Mirtazapine withdrawal

[[Da...]]

Congrats, Ivan. You've come through it pretty well. I hope the symptoms continue to diminish and you get healthier and healthier. Nice work

[[ev...]]

Thank you so much for your concern, Data_Guy. When you said that you thought I had come to the end with psychiatric drugs, I was really thinking seriously about going onto another anti-depressant after a washout period. But the psychiatrist was planning to put me on Desvenlafaxine which has a similar short half life to Mirtazapine. So if I had gone along with that proposal, I would have left myself open to the same problem with withdrawal that I went through with Mirtazapine.

 

The psychiatrist kept telling me that I need a psychiatrist even if it was not him. He reminded me of my serious bouts of depression and the danger I faced without psychiatric drugs. I was inclined to believe him.

 

But then I started looking around the net for information about the efficacy of anti-depressants. It became obvious that there is no real conclusive evidence that psychiatric drugs work any better than any other approach and in some trials they were not much more effective - if at all - than placebos. And all of the material I found related to the treatment of depression once one had it. I could find nothing on the effectiveness of anti-depressants in preventing depression.

 

So I decided that the benefits of taking anti-depressants - if there are any -are, in my case, outweighed by the side effects and withdrawal from this family of drugs and the others psychiatrists like to throw in such as anti-psychotics, benzodiazepines  and anticonvulsants such as Epilim. The psychiatrist who was treating me happily poured all of them into my system at one time or another.

 

As you have said and as Peter Breggin says, the body has evolved over thousands of years and these drugs play around with nature. The consequences can be catastrophic as they have been in my experience of them. At present I just want to get off them and give my body time to recover.

 

Please, however, anyone else who is reading this don't take my opinion based on my experience as an individual as gospel. Doctors do use anti-depressants because they see that they work without necessarily knowing how. And sleeping tablets can be helpful in the short term as they were with me when it was impossible to get much sleep - if any - during the peak of my withdrawal.

 

But do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of agreeing to take high doses of psychiatric drugs - particularly anti-depressants - for an extended period of time. I allowed myself to consent to a very high dose of Mirtazapine because I was reassured by the psychiatrist that they were not addictive. As Heather Ashton says, if you get terrible symptoms from getting off these drugs it doesn't matter what you call it is still an awful experience.

 

And you may feel ok on them whilst nasty things are going on in your body which down the track can lead to serious consequences. Then matters could be made even worse by having to withdraw from them when you are already ill.

 

And don't get me talking about poly-drugging. When this happens if things go wrong it is very difficult to work out what is causing the problems.

 

I may have had extreme symptoms and maybe more than others. But I still think what has happened to me is a cautionary tale for everyone on or considering to go on psychiatric drugs.

 

Best of luck yo everyone and thanks again Data_Guy.

 

I will come back on the site some time in the near future and update everyone.

 

Ivan

 

 

 

[[Ja...]]

Hey Ivan,

              I am tapering off of 15 mg mirtazapine now. I researched a lot about the withdrawal this drug causes and it seems what you are experiencing is not unusual at all. People who have cold turkeyed off of 15 to 30 mg have reported withdrawal symptoms of 4 - 6 months. With your higher dose it doesn’t surprise me that you are suffering longer. I personally believe you will fully recover from this. I think your story will look much different around the 1 year mark. So happy you got free of the mirtazapine. Hopefully nowhere to go but up now.

[[Da...]]

You've done great, Ivan. I encourage you do continue to do your own research on the drugs. I don't see doctors as being impartial evaluators of these treatments and they seem to often engage in magical thinking regarding what the drugs are capable of. They are unlikely to tell you that the average benefit for an antidepressant is 2 points on a 52 point Hamilton Depression rating scale. They are unlikely to tell you the risks because most don't even really know them. Most physician organizations do not even warn of severe withdrawal in their guidelines, let alone how to treat it, and they show little interest in finding out about it unless pressured by groups of harmed patients. It is pretty shameful. I hope you make a 100% recovery and get back to enjoying life fully. You've earned it.

[[ev...]]

Thanks Jack and Data_Guy. I had a pretty awful day yesterday as I tried to cut the tiny dose of Endep I was taking and didn't get much sleep. I restored it to 10mg last night and slept quite well. What amazes me is that it would take me over THREE WEEKS of taking this drug to reach the dosage of Mirtazapine I was taking in ONE NIGHT. This is one of the other things which concerns me about the prescribing of psychiatric drugs: that the amount of the dose can be very misleading. Clonazepam is an example of this: 2mgs of that drug is equivalent to 40mg of Valium.

 

Now I am off everything except his Endep. I will stop taking that once my sleep has settled down. After all it is only three days since I ceased the Zopiclone.

 

 

And, Jack best of luck with your taper. You are definitely approaching this the right way. Sadly though not everyone copes well with a taper - another thing I wasn't warned about.

 

I am seeing a psychologist at the end of the month. And my friend has given me the name of a psychiatrist who isn't entirely focussed on drugs. I am unlikely to see her though unless things start to go downhill again. As the doctor says, if depression is cyclical, it is best to enjoy life while you can. Why expose oneself to the side effects of antidepressants when one's life is going well?

[[ev...]]

 

Here is another update. Unfortunately, so far I have not been able to get off the low dose of Amitriptyline. I also was sleeping so badly that I resumed taking a quarter tablet of Zopiclone. However, the night before last I reduced it to an eighth and last night I slept fairly well with none of the Zopiclone. I see this as a victory. I will wait for a few days before cutting the Amitriptyline. The aching I was experiencing from the Mirtazapine withdrawal has virtually gone. I am incredibly relieved about this as I was led to believe by the moderators and the administrator on survivingantidepressants.org that I was in for a much more protracted withdrawal.

 

My confidence about the future is much improved too to the extent that I have booked a flight to Tokyo in December. So I now feel as if I am in a position to resume planning for the future. The withdrawal was so agonising that I simply put my life on hold and was determined to keep doing as much as I could and see it through.

 

I am aware that I am no longer on high doses of antidepressants to - as the psychiatrist put it - "protect" me. But I am extremely pleased that I am no longer putting myself at risk of side-effects, withdrawal symptoms and heaven only knows what sort of long term damage that these drugs bring with them.

 

I am immensely grateful to my GP for being so balanced in his assessment of the pluses and minuses of taking psychiatric drugs. I have also found a competent thoughtful psychologist to talk to about my predisposition to fall into depression and strategies to keep it at bay.