Has anyone any info about taking 5-HTP to help with low mood and slight anxiety during withdrawal.
I am into my fourth week since quitting Mirt completely after a pretty slow taper. 5-HTP has been recommended to help with withdrawal symptoms and help stabilise seratonin levels.
Any comments please?
If you don't mind me asking...What withdrawal symptoms are you experiencing since quitting mirtz and how long were you on it?
Hi. I was on it, for over 2 years, apart from a short 2 month break when I tried to come off it too quickly and ended up back on it. Know more about it now and that withdrawal is difficult and so this time tapered over about four months from 30 mg and finished just over four weeks ago.
I'm now left with slight early morning anxiety and general low mood with difficul in motivating myself. 5HTP was recommended when I was still on Mirt but not a good idea to combine the two! However I think now I'm free of it I may give it a try. Reviews are very good and I'd rather go down that road rather than more ADs
.
Hi
Im also in the process of comeing off MIRT, I tryed 5htp and it did not help with mood or sleep, but that is just me, it seams to help others who take it,
It's hit and miss with this stuff, as you know. Are you sleeping ok?
Good for you on your decision to come off ADs. Try your solution, it can't hurt. Try fish oil and magnesium too as many people feel it works
During withdrawal.
Hi Best of luck as you try to come off, don't know what stage you're at but with me WD was easier to cope with while tapering , far more difficult when you finally quit completely.
Sleep for me isn't a big issue for me, occasionally am wakeful during the night but OK in the main. If only I could lose the early a.m. anxiety and general low mood I'd feel so much better, hence trying 5-HTP.
Worth a try anyway, sorry it didn't work for you, seems to be an individual thing.
Best of luck.
Hi Greta,
I take 50 mg of 5-htp on an empty stomach when I wake. I also use my lightbox in the morning. Seems to help me.
Thanks, that's interesting. Worth a try I think.
Did it help with your sleep problems? It's supposed to be good for that. Maybe you need another dose before sleeping? I know it's a problem you've been having. 50 mg is quite a low dose I believe. Maybe you've sorted sleep out now though.
Think I'll give it a try.
Hi,
There are diffrent typs of 5-HTP, there is one that is sublingual and will not upset your stomach, I relly doint know why it did not work for me as I know I have low serotonin, and that could be I did not take the right dose? Let me know how it works for you?
I slept pretty good the last days, but yesterday had a bad night again. Had to take a benzo around 2:00 am, so I might up my dose as you said. I do think it helps me though. I hope I will feel better and more stable soon. Hope it helps you.
Hi, I also am trying to jump off MIRT 7.5mg im haveing the sleep issu like you are.The most I have gone with out MIRT 7 days then BAM no sleep next day no sleep then I have to take the MIRT again to get some sleep. The no sleep issue is what makes me have to take it again, one night with out sleep and haveing to go to work and feel like like poop. but I will keep trying, Im thinking of cutting down to 3mg for a short time, have you tryed that?
Yes switchman, good idea, trying to jump off at 7.5 is way too high, no wonder you can't sleep. I'd do that, 3.75mg for at least 2 weeks, see how you feel then & reassess, be kind to yourself x
Hi,
Thanks for the reply, Im going to try and stabilize at 7.5 and do a slower taper, Im sure hopeing this new year will be better for me.
Happy New year
Hi Switchman,
I did a very slow taper, but I still seem to have rushed at the end too much, that's why I now have the rebound insomnia. I am trying to ride out the storm, but if I don't improve I will think about reinstating 3,75 mg. That seems to be the last dose I was really stable on and it's easy to cut the pill in four parts. You jumped off from 7.5 mg, and maybe tapering with liquid (if you are in the uk) would be advisable. Taking it on and off is usually not recommended. It confuses your system.
Hi Whosthatgirl
Your right about system being confused, mine is confused right now, some days the MIRT works and other days it does not, My Doc said I could take it as needed for sleep, but for me that is not the case. Got 0 sleep last night feeling very poopy right now.
HI Greta
I am so happy you have quit mirtazapine. I am myself tapering since last July and am currently at 5.7mg. Planing to go lower today.
Anyway if you have only problems with anxiety in the morning and the sleep you can try a combination of Vitamine C and Magnesium at night before sleep.
Normally the anxiety in the morning is due to cortisol levels going up in order to give us power to face the day in front of us. Due to Mirt and a hurt CNS most probably your cortisol levels in the morning are higher then normal so in order to counteract that the Vitamine C is very productive.
Try this combination before 5-HTP... you can also take natural 5-HTP and Tryptophan by eating turkey meat which has big amounts of it. If you feel better than you can try concentrated 5HTP.
ANyway it is your choice. Stay the course of natural remedies do not go again on the AD-s way.
Good Luck.
Hi Toni
Thanks for your post, I already take magnesium but hadn't heard about the vitamin C aspect. I've just been reading up about in online and you certainly seem be on to something as far as my a.m. anxiety is concerned and I shall give it a try.
What dose of Mirt were you on when you started tapering? You seem to be doing it very sensibly, nice and slowly, which seems to be the secret. I reduced from 30 mg over four months and didn't really run into problems until I stopped completely. It's as though as long as your brain is being drip-fed with even the smallest amount it adjusts but throws a wobbly when it stops completely! I shall interested to hear how it goes as you gradually reduce even more.
Best of luck and, as you say, no way am I going back down the AD route again!
Hi, FYI
I jumped off the MIRT again, This time the Dr gave me some GABApentin to bridge the sleeping issue, It used for seizures and nerve pain., off label sleep disorders. I took some last night as I had not sleep for two days, I sleep so hard I could not open my eyes in the morning, had to use my fingers to pry them open. A little scary at first. He said If sleep issue continious, I will be refered out to a sleep specialist.
HI Greta
In case you need to read my story and know the torments that i have gone through this whole process there is a topic which i started and you can find it on this link.
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/weaning-off-mirtazapine-531188
I was on 15Mg when i started for two months and it literally did nothing for me as i dropped three months of benzo use and wd from Benzos is terrible. Anyway Mirt wd has not been a walk in the park. My life has changed a lot during this process and i am trying to catch up as i go out of the Mirt way. Currently i am going by lowering while carefully listening to my body. the worse dose for me was 7.5 and 7.2 Mg which made me really depressed and lethargic. No way i could use my brain for normal day to day tasks. Even through all this i managed to hold down my job (ofcourse with a lot of troubles) and some more started a new business at my hometown with the help of my father in law and my parents.
You have gone very fast from 30Mg to 0 and i really wish you will not face problems with this later. Anyway for the morning anxiety which was almost a trademark of all my spring and summer days i really advice Vitamine C. It is very natural and top it up with eating a lot of Oranges and Mandarins in the evening. It will protect u from seasonal flu but at the same time has cortisol regulating properties which will lead to less anxiety in the morning.
Try not to focus on WD... i was focused on it almost 100% of the time and it really took its toll. Currently i am trying to shift my focus to other things and i seldom enter into these forums. I enter time after time to just write a short update of the levels where i am in and go out.
Hang on Greta... you re not out of the woods yet. Just remember you will face windows and waves until the body clears itself of all the toxins it has accumulated. ANytime you re in a wave just say to your self "it is only a wave and it will pass" and after a good night's sleep it will eventually pass. I take a walk of around 7 KM every night after work and then take my dose at around 9.30Pm, drink my magnesium and vit c combo at around 10... eat a banana (it has natural melatonin) and then go to sleep. I haven't had a sleepless night since august as far as i remember. There are night i only sleep 6 hours but there are night when i sleep 7-8 hours with just a toilet wake up interruption.
One more thing if you re having troubles with waking early and then not being able to sleep again due to rumination or anxiety if you wake up at night to go to the toilet do not turn up any light and do not watch any phone or light emeting device. It is well known that as long as your eyes sense some sort of light the level of melatonin (sleep hormone) in the body drops really fast and this causes sleep not to return after the wake up.
Just some tips from me sis. Hope you will be safe. Just take care of your body. You can try 5-HTP as i was also inclined to try it but why risk while all the 5-htp and tryptophan you need you can get from adding turkey meat into your table.
Be patient we will make it.... :-) All the best and keep in touch.
Hi Switchman
Your doctor is playing Russain roulette with your health - telling you to take Mirt on a as and when needed basis, and when that didn't work he/she throws in Gabapentin. Doctors love to try meds out on us but the picture I see regarding you, is that you are in withdrawal from Mirtazapine, and nothing, no othher drug can cover that.
When we take Mirt we build an artificial "trellis" that remodel our neurotransmitters within the brain - if it is taken away too quickly withouut a slow taper, the trellis falls down and that is when we hit insomnia, nausea, tummy flu, gastric issues etc etc ...
I hear you are desperate for some sleep, and I see you say you have "jumped off Mirt twice", maybe the very best thing you can do to help yourself right now is to reinstate at the lowest dose that you were on before and wait for stabilisation again, and then after several weeks, start a very slow taper ... just looking out for you ... so disturbing to go through this nightmare when there is another way.
Wishing you well.