catherine87: Coming off Mirtazapine

[catherine87]

I've been on antidepressants all my adult life, and just 5 months ago I was put on Mirtazapine, it helped with sleep and appetite, but about a week after taking it I became dizzy, shaky and experienced pain and pressure in the side of my head and ear. I also had some numbness in my face on the right side.

I didn't think this was to do with Mirtazapine at first and kept going to the Drs thinking it was a inner ear issue. 

But I decided to taped down to see if this would improve it and the symptoms did seem to get worse with each dose decrease. 

I tapered down from 30mg which I had been taking for about 2 months, (1 months of 15 mg before that)

Over a month I got down to 11.25mg and the side effects, mainly dizziness and derealization increased so my Dr told me to stop taking it and I shouldn't get withdrawal.

This was almost 2 weeks ago and I've felt pretty awful for a week now, the ear pain and head pressure has got so much worse, the dizziness is still pretty bad and on top of that I've felt quite ill, generally achey and exhausted, my Anxiety has got loads worse and I'm not sleeping or eating well at all and am struggling to cope day to day and look after my young son.

I feel very confused as I don't feel I can reinstate as the medication because it makes me feel almost as bad as the withdrawal, so I guess I'll have to tough it out. I was wondering if anyone has had similar symptoms as they seem quite strange. Do you think this is withdrawal? I have spoken to my Dr about how I'm feeling and he's said to take Diazepam.

[Erimus]

Hello Catherine. Could you follow these instructions and add some more concise dates to your drug signature? Thanks. I'd also suggest you don't use diazepam as a coping tool for your symptoms.

 

Your first task is to create a drug signature, with the following:

 

• All current medication you take, the dose you take, when you started the drug, and when you made dose changes
• All current supplements you take
• An accurate history of recent drugs, taken in the last 12-24 months
• Dates for recent should be written as 7 Oct 2023, or Oct 7 2023, or early Oct 2023, or mid Oct 2023
• A history of drugs taken 24 months ago and beyond - if applicable
• Dates for historical drugs can simply be listed as start and stop years
• Please do not use 07/10/23 // 10/07/23 as this is intepreted differently around the world

 

• Please leave out symptoms and diagnoses. See my signature for example of clear and concise information.

 

• Click this link to edit your signature: Edit your signature here.

Edited July 11 by Erimus

[catherine87]

Hello! Sorry, I have only just got round to sorting my signature, I think I've done it ok now. 

 

I'm now almost 8 weeks off Mirtazapine now and the symptoms are still pretty similar to my original post, I have seen slight improvement and a run of 4 days where I felt almost back to normal.

I have stopped the sleeping pills and diazepam and my sleep is still pretty bad, mainly managing 2 to 3 hours a night with the occasional good night of 5 or so.

 

The numb tingling sensation around my right eye and right side of head is the strangest thing. It feels like pressure on the top of my eyeball and like I'm about to go cross eyed! It's so hard to explain and so weird it sometimes feels like my eyes aren't working together properly too but I've had an extensive eye exam and all is well with them. 

Has anyone experienced anything remotely like this as a withdrawal symptom? I did also have it while on the drug too.

[LukeUK]

Hi,

 

I am also in the UK and also took mirtazapine for just 4 months, followed by a 1 month taper.

 

16 months onwards, I am improving, but I have suffered an absolutely extreme amount and frankly, this drug has totally destroyed my life.

 

At 8 weeks off, I could not even get myself a glass of water and required full time care as I could barely get up, speak coherently, etc.

 

The problem is, you've now started on another antidepressant and have been taking two other psychiatric drugs along with a beta blocker. This is classic UK GP behaviour. As far as they are concerned these drugs cannot cause harm and they want to throw as much shhh at the wall until it sticks. If it doesn't stick and you're left badly harmed and disabled then that's tough luck and they'll start diagnosing you with whatever conditions that they can that spontaneously onset and became severe at the same time as they harmed you, conveniently.

 

I'm not sure what to recommend in terms of coming off/staying on venlafaxine, but I would say that whatever choice you do take, you need stability. Your body needs time to stabilise. Taking diazepam, zopiclone and propanolol all on an ad hoc basis is not giving your body that. Whatever you do, you need to do it, stick with it consistently until you're stable, and then carefully go from there.

 

Your symptoms absolutely can be mirtazapine withdrawal, but there are also 4 other psychiatric drugs in the mix now.

 

Be advised also, propanolol raises your cortisol. Mirtazapine is a cortisol suppressant and when I came off it I had consistently high cortisol for 7-8 months, both in my blood in the mornings and consistently over 24h periods measured by urine collection. Whether or not you have high cortisol I don't know, but if you do, a drug that temporarily helps symptoms and exacerbates this issue is potentially not good overall. Of course, GPs won't tell you this, they just look up symptoms on a list and throw whatever drug is listed for the symptom at you.                                       

 

 

[catherine87]

Oh wow I'm so sorry to hear you have suffered so much from taking Mirtazapine for such a short time! I'm glad you have seen a bit of improvement, it's so scary that it can do this! I hope things continue to pick up for you.

I have been on a lot of antidepressants over the years and never had an issue so I was so surprised by my reaction to this, especially after such a short usage.

 

I have now stopped the Zopiclone and Diazepam as of about 2 weeks ago, as I just felt scared by how many things I was putting in my body!

That's interesting about the propanolol thanks for that.

I plan to come off the Venlafaxine when and if I feel recovered from this, I have come off Venlafaxine before after long term use with no problems but I know that doesn't mean anything really and it could be a whole other story now.

I hope you've felt ok today. I had to spend a few weeks being looked after by my parents also, along with my 4 year old son, I wasn't able to care for him at all, I can just about manage it at the moment, hopefully that will continue 

 

[catherine87]

All the symptoms I have, pretty much all of these come and go, some more often than others -

 

Dizziness

Headaches, mainly on right side

Facial aches 

Occasional vision problems

Ear fullness and pressure 

Very mild tinnitus 

Head pressure

Numbness and tingling

Insomnia

Anxiety 

Panic attacks 

Flu like body ache and fatigue

Shaky hands

Nausea 

Loss of appetite 

Derealization 

Jelly legs 

Light headed, feeling faint

Tearful spells

Restlessness

Agitation

Hot flushes and sweating

Breathlessness

Heavy, stuffy head feeling

Muscle twitches, mainly in legs

 

[LukeUK]

3 hours ago, catherine87 said:

I have now stopped the Zopiclone and Diazepam as of about 2 weeks ago, as I just felt scared by how many things I was putting in my body!

That's interesting about the propanolol thanks for that.

 

 

That's sensible.

 

No problem. I'm not saying never take it, but keep it in mind. If you haven't already, I'd suggest blood tests. I didn't have any deficiencies personally (although I did have a number of bad values for things caused by mirtazapine), but if you are deficient in anything due to how hard your body has been working then it is worth identifying that and hopefully solving it if it makes you feel somewhat better.

 

  

3 hours ago, catherine87 said:

I can just about manage it at the moment, hopefully that will continue 

 

That's good. I hope it doesn't get worse before it gets better, but I believe that you will improve in time. If you can currently manage, even if it is hard, then at some point in the future managing should gradually become easier. It could be a lot of time, but hopefully it won't, and it might not be a long time. There are people who have very lengthy withdrawals, but there are also people who get a lot better in a few months.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, catherine87 said:

All the symptoms I have, pretty much all of these come and go, some more often than others -

 

Dizziness

Headaches, mainly on right side

Facial aches 

Occasional vision problems

Ear fullness and pressure 

Very mild tinnitus 

Head pressure

Numbness and tingling

Insomnia

Anxiety 

Panic attacks 

Flu like body ache and fatigue

Shaky hands

Nausea 

Loss of appetite 

Derealization 

Jelly legs 

Light headed, feeling faint

Tearful spells

Restlessness

Agitation

Hot flushes and sweating

Breathlessness

Heavy, stuffy head feeling

Muscle twitches, mainly in legs

 

 

I can confirm from personal experience that all of this is possible from mirtazapine. The only one I have not had on that list is facial aches. Anxiety has been rare for me, but it has been severe the few times I've had it. Again, I've only taken mirtazapine, so this list is definitely possible from it.

 

[catherine87]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, this has been so helpful as my GP and family think this is all my anxiety, so while it's scary I'm glad I know I'm not going mad and this is a real thing

[LukeUK]

Yes, the medical profession can conveniently ignore harms if any harms they are presented with aren't real.

 

I faced a lot of denial even though my physical condition was pretty critical in the acute stage.

 

They just don't care.

 

Hopefully, over the coming weeks, you improve.