MIRTAZAPINE AND SHORTNESS OF BREATH

[[ca...]]

Has someone experienced shortness of breath while tapering Mirtazapine? I'm having that symtomp very severely along with a stubborn cough.

[[Pa...]]

I don't have any experience with Mirtazapine but I had shortness of breath while recovering from my cold turkey, well, I described it as an elephant sitting on my chest, I couldn't take a deep breath.  Does yours feel like that?  

Not sure about the cough, that seems less common. 

[[jo...]]

I don't think shortness of breath is a particular symptom of mirt. I think it is a common symptom of benzo withdrawl though.

[[Cr...]]

3 hours ago, [[c...] said:

Has someone experienced shortness of breath while tapering Mirtazapine? I'm having that symtomp very severely along with a stubborn cough.

I looked up comments from people on patient.info and there were some people experiencing shortness of breath while on the medication, but many were during the taper. It doesn't seem to be listed as a common side effect.

I recall you cut your mirt dose not too long ago. I hope you don't plan on doing another cut anytime soon until things settle down a bit as it would be best to avoid adding more withdrawal symptoms into the mix.

I think it was @[or...]that stated an inhaler helped her with the shortness of breath feeling. Is that something you looked into with your doctor?

[[...]]

I had both shortness of breath and weird cough about a year ago from time to time but they started  long before i began tapering off of mirt. The cough was completely gone at the end of last summer but shortness of breath can still come for a while and go. I never connected it with mirt.

[[ca...]]

I have not mentioned it to the doctor yet. 

Edited July 11 by [ca...]

[[ca...]]

[[Cr...]]

@[ca...], it can be therapeutic to vent frustrations from time to time. Would it help you to have someone supportive to talk to face to face? If you find a local therapist (or even online) they may help you out with keeping a positive perspective and how to handle friends and loved ones that are unsupportive. Since your faith is an important part of you life you can even choose a therapist that also provides spiritual help.

After what you have been through (and are going through), I fully understand why you don't like medications. However, there are many members that found certain types of medications very helpful, if not almost essential, to dealing with their symptoms during withdrawal.

Are you open to trying beta blockers or a med like clonidine? They usually work instantly and they are generally easy to stop using. Since you are desperate for relief you may want to ask your doctor and be open to trying something.

I hope healing comes your way soon.

[[...]]

41 minutes ago, [[c...] said:

...and I said " it can't be healthy for the brain to be sedated every single night ". 

I absolutely agree. Our brain should do the necessary sedating and activating by itself. It's exactly brain's job and to be healthy it needs functioning naturally.

Certainly, we're all different and can react differently to medications, especially when our nervous system isn't fully back home yet bc of benzo. It's just i never had these symptoms because of mirt but benzo withdrawal. For me, mirt withdrawal mostly showed up in fits of dizziness and creeps in the head. I also noticed that mirt withdrawal induced symptoms never lasted too long, no comparison to benzo induced symptoms. 

Whatever the reason is, it's definitely not a good experience and i'd so much like us all to get through any medication withdrawal as soon as possible!

 

[[ji...]]

Where are you at with your mirt taper, Carlos?   How fast are you tapering?

I’m tapering mirt now as well and going very slowly, about .1 reduction weekly.   Currently at 5.2 mg.

[[Hu...]]

best benefit of taperting mirtazapine is that the weight loss is almost effortless. 

Shortness of breath is not a side effect, that is purely a benzo thing. 

[[Ct...]]

12 hours ago, [[j...] said:

Where are you at with your mirt taper, Carlos?   How fast are you tapering?

I’m tapering mirt now as well and going very slowly, about .1 reduction weekly.   Currently at 5.2 mg.

@[ji...] To reduce 1 mg of Mirtazapine a week, are you doing a daily dry micro taper using a scale?

[[ji...]]

I'm dropping about 0.1 mg a week and I use a scale

[[ca...]]

On 11/07/2024 at 17:57, [[C...] said:

@[ca...], it can be therapeutic to vent frustrations from time to time. Would it help you to have someone supportive to talk to face to face? If you find a local therapist (or even online) they may help you out with keeping a positive perspective and how to handle friends and loved ones that are unsupportive. Since your faith is an important part of you life you can even choose a therapist that also provides spiritual help.

After what you have been through (and are going through), I fully understand why you don't like medications. However, there are many members that found certain types of medications very helpful, if not almost essential, to dealing with their symptoms during withdrawal.

Are you open to trying beta blockers or a med like clonidine? They usually work instantly and they are generally easy to stop using. Since you are desperate for relief you may want to ask your doctor and be open to trying something.

I hope healing comes your way soon.

Hi Crono, quick question.

Can I taper Mirtazapine and hold my taper of Clonazepam in the meantime? I think Mirtazapine is not good for me.

[[Cr...]]

1 hour ago, [[c...] said:

Hi Crono, quick question.

Can I taper Mirtazapine and hold my taper of Clonazepam in the meantime? I think Mirtazapine is not good for me.

You can do whatever you want in regards to medication choices as it is your body. When people are on an AD and a benzo, it is often recommended to taper the benzo first mainly because it is usually the more difficult taper as far as wd symptoms and reactions to cuts go. If the AD is actually providing some reduction in depression or anxiety, that could be seen as being a potential aid during benzo recovery.

However, if the AD does not appear to be providing any benefits, and you mostly only experience negative side effects, it is perfectly reasonable to do the AD first. I think Survivingantidepressants.org recommends the AD first since benzos could also be seen as tempering the withdrawal effects from the ADs.

Whatever you decide is fine. It just may not be wise to attempt both tapers at the same time. We cannot know how long this Mirt taper will be. You may tolerate your cuts well and come off relatively quickly or you may realize you have to take it a lot slower than anticipated. You would be committing yourself to staying at .75 mg of Klonopin for awhile going forward. 

Considering you already made huge cuts already from April (possibly a year's worth), you can probably afford to hold the clonazepam for awhile.

[[ca...]]

2 minutes ago, [[C...] said:

You can do whatever you want in regards to medication choices as it is your body. When people are on an AD and a benzo, it is often recommended to taper the benzo first mainly because it is usually the more difficult taper as far as wd symptoms and reactions to cuts go. If the AD is actually providing some reduction in depression or anxiety, that could be seen as being a potential aid during benzo recovery.

However, if the AD does not appear to be providing any benefits, and you mostly only experience negative side effects, it is perfectly reasonable to do the AD first. I think Survivingantidepressants.org recommends the AD first since benzos could also be seen as tempering the withdrawal effects from the ADs.

Whatever you decide is fine. It just may not be wise to attempt both tapers at the same time. We cannot know how long this Mirt taper will be. You may tolerate your cuts well and come off relatively quickly or you may realize you have to take it a lot slower than anticipated. You would be committing yourself to staying at .75 mg of Klonopin for awhile going forward. 

Considering you already made huge cuts already from April (possibly a year's worth), you can probably afford to hold the clonazepam for awhile.

Thanks partner. Appreciate it.

[[ca...]]

21 hours ago, [[C...] said:

You can do whatever you want in regards to medication choices as it is your body. When people are on an AD and a benzo, it is often recommended to taper the benzo first mainly because it is usually the more difficult taper as far as wd symptoms and reactions to cuts go. If the AD is actually providing some reduction in depression or anxiety, that could be seen as being a potential aid during benzo recovery.

However, if the AD does not appear to be providing any benefits, and you mostly only experience negative side effects, it is perfectly reasonable to do the AD first. I think Survivingantidepressants.org recommends the AD first since benzos could also be seen as tempering the withdrawal effects from the ADs.

Whatever you decide is fine. It just may not be wise to attempt both tapers at the same time. We cannot know how long this Mirt taper will be. You may tolerate your cuts well and come off relatively quickly or you may realize you have to take it a lot slower than anticipated. You would be committing yourself to staying at .75 mg of Klonopin for awhile going forward. 

Considering you already made huge cuts already from April (possibly a year's worth), you can probably afford to hold the clonazepam for awhile.

 

Edited July 18 by [ca...]