Burnedbypills: terrible remeron withdrawal

[burnedbypills]

I went back down to 3.75. 4.00 seemed to really increase my anxiety. Amazing how so little a change can cause me to feel so much. I am going to stay at 3.75 no matter what. I hope in time I will be able to stabilize.

[Angel7366]

Hi

 

Sorry - I hope I didn't scare you with my remark yesterday. It was only a thought really and Iggy was no doubt right. You would definitely have known about it if it had been that.

 

It does sound like a really bad wave and hope it settles at the lower dose and you can get more functionable.

 

By the way, I did read somewhere online, can't remember where (it wasn't BB), of someone who had also come off high-dose Klonopin a couple of years earlier and had an awful wave coming off his A/D.

 

Best wishes

Angel

[burnedbypills]

Thanks to all who have responded to my posts. Thanks to Alto. Man, can it really be this hard? I would think I would feel a little better if I could sleep. How can I heal if I can't sleep? Do I just hold until I stabilize? I mean how long should I hold? I don't know how I am going to cut if I don't feel somewhat better. I mean I need to be able to sleep and eat better before I can actually try to cut. I sure hope it happens soon because my weight loss is bad. Thanks.

[burnedbypills]

i know cold turkey should never be done. However, if the medication is making me violently ill what choice is there? Just doesn't seem like remeron is doing anything for me except making me sick. I take it at 11:00pm and around 3:00am I always start dry heaving. But then again I feel sick all day. I am just trying to explore what options I have. Thanks

[Altostrata]

Hang in there, your nervous system probably still has to settle from that increase in dosage.

 

In a few days, you may wish to decrease by a very small amount, perhaps .5mg.

[burnedbypills]

Thank you Alto. I am trying to hang in there. Things are pretty bad.

[Altostrata]

Maybe you'll want to decrease by .5mg for your next dose.

[burnedbypills]

I'm getting some awful anxiety while I'm holding. Pacing around and racing thoughts. Can't sit still. Just awful stuff. Should I just keep holding and hope my body will adjust? Or should I cut. I'm not stable so cutting will probably just make it worse. Please advise. Thanks

[burnedbypills]

I swear that the remeron is making me feel sick. It feels like my body just can't tolerate it anymore. How long can I go without eating much? I should have stabilized some by now. At least enough so I can eat better. What do people do if they can no longer tolerate there medication? How can I taper remeron if it is making me sick? A cold turkey would probably kill me. I really don't know what to do anymore. Anybody got any suggestions? thank you

[Altostrata]

Maybe you'll want to decrease by .5mg for your next dose.

 

See if this helps.

[burnedbypills]

I will try a .5 decrease. Thanks altos.

[burnedbypills]

Really???? All of us suffering so much because we took pills from a doctor. Unbelievable. No wonder the drug companies make so much money. Take a pill makes you sick. We can fix that here is another pill. Keep the people sick and watch the money roll in. Just had to vent some. Crazy world. Were is our federal drug agency at. Isn't it suppose to look out for us. All about the money.

[dalsaan]

Hi bbp.

 

If you have nausea, try taking some ginger. It might help you stomache food

 

Dalsaan

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the response. I will try ginger for my stomach. Can anyone answer a question for me. Can I be in acute withdrawal even though I am still taking remeron. I am trying to get stabilized. But I feel like I am way sicker than I should be. Feel like I did a cold turkey but I did not. Maybe my body is rejecting any amount of the drug. Thanks

[burnedbypills]

The longer I hold the more anxiety I get. I am about to lose my mind. Shouldn't the anxiety get less the longer I hold? Would cutting when doing so bad help at all. Are we only suppose to cut when stable? Anyone?

[burnedbypills]

Would a rapid taper work at all? I think my problem is an adverse reaction to remeron. My body is just rejecting remeron. I spend a lot of the day gagging and sick. But I'm afraid to change my dose becauase I think it would make me even more psychotic. I am in a really tough spot. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't.

[Meimeiquest]

Did you try the 0.5mg dose reduction Alto suggested?

 

I am a bit afraid to say this, but I dropped a good bit of Welbutrin fairly quickly due to manic-type symptoms. They are gone now. I am not sleeping well, I do the a.m. Cortisol surge, and I'm tired, maybe a little depressed. I am still taking a small dose of Wellbutrin. But I am basically okay, no longer feel like any day of work might be my last. But I don't know if that is right for you.

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the reply meimeiquest. The worst symptom I have is being manic. Sometimes close to psychotic. It is scaring me. I did the .5 reduction. I am wondering if I should go even lower. The intense rage is getting harder to control. I am thinking maybe going down to 2.5. I know this is a big drop. But like I said if I don't get this manic/rage symptom under control I am going to be in trouble.

[Meimeiquest]

What I personally have done is mostly try to follow my own instincts...and reverse quickly when needed. I think if you drop and feel worse (mania-wise) you can go back to the original dose if you do it really quickly. Just don't bounce around.....it's like you have to turn in a "stability token" with every dosage change. Spend your tokens carefully, but they are for spending. Then try not to over think it. Alto wrote once that we are left with no good options...so choose a bad one and move on with healing things. I know that seems like small words for your big problems...but it's all I have. Hopefully someone wiser can help.

[Altostrata]

Meimei's advice is excellent.

 

I would try another small decrease. Make changes in a very controlled way.

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the advice meimeiquest and altos. I will try another small cut.

[burnedbypills]

Are we healing when as we are tapering? Is our bodies trying to fix themselves even though we are in the pain of withdrawal. Or does healing happen only once we are off the drugs. If I do a year taper I would like to think I am healing along the way.

[Altostrata]

Yes, we heal as we taper. The nervous system thrives on stability.

[Jemima]

Thanks for the reply meimeiquest. The worst symptom I have is being manic. Sometimes close to psychotic. It is scaring me. I did the .5 reduction. I am wondering if I should go even lower. The intense rage is getting harder to control. I am thinking maybe going down to 2.5. I know this is a big drop. But like I said if I don't get this manic/rage symptom under control I am going to be in trouble.

 

Are you keeping your bedroom dark and wearing a sleep mask? When I was in early withdrawal I had periods of extreme irritability and didn't realize they were a reaction to being light sensitive from elevated cortisol levels. Once I tipped to that (and sometimes even wore sunglasses indoors in my very bright and sunny house), I began to get a decent night's sleep most nights, and then other withdrawal symptoms began to heal.

 

You might want to read through the links on sleep in this topic:

 

Important Topics About Symptoms

 

Also, it's a good idea to turn down the brightness on your computer screen and/or wear amber-tinted lenses. The blue light from a computer screen can be really painful when cortisol levels are up. I bought a pair of amber tinted lenses and am wearing them now so that the blue light doesn't keep me awake later on, even though - thank God - I'm well past the elevated cortisol phase of withdrawal.

 

Please give your dosage reduction at least four days to work before changing anything. In the meantime, see if protecting yourself from irritating light helps.

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the sleep advice Jemima. I'm down to 3.25. I still feel awful all day. I don't think I can stabilize. Remeron just makes me feel sick. If a person can't stabilize and the med is making them sick what are they suppose to do? I know cold turkey should never be done but I am getting desperate. I need off of this horrible drug. I feel like I am in cold turkey right now.

[burnedbypills]

Just want to bumb my thread up.  Looking for anyone who reads my story and can give me some advice.  I am really hurting.  I am down to 3.25 remeron.  But I never feel any relief.  What can I do?

[Iggy131313]

hi hun, I wish I could help you, I wish I knew what you should do, its a real tough one because you cant know for sure that its the remeron thats turned on you, of course it could be but my gut feeling is that if you CT then you will shock your cns and make things even worse, has the small decrease helped at all? has it made you feel worse?

 

what are your symptoms and how have they changed with your dosage changes?

 

are the symptoms you are having now different to your benzo withdrawal?

 

did you do ANYTHING differently when all this started? an antibiotic? new suppliment? new exercise regime? anything at all?

 

have you asked on benzo forums if anyone has experienced this?

 

how long have you been at 3.25 now?

 

I know one thing and CT is not an option, if you must get off it then a fast taper is better than a CT.....BUT that could make things worse and you need to be sure that its the remeron thats causing all this trouble.

 

I understand, I really REALLY understand, my life has been destroyed by this, and I have been in the position of not knowing what to do for the best, and the thing is that even when we DO know whats for the best it doesnt mean its going to happen very quickly.

 

But I understand your pain and it must be so hard after 3 years of benzo withdrawal to have this happening, im so sorry

[Iggy131313]

you may well have pooped out on such a low dose of remeron, but even in poop out you need to taper slowly off, but I would take altos advice on this and continue to do a slow taper, 0.5 isnt that slow anyway, you would be off in no time

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the response Iggy.  My symptoms that scare me the most are insomnia and no appetite.  I average maybe 2-3 hrs of sleep a night.  Plus,  I go many nights without any sleep.  I can't hardly eat.  Losing weight.  I look really bad.  I wish this was just a bad benzo wave.  I am way to sick for this to just be a benzo wave.  Up until 3 months ago was doing ok with my benzo withdrawals.  Sleeping good,  exercising,  eating well.  Then I got really sick.  Thought it was the benzos.  Didn't change anything in my life.  Could not firgure out what exactly was making me so sick.  Someone from a benzo forum asked about old medications I was taking.  I said only a low dose of remeron.  Then I took a look deaper at what kind of drug remeron is.  I was shocked.  Nasty drug.  I took 3.75 for the whole time on benzo withdrawal without any problem.  Did not stop my healing.  Why after all this time the remeron would turn on my I wish I knew.  It is really tough to go through benzo withdrawal and now I am dealing with the remeron.  Devastating.  Thanks

[Iggy131313]

it may well have pooped out, if that is the case you still need to do a slow taper, drugs can poop out quite quickly at small doses, you have been on the remeron at that dose for over 3 yaers? I know remeron can cause insomia when it stops working as it is prescribed for sleep issues, so that figures.

 

I honestly think CTing the remeron will not help and lead to more problems, continue with your slower taper, how long have you been at your current dose?

 

trust me I understand how much you want there to be a simple answer to this, stop taking the remeron and then everything gets better, but it just doesnt work like that, I have been dealing with a worst case scenario for a year now and cant belive whats happeneed to me.

 

I hope some people who have much better knowledge than I will come along with some good advice for you soon, in the meantime though, you have recently made a drop yes? hold there for a couple of weeks before you make another one, or maybe alto would suggest that you do another small drop to see if it helps.

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the response Iggy.  I am trying to hang in there.  No matter how much I eat I keep losing weight.  I am staying with my parents for awhile.  Can't function on my own right now.  I am afraid I will end up in the hospital.  With all my twitching and jerking they will probably think I have ms or something.  Hard to believe remeron would just poop out on me after 17 yrs on it.  When a drug poops out do we get withdrawals from it?  I feel like I am in cold turkey without actually doing a cold turkey.  Thanks

[Iggy131313]

17 years, has it always been that dose? sounds like poop out to me, the longer you are on a drug the more likely poop out is...and yes sometimes that means going into what can feel like CT withdrawal even though you are still on the drug..other times it can mean that the drug simply stops being effective, hard to tell in your case how much of the benzo withdrawal was being helped or masked by the remeron, so it could be that now the remeron has stopped working you are feeling your benzo w/d symptoms more keenly, or it could be that the drug has pooped and sent you into a kind of CT withdrawal, even though you have the drug in your system still/

 

going to hspital wont really help you, they wont understand and prob try to fill you up with other drugs which will most likely make things worse...

 

as I see it, you have pooped out, updosing doesnt seem to be helping so the only way to go now is a slow taper off...you will heal as you taper and then with any luck you should be feeling better once you are off the drug, go too quickly and you could shock your cns badly, especially as your system is so sensitised with the benzo withdrawal.

 

you are on a very low dose, im not sure about tpering remeron, whether its the 10%^ rule or not, but it shouldnt take you too long to get off it, Im no expert but I have done alot of reading over the past year, both acecdotal and scientific, and poop out would be my best guess here, especially after 17 years on the drug, they are simply not made to last for life..II wonder if others agree with me, its the most plausable explanation for whats happening with you right now.

 

im glad you are at your parents and they can help you, I know how awful it is, hang in there bravely

[burnedbypills]

Thanks for the response Iggy.

[burnedbypills]

I suspect my remeron withdrawal has blasted me back into benzo withdrawal.  Maybe the reason I can't stabalise.  If that's the case I am in really bad trouble.  Double withdrawal no wonder I feel like cold turkey.  Not sure I can even cope.

[Altostrata]

You may have been sensitized to Remeron dosage changes by your earlier benzo withdrawal.

[basildev]

Burned,

 

I'm so sorry to see you suffering like this - it sounds like you're in pure hell.

 

I don't have any advice to offer but I wanted to let you know I am thinking of you and I really hope you get some relief soon.