Katie54321: Please help me re Mirtazapine withdrawal and reinstating

[Katie54321]

I was on 30mg of Mirtazapine for 8 months. Felt much better and due to concern about weight gain I decided to taper off with the approval of PDoc. He said to just take 15 for a couple of weeks and then quit. But I wanted to taper longer than that so I did the following:

 

15mg for one month

7.5 for 4 days

3.75 for 10 days

1.87 for 4 days

then zero 

 

through the whole process I was absolutely fine apart from a bit of insomnia. Then 18 days after I quit there was a sudden severe return of my depression. I mean really severe. I went to ER last night begging for help

 

DOc now says to go back on 15, which I did last night. But I really feel I want to go all the way back upto 30. Could I take 30 tonight? Would this quicken and help me sooner. How long do you think it will take me to stabilise and get back to how I was? 

 

Please help me me I am desparate to hear sometiphing that will give me some hope

[mammaP]

Hi Katie, welcome to SA. As you have discovered you tapered far too fast, not your fault, I did too and that's how I ended up here!  Doctor's don't have a clue unfortunately so we have to do our own research and find the best way to taper ourselves. After 18 days off I would not go back to 30, After being off a drug people often become sensitive to it and can't tolerate higher doses. Did the 15 mg help at all? If you feel worse then you need to reduce the dose and 7.5 might be better for you. If the 15mg helped then I would stick with that to stabilise. It will take 4 days to reach a steady state in your blood so try to be patient. Are you taking anything else? 

 

We ask all our members to fill in their signature, you can find instructions here...

 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/12364-please-put-your-withdrawal-history-in-your-signature/

 

About reinstating to stabilise

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/7562-about-reinstating-and-stabilizing-to-reduce-withdrawal-symptoms/

 

Tapering mirtazapine

 http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/5301-tips-for-tapering-off-remeron-mirtazapine/

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by mammaP

[Katie54321]

Thankyou so much for your reply. I took 15mg again last night so that's 2 nights now at 15. It has helped me sleep and think I may be feeling slightly better this morning but too early to tell just yet. So do you think within 4 days there's a high likelyhood I will have stabilised and be feeling better? 

 

I dont understand how I could just suddenly crash like I did after being fine for so long during the taper and for 15 days off it. Is that common? 

 

I am also taking abilify (aripiprazole) and taped that from 5mg to 2.5 on the 25th may so nearly 2 months ago now

could that also be a factor? 

[Katie54321]

Thankyou so much for your reply

 

 

 

 

[Katie54321]

Update: it's now midday nearly here and I do indeed feel a lot better than yesterday, calm, stable and capable of looking after my boys. A few glimmers of hope and better feeling coming in. Thank God, a massive improvement on yesterday. So it would seem that reinstating on 15 is already starting to get me better. 

 

Should i now stay at this dose for a few months at least?  Should I stay on ads for 6 months after  being completely better like PDoc has said. I had a major breakdown in May last year and was in hospital for 12 days. Then developed depression. I had been better since March but not completely better. Am I trying to do this all too soon, get off meds??

[mammaP]

I am so glad that you are feeling better, reinstatement can have a profound effect on withdrawal quite quickly for some people.  Many people fimnd they are fine while tapering and feel great for a time after quitting. The brain has functioned with the presence of drugs for some time and a taper that is too fast doesn't allow the brain to catch up and eventually withdrawal kicks in. With a very slow taper the brain adjusts between cuts in the dose. I was fine during my taper of effexor, I was proud of myself for going so slow. (A year). A month after stopping I suddenly felt very dizzy and had awful brain zaps then felt suicidal. I was swinging between suicidal and elated several times a day. Reinstatement helped right away and I tapered very slowly after that.  

 

You need to keep the doses consistent until you have felt stable for several weeks before restarting a very slow taper. Make sure that you do the research and prepare yourself, then you should have a successful taper. you will also need to  look at no drug ways of coping with the trials that life throws at you to stay drug free in the future.

We have many topics on non drugs methods here....

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1112-non-drug-techniques-to-cope-with-emotional-symptoms/

 

You might find that you have some days when you feel like you are relapsing, this is normal and will settle down. We call it the windows and waves pattern of recovery. The key here is to recognise the waves and let them wash over you. They ALWAYS pass! 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/82-the-windows-and-waves-pattern-of-stabilization/

 

[Katie54321]

Thankyou so so much MammaP. The waves and windows info is very interesting, that is EXACTLY how I have experienced my recovery so far from my breakdown. Currently having good windows lasting between 14 -20 days and waves of bad days lasting in blocks of 2 to 8 bad days. But all the time it appears to be getting slightly better. Since March in particular I have been getting better, this latest wave has been a bad one tho but I will put it down to coming off Mirt too soon, learn from it and move on!

 

i think I will wait till September now and may try to taper off from the other drug, Abilify first this time 

[Katie54321]

Can I ask you mammaP are you fully recovered now or nearly there? Would be so nice to hear a success story

[Katie54321]

Any info on tapering the AP Abilify (Aripiprazole) it appears due to the long half life some people get off if without too many problems at all. Or are they just the lucky ones? Anyone out there been on this med? It seems there is a strange lack of info on the web about it in general. Is this cos it's a relatively new drug? 

 

I am going to take a break from tapering until after the school summer holidays and start again in September. I previously had tried tapering Mirtazapine first without success, now I'm wondering if I should taper my AP Abilify. Generic name Aripiprazole. 

 

Mirtazapine helps me sleep and tapering caused bad insomnia. ABilify feels as tho it is slowing me down and numbing me. 

 

I have searched and and searched the web and cannot find much info on tapering Abilify, in fact, from hours and hours of searching I have found more people who have had quite a positive experience of Abilify withdrawl, got off it without too many problems. Or could it be that it is a relatively new drug and so there's less info on it so far? I am taking 2.5mg, I went from 5 to 2.5 without any problems at all. I would plan on going to 1.25 in September and stay on 15mg of Mirtazapine 

 

in your experience, is it best to taper an antipsychotic first or an AD first?  

 

Sorry if I repeat myself slightly in this post, I have edited it 

[scallywag]

Katie54321 -- I've moved your post/question to your introduction topic so that all your information, questions and answers are in one place. Please post questions about your situation and about either mirtazapine or aripiprazole here in your introduction. We've got a one intro topic per customer "rule".

 

About tapering:

Before you begin tapering -- what you need to know.

Why taper by 10% of my dosage?.

Tips for tapering off Abilify (aripiprazole).