slowlybacktome: looking for help to taper Pamelor / nortriptyline

[slowlybacktome]

I didn’t start having any issues until I added lexapro.  I got horribly sick within 5 days of taking it.  I handled the Mirtazapine really well and had no side effects when I started in March.

[slowlybacktome]

Sorry, I reread your reply a few times.  You’re thinking that the increased dose of Mirtazapine is also contributing to my current symptoms.  I’ll post today’s schedule and symtoms notes tonight.

[slowlybacktome]

9/14/20

6:45am wake up feeling hands tingling, stomach upset, back of head tingling, disassocation, tongue and lower face tingling, lack of concentration, intrusive thoughts mainly about how I don't feel well

     Continued throughout the day.  

7am 100mg gabapentin

3pm 100mg gabapentin

9:30pm 100mg gabapentin, 30mg mirtazapine

10pm extremely fatigued

11pm bed, fitful rest

 

I don't seem to have symptoms come and go throughout the day at this point other than the tingling/prickly paresthesia changes with temperature and exertion.

[slowlybacktome]

9/15/20

7am wake up

7:30am 100mg gabapentin 

3pm 100mg gabapentin 

9pm 100mg gabapentin, 30mg Mirtazapine

Symptoms:  stomach upset, brain fog, depression, disassociation, sensitive/ prickly skin on feet, arms, hands, intrusive thoughts

 

9/16/20

6:30am wake up

7:30am 100mg gabapentin 

4pm 100mg gabapentin 

9:30 pm 100mg gabapentin, 30mg Mirtazapine

 

symptoms: brain fog, depression, disassociation, sensitive, prickly skin, migraine, intrusive thoughts.

 

Notes:  stomach upset is gone but started a migraine 

 

 

 

[slowlybacktome]

Six weeks off of Zoloft tomorrow.  Still holding with 30mg of Mirtazapine and 300mg of gabapentin.  At this point I’m not sure if what I’m experiencing is just Zoloft withdrawal or the increased Mirtazapine as @Altostrata suggested.  I was feeling great physically on 15mg of Mirtazapine back in May but both dose increases to 22.5 and 30 were while on an SSRI.  

[slowlybacktome]

At what point does it make sense to decrease my dose of Mirtazapine to gauge if it is causing some of my lingering symptoms really if this is still Zoloft/SSRI related??  
 

 

[slowlybacktome]

It has been some time since I’ve been on the forum, but I still continue to have side effects and symptoms from the various meds that I’ve been on.

 

I’ve successfully tapered off of gabapentin and had withdrawals for about two months.  A few side effects never passed.  I still had a low level of burning skin occasionally.  But the biggest challenge was still lucid dreaming/dissociation.  At 3.5 months off of gabapentin, I reduced Mirtazapine to 15mg from 22.5mg.  That was the last dose where I physically felt ok back in may 2020.  It has been 6.5 weeks and I’m still feeling pretty bad.  Internal trembling and restlessness, poor sleep, GI issues and my burning skin has ramped up. I’ve had periods of extreme panic.  It looks like it’s going to take a while to stabilize and I will be decreasing much slower next reduction.  

[slowlybacktome]

Seven weeks in to a reduction of mirtazapine from 22.5mg to 15mg.  I have had a couple of days of feeling ok followed by bad symptom days.  My skin burning is still prevalent, but changes.  This morning woke up with minimal burning, but currently at 12pm my face, eyes and legs are very sensitive.  I have an internal burning that started last week and continues off and on.  I also have hypercausis and find that keeping some type of sound going (tv or music) helps.  I do not plan to decrease for some time and keep hoping that I will improve soon.

 

Current:

Low mood

Burning/sensitivity

repetitive thoughts

Hypercausis

 

Improved:

Panic

Poor sleep

Internal trembling 

[slowlybacktome]

Eight weeks into a reduction from 2205 to 15mg.  The last few days, my symptoms seem to have improved.  I still have hypercausis and sensitive skin.  The burning is lighter.  I have moments of anxiety and am easily triggered.  No true sense of calm yet.  I also just feel strange mentally.  It's hard to describe... not all there, maybe some dissociation.  I just don't feel great.  I'm tired of always thinking about how I feel and wondering when it will get better.  Overall, I'm improved, but nowhere near ready to make another dose adjustment.  Going forward I will do a liquid taper at a slow rate.

[slowlybacktome]

Updating my post so that I have a history of my symptoms, waves, windows and recovery.  I wish there was a way to change my title so that it is appropriate to what I'm experiencing now.  I had recovered in 2018 from the medication that I was taking at that time and had hoped that those going through tapering mirtazapine could relate to me.  I don't believe there is a way for me to tag my post with mirtazapine or taper.

 

I'm 8.5 weeks on my drop from 22.5 to 15mg.  This has been a very difficult journey over the last 11 months.  I'm still not stable from this decrease and am unsure when I will feel better.  I do get some windows but not for a full day.  Mornings are the worst in that I wake between 5 and 6am and my thoughts are strange.  It's almost like I am still dreaming but I'm awake??? So hard to explain and I haven't had luck finding others who experience the same.  I started seeing a functional doctor and my labwork indicates that I'm low in iron, have high inflammation and my red/white blood cell counts indicate that I'm not fighting infections.  I'm guessing that all of this could be due to the medication changes that I've had in 2020.  She wants to give me supplements to make help my system recover, but I feel like everything we try just makes me feel worse.  I am taking iron supplements and progesterone (I'm in perimenopause).  It's hard to think in terms of months when the days are so long.  I feel like life is passing me by.  My mood has been very low.  It's hard to keep doing this day after day.

 

Present symptoms:  low mood, adrenaline rushes, headache, early waking, head pressure, tingling arms and hands, burning neck, face and scalp, apathy, laziness and overall weirdness of not feeling completely present.

 

I will continue to stay on 15mg in the hopes that I stabilize and can start a 5 or 10% reduction going forward.  The 33% decrease was way too much.  Before this I just had the weird morning waking and arm tingling/burning.  Since reducing mirtazapine, my mental health has really suffered.

 

 

[slowlybacktome]

Today is the first day without progesterone in my “cycle”.  Things are not great.  I feel very spacey/off, dissociated.  I also have head pressure and a migraine.  I don’t have tinnitus, but my head is staticky.  I’m trying to keep my posts updated because I went back through my 2017/2018 posts and they weren’t as detailed.

 

My symptoms during my period are much much worse right now while settling from my dose reduction.  I read on here often that you are doing something by not doing anything and I truly hope that I can stabilize on 15mg.  It was suggested that the 15mg was too high when my doctor added lexapro which really kicked off all of my issues.  I wonder if I will need to go lower to get any real relief.  I guess the fact that I didn’t have many of these symptoms at 22.5mg does in fact mean that it’s withdrawal and things will stabilize at some point.

[slowlybacktome]

Still holding on 15mg.  I thought things were improving and I was stabilizing.  Slept ok last night, woke with the usual skin burning and some disorientation.  Took a shower and was looking forward to an appointment at the salon.  I was feeling a bit depersonalized (I actually don’t know if this is what I have but call it after some research) on my drive there.  While at the salon, I had an enormous wave of depersonalization which transitioned into a panic attack.  I haven’t had one since mid 2020.  Since then my tapering symptoms have increased.  I still have depersonalization, heavy head pressure, tinnitus (it’s a static in my head), skin sensitivity, burning head, face, arms and legs.  I have hyoercausis and am depressed about not feeling well for a year now with no end in site.  It almost feels sharp inside my body.  I’m feeling so discouraged that at 9.5 weeks I seem to be getting worse (at least today).  I hope one day to look back at these posts as being a difficult pet of my life that I am stronger for now.