Valerie1: Whoops - made a mistake and updosed Mirtazapine - now have akathisia

[Shep]

I have no idea, Valerie. You've been saying it was the updose in MIrtazapine that caused the akathisia. Until you're able to stop changing things, it's impossible to help you. You've likely destabilized your nervous system to the point you're unable to tolerate a lot of things. That's called nervous system kindling. 

 

Please let us know when you're ready to get on a set schedule and can continue with your drugs and symptoms journal. Then we can help you set up a game plan for getting out of the mess you're in. 

[Valerie1]

text.txt
 

 

[Valerie1]

May 5,

 

4:30 am.  Woke up feeling restless. Slept about 5 hours total.  Yesterday I felt so calm when I woke up.  What gives?

8:30. Took propranolol 5 mg

9 am. drs.  Appointment.  He wants me to take gabapentin which my support group says is a no no when tapering Mirtazapine.  Will hold off on taking it as I don’t want to mess up my cns so much.  I did like the idea of switching to atenolol for akathisia as my heart has had some irregular beats lately

10-3:30. Very distressing internal akathisia, not much external.  I spend hours researching akathisia.  Yesterday I felt so well for a lot of the day.  Why so much worse today?  Maybe it’s the addition of turmeric I took?

3:30. Tool 1 mg ambien.  Took 10 mg propranolol.
Took epsom salt bath,  felt better for 1 hour

6:30. Dinner,  supplements- tart cherry, milk peptides and calcium, magnesium and zinc capsule.  Took I ibuprofen 400 mg

7:30. Akathisia now external too.  Shaking and pacing in bedroom

9 pm. Mirtazapine- 1.65 mg

10 pm. Ambien 2.5 mg

10:30. Bed time.  Hope for a better tomorrow 

 

 

 

 

[Shep]

8 hours ago, Valerie1 said:

10-3:30. Very distressing internal akathisia, not much external.  I spend hours researching akathisia.  Yesterday I felt so well for a lot of the day.  Why so much worse today?

 

Perhaps because you didn't spend hours on the internet yesterday? You may have sent yourself into an emotional spiral and wound up your nervous system. Staring at the internet causes many people to have increased symptoms. It's very stimulating to the nervous system.

 

8 hours ago, Valerie1 said:

9 am. drs.  Appointment.  He wants me to take gabapentin which my support group says is a no no when tapering Mirtazapine.  Will hold off on taking it as I don’t want to mess up my cns so much.  I did like the idea of switching to atenolol for akathisia as my heart has had some irregular beats lately

 

You haven't posted for awhile, but it looks like your drugs are still all over the place. And now you want to switch out more drugs?

This is where you were earlier:

 

  

On 4/25/2022 at 10:14 AM, Valerie1 said:

9 am Propranolol 5 mg,  fish oil, 

3 pm. Propranolol 5 mg , 1 mg ambien

9 pm 1.68 mg Mirtazapine, 1.5 mg ambien 

 

And this is where you are now:

 

8 hours ago, Valerie1 said:

May 5,

 

8:30. Took propranolol 5 mg

3:30. Tool 1 mg ambien.  Took 10 mg propranolol.

9 pm. Mirtazapine- 1.65 mg

10 pm. Ambien 2.5 mg

 

 

You've gone from 2.5 mg Ambien in total to 3.5 mg and from 10 mg Propranolol in total to 15 mg.

 

If you're not able to stick to a schedule, we won't be able to help you. You'll need to work with your doctor.

 

[Valerie1]

Shep, thanks for responding.  I dropped the fish oil as it seemed to be making my akathisia worse.  I upped the propranolol and ambien slightly as my akathisia was been getting worse and I was having a hard time sleeping.  I went to the Dr to see if he had any new ideas but that doesn’t mean I agreed to take the Gabapentin. We talked about reducing my Mirtazapine dose  to 1.55 mg to see if that would help my akathisia.  But I tried a small test drop to 1.65 mg to make sure I didn’t react too violently.  That is possibly another reason my akathisia is so distressing right now.  I’ve only been sleeping 4 or 5 hours the last few nights.   I am really inspired by your story that you had severe akathisia and over came it.  Would you be willing to share some of the techniques that got you through it.  Thanks for your help with my tapering 

[Shep]

1 hour ago, Valerie1 said:

 Would you be willing to share some of the techniques that got you through it.  Thanks for your help with my tapering 

 

Valerie, you're not taking the advice I'm giving, so I doubt I'm helping. By continuing to bounce your drugs and supplements around, you're only cementing the level of kindling to your nervous system. It may take a complete nervous system crash before you get it.

 

Here is my toolkit. It's set up based on my worse symptom, which was DP/DR, but anything that's calming to the nervous system can also help with akathesia.

 

Shep’s Toolkit

[JanCarol]

2 hours ago, Valerie1 said:

 I dropped the fish oil as it seemed to be making my akathisia worse.  I upped the propranolol and ambien slightly as my akathisia was been getting worse and I was having a hard time sleeping.  I went to the Dr to see if he had any new ideas but that doesn’t mean I agreed to take the Gabapentin. We talked about reducing my Mirtazapine dose  to 1.55 mg to see if that would help my akathisia.  But I tried a small test drop to 1.65 mg to make sure I didn’t react too violently.  

Whoa, that's a lot of changes - in less than a week?

If something works, how would you know what it is?

If something makes things worse, how would you know which one?

I hope you see the Sun today.

[Lauren90]

On 5/6/2022 at 4:40 AM, Valerie1 said:

Shep, thanks for responding.  I dropped the fish oil as it seemed to be making my akathisia worse.  I upped the propranolol and ambien slightly as my akathisia was been getting worse and I was having a hard time sleeping.  I went to the Dr to see if he had any new ideas but that doesn’t mean I agreed to take the Gabapentin. We talked about reducing my Mirtazapine dose  to 1.55 mg to see if that would help my akathisia.  But I tried a small test drop to 1.65 mg to make sure I didn’t react too violently.  That is possibly another reason my akathisia is so distressing right now.  I’ve only been sleeping 4 or 5 hours the last few nights.   I am really inspired by your story that you had severe akathisia and over came it.  Would you be willing to share some of the techniques that got you through it.  Thanks for your help with my tapering 

Hi! How is your akathisia? Hope you’re doing well. 

[Valerie1]

Hi Lauren. Thanks so much for asking. I’m still having some but it has improved a lot. Some days I have quite a bit of restless legs feelings, like I can’t sit still but other days hardly at all. I’m especially pleased that the severe internal restless feeling has improved so much in recent weeks . I kept having Drs want me to start taking Gabapentin or Parkinson’s meds and now I’m glad I resisted.  I stopped taking daily propanolol and daily ambien and I think that has helped me feel better. I believe maybe half of my symptoms were a weird reaction from ambien (which is strange as I’ve used it for years but not every day ).  Now I find if I just take it a few nights a week I’m doing ok.  I’m holding on my tapering dose of Mirtazapine of 1.65 mg for some months until I feel totally stabilized. I’m nervous to declare complete victory as it’s only been a few weeks that I’ve been feeling better but I’m hopeful that this improvement will continue. Thanks so much for asking. Do you have akathisia too?

[Lauren90]

4 hours ago, Valerie1 said:

Hi Lauren. Thanks so much for asking. I’m still having some but it has improved a lot. Some days I have quite a bit of restless legs feelings, like I can’t sit still but other days hardly at all. I’m especially pleased that the severe internal restless feeling has improved so much in recent weeks . I kept having Drs want me to start taking Gabapentin or Parkinson’s meds and now I’m glad I resisted.  I stopped taking daily propanolol and daily ambien and I think that has helped me feel better. I believe maybe half of my symptoms were a weird reaction from ambien (which is strange as I’ve used it for years but not every day ).  Now I find if I just take it a few nights a week I’m doing ok.  I’m holding on my tapering dose of Mirtazapine of 1.65 mg for some months until I feel totally stabilized. I’m nervous to declare complete victory as it’s only been a few weeks that I’ve been feeling better but I’m hopeful that this improvement will continue. Thanks so much for asking. Do you have akathisia too?

Hi! I’m so glad you’re feeling better. Thanks great news and it always makes me feel better to hear of others improving. Yes I have agitation, mild to moderate akathisia, or very troublesome inner restlessness, however we want to categorize it. I don’t have to move but I’m extremely uncomfortable in my chest and armpits, sometimes abdomen. Really makes me just want to writhe and wiggle out of my skin. I’ve had it two times prior but it went away after a couple of weeks. This bout has gone on for a couple of months, but I had a week break about a week ago. But other symptoms became a little stronger during this time so perhaps I was just distracted by those. I don’t know. But it’s back this week. A little discouraging but it is what it is. 

[Valerie1]

Lauren, when it was at its worst every afternoon, I would take an epsom salt bath and watch netflix and wiggle my legs like crazy in the bath.  That seemed to help.  I’m so sorry you’re experiencing it.  People kept telling me time was the answer and of course they were right but it’s hard to believe it when you’re in the thick of it.  Have you found anything that helped yet?  How are you sleeping ?  I was only on 5 to 10 mg of propranolol too but found it gave me insomnia if I took it at night. I, so sorry you’re experiencing the Akathisia.  Do you think it’s from your taper?

[Lauren90]

6 minutes ago, Valerie1 said:

Lauren, when it was at its worst every afternoon, I would take an epsom salt bath and watch netflix and wiggle my legs like crazy in the bath.  That seemed to help.  I’m so sorry you’re experiencing it.  People kept telling me time was the answer and of course they were right but it’s hard to believe it when you’re in the thick of it.  Have you found anything that helped yet?  How are you sleeping ?  I was only on 5 to 10 mg of propranolol too but found it gave me insomnia if I took it at night. I, so sorry you’re experiencing the Akathisia.  Do you think it’s from your taper?

I’ve been taking epsom salt baths. Meditating helps in the moment as well. Luckily my sleep remains unaffected. For that I am so so sooooo grateful for. Yeah I think it’s from my taper and life stressors setting it off. Every time I got it in the past it was during a stressful moment. I think all my life changes are just catching up to me and further upsetting my CNS. 

[member21]

Click on the link "Shep's Toolkit" doesn't show any list or such thing.

[Shep]

17 minutes ago, member21 said:

Click on the link "Shep's Toolkit" doesn't show any list or such thing.

 

Please note you'll need to be signed into the website to view that because my story is in the benzo forum, which is members' only. 

[member21]

Even while am logged in...the link points to page 24 of the benzo forum. Do not find any tools

[Shep]

On 11/3/2022 at 8:40 AM, member21 said:

Even while am logged in...the link points to page 24 of the benzo forum. Do not find any tools

 

This links works:

 

Shep’s Toolkit

 

And you're right - it is on page 24 of my thread. If you make it that far, scroll down to about the 8th post on that page. 

[Lauren90]

Hi Valerie!

 

just checking in to see how you’re doing. Hope all is well and that the akathisia has stayed away!

[Valerie1]

Lauren, that is so sweet of you to check on me. It means so much. And yes my akathisia has been much improved since the end of May.  I think it was a combination of some mistakes in my Mirtazapine tapering and taking too high a dose of zolpidem daily.  ( 5 mg of zolpidem is still considered a very low dose but I guess it was too much for me).  Anyway, when I stopped taking the ambien nightly and also reduced my dose when I did take it to 2.5 mg, the akathisia rapidly improved.  That’s not to say I haven’t experienced some wacky side effects from my Mirtazapine tapering. I’m doing a really slow taper - like 2% a month but with every taper it seems to be some different side effects that are quite crop up for a month or two and then rapidly disappear. These have included tinnitus, intense bladder pain, plantar fasciitis and now intense itching.  But with each new thing that crops up I remind myself that it’s much better than akathisia.  I’m going so slowly because I really don’t want to trigger the akathisia again by going too fast.  
Sorry - that was rather long winded.  Probably a longer answer than you were asking for.  How are you doing? How are your akathisia symptoms doing?

 

[Valerie1]

I realized I haven’t updated my post in a llong time. I was writing a lot when I had Akathisia for 3 months in 2022. At that time I started having tinnitus which I know realize is a very common withdrawal symptom.  I was having a hard time sleeping with the tinnitus so was taking sleep medicine every night and increased my Mirtazapine dose 15% to try to stop the tinnitus.  It did actually stop the tinnitus but I started having increased akathisia which I attributed to the Mirtazapine .  However, when I stopped taking nightly zolpidem the Akathisia quickly stopped.  So I think the Akathisia was actually mostly caused by the increased dose and frequency of the zolpidem (ambien) . Ultimately the Akathisia lasted just 3 months which felt like a lifetime but now seems a distant memory.   I’m sure I could have tapered quicker if I wasn’t so scared of triggering Akathisia or tinnitus again but I slowed things down to about 3 % a month and have been feeling quite normal for the most part.  Thanks for the support I’ve received here for my taper and I especially want to give hope to anyone who might be suffering from Akathisia with your taper 

[Boges11]

Thanks for hope, glad you’re better!!! I’m in quite the situation and trying to find hope.