleep stages, goes directly to dreaming. So i think, tapering mirt would make even things worst? If i dont sleep correctly even on mirt, i suspect that my dream filled sleep is a mirt medicated sleep that is masking the destroyed sleep from zoloft. Any one can relate?
Sounds like you're having lots of problems. No, I didn't have 'high pressure rebound', my taper was so slow I managed to dodge most symptoms, I did 5% every 2 weeks and if I had a hic-up I would hold even longer. I occasionally got tummy flu so I would take a rest from tapering.
Swapping meds could cause lots of symptoms, I'm not sure about Pregab or Zoloft, but I do know if you add them to the mix and then take them away you're bound to have a reaction right?
That "doom" feeling you have there, do you think it could simply be the symptom of depression that can come with tapering/swapping meds? After all these meds alter our brains chemicals and if you keep swapping them about your system just can't handle it.
You say your Mirt tablets can vary in dosage from one tablet to another? That can be difficult for you then, have you spoken to your pharmacist about this? See what they say? Not sure this should be allowed right?
Best wishes.