Mirtazapine Withdrawals (Cold Turkey?)

[[ca...]]

hello! i dont want to make this too long so i'll write the gist of what went down.

May 2022: i had panic attacks then i started taking paroxetine 10mg for 3 months (i think) but stopped cold turkey because they weren't working for me. thats when my insomnia started. i didnt know stopping cold turkey was bad. my doctor didnt tell me then. after that, he told me to take clonazepam 0.5mg for about 3 months then stopped (cold turkey again). took quetiapine 25mg for 2 months (this helped with sleep for a while like i actually felt drowsy after taking it.... until it stopped working).

Feb 2023: i started taking mirtazapine 30mg for about 3 months then went to drinking 15mg, then down to 7.5mg until August.

August 2023: I decided to stop drinking mirtazapine in August because of the STOMACH ISSUES (and UTI for some reason???). i'd feel SUPER bloated and have acid reflux and NAUSEA. i didnt like to eat at all. i lost SO MUCH weight. i wanted to just puke everything out. days after i stopped mirt, i felt A WHOLE LOT better. but then the stomach issues came back!

update, Sept 2023: for almost 2 weeks, i'm going through horrible withdrawals right now. i went about 1 week without proper sleep (30mins-1hr a day only) but it has gotten better since. i've been getting 4-6hrs of sleep without any sort of medication now. only problem is that i don't feel sleepy or tired! i sort of just close my eyes (for hours it feels like) then drift off to sleep (thank God, better than no sleep at all!) other symptoms: right now, it feels like its hard to breathe because of the acids in my stomach (it even feels like its up to my throat now). it could very well be my sinuses acting up (i really dont know). is this normal? i'm taking antacids to help with the discomfort of my gut. i also have sporadic headaches 😬

i know for a fact that this is all from the withdrawals but i'm still pretty worried that maybe my gut got inflamed or something? do these gut issues ever go away? or maybe my sleep won't go back to normal? have i damaged my brain and body beyond repair? i do feel like i'm getting better bit by bit these days but i also have doubts. please let me know your thoughts on this and thank you for sharing 💖 hope everyone's doing better!

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by [ca...]

[[Ho...]]

Hi there,

It sound horrible for you! I'm so sorry you're going through this! I've been on mirtazepine for almost a year now. I went from 15 mg to 7.5 mg almost overnight with no issue. Then I went from 7.5 to 3.75 and although I don't remember how bad things got, I do remember that from that moment I decided to go much, much more slowly. I'm actually on about 1 mg now and weaning at a 10% rate, which is really hard to measure. When I drop 10%, I really feel it, as if I'm back in acute with body aches, dark depression, nausea and no appetite, jittery and exhausted at the same time. Sheer misery for a few days.

So I'm not surprised that you've had a really bad time of it! There used to be a lot of information on mirtazepine that's probably archived now. I took a screen shot of a chart that shows some important information on what happens when you are titrating down. I'll attach.

Your upward trend is very heartening, though. You ARE recovering and that's everything (almost!) Hope someone else hops on to help!