Mental Health Mirtazapine making me very angry

[truenamebrand]

I've been on Mirtazapine for about two months now, 30mg. Up until very recently I actually felt a marginal difference in my depression. Wasn't knocking my socks off or anything, but at least noticeably less depressed (anxiety unchanged). However, I'm now finding myself getting very angry, very easily. Starting needless arguments with my girlfriend almost on a daily basis.

My question is, has anyone who's taken mirtazapine experienced this? And if so, was it something that stuck around until discontinuation was the only option? I don't see the doctor for another few weeks, but would cutting the dose in half perhaps make a difference? I'm very much opposed to the vast majority of antidepressants and have yet to find something that really, genuinely helps, with the exception Wellbutrin for a short period of time. I'd like to hang in there a little longer in the hopes of this medication bringing me some legitimate benefit, but if this isn't going to relent it's only going to cause more harm than good...

 

[embryo923]

Lower doses of mirtazapine can be extremely sedating, idk if you experienced this when you initially began taking it. That's why I stopped taking it, it didn't make me angry, but I also didn't take it for a full 2 months, only like 3 weeks or so. It's a dirty drug, it works on several parts of the brain, so there are usually a variety of side effects. You could try increasing to 45mg and see if that helps or makes it worse, and if it makes it worse that means you probably should try a different antidep. Just my opinion. I've tried a lot of different anti deps and found that I prefer not being on any at all, I just am rx'd klonopin right now, though I have my own drug addiction issues with DXM.

 

[Cyanoide]

I've had this experience with mirtazapine too. The strange thing was that I usually got irritated and angry in the evening. I always took my dose before going to sleep. This was when I took high doses, 45 mg IDK. It seems like the effects somehow waned in the evening before taking my dose, and for 3-4 hours I always was irritated.

I still take mirtazapine for sleep, but only 7.5 mg, that's very sedating. 15 mg is not more sedating. In small doses, mirtazapine works as a heavily potent sedating antihistamine. It doesn't have any antidepressant effects with such small doses.

 

[truenamebrand]

Thanks for the responses. I’ve continued to take it and the anger issue is definitely there but I find it’s manageable since I know where it’s coming from.

Also, I am now about 3 months off benzodiazepines, which I took for the better part of 14 years. I think the first few weeks/months off benzos definitely contributed to my irritability, as it’s not quite as intense as it was.

I’m going to keep taking it at least until I see the psychiatrist, and see what he says. One thing is for sure, I am NOT open to SSRIs, SNRIs, and other commonly prescribed antidepressants, so my options are pretty limited...

 

[Jabberwocky]

I have been on 45mg of mirtazapine (Remeron) a day for several years now, and luckily it helps my depression and anxiety a lot with minimal side effects (just some weight gain, really).

One day however, I was really feeling down about something and foolishly took 180mg at once with the false assumption that more would be better. First I got a severe case of restless legs, which turned into a feeling of tension throughout my entire body. Then I felt myself becoming unusually angry over nothing in particular, until it was bordering on rage.

I went outside to shovel snow and slipped on some ice or something, which sent me into a full-blown screaming, cursing, shovel-throwing meltdown! (Thank God my neighbors weren't around.) I was so unnerved that I went online and started reading about rage disorders, thinking that I had seriously lost my mind. The feeling wore off after a few hours or so. I never took more than 45mg again... that's for sure!

30mg may be too much for you, or it may just be the wrong medication for you altogether. Everybody's brain chemistry is different. My dad takes Effexor for his anxiety, but it made my anxiety worse. There are so many options available, with a little research you should be able to find something that works for you.

Peace, Love and Faith,
Dreamflyer

 

[SebastianSkip]

I haven’t taken remeron but I did experience getting angry easily for months after stopping benzos. I don’t know for sure it was benzo withdrawal but I’ve decided that was probably the reason because of all my lovely symptoms, quick to anger had never really been and never again was a big issue. I’d find myself annoyed and wanting to scream at people, noises were especially triggering. Also, it was delayed, I took klonopin daily for a couple of years then as needed and didn’t think I experienced withdrawal but if the irritability wasn’t something else, it was a delayed withdrawal that lingered for months.

But... magnesium cured it! It’s easy to take too much magnesium (& end up frequently going to the bathroom, yikes) but epsom salt baths work just as well. I used to hate taking baths but it was so effective I ended up liking them. It’s even maybe something nice to do with your girlfriend, light some candles and relax in the tub together. Bonus, epsom salt is super cheap.

 

[truenamebrand]

30mg may be too much for you, or it may just be the wrong medication for you altogether. Everybody's brain chemistry is different. My dad takes Effexor for his anxiety, but it made my anxiety worse. There are so many options available, with a little research you should be able to find something that works for you.

Peace, Love and Faith,
Dreamflyer

I don’t think it’s the right drug for me. Unfortunately, nothing I’ve taken to this point has been either. In the past 16 years I’ve been given:
-Zoloft
-Paxil
-Wellbutrin (3 Times)
-Trazadone
-Effexor
-Zyprexa
-Seroquel
-Lamictal (the most reckless prescription I’ve ever been given; not bipolar)
And now mirtazapine/Remeron

...to name a few.

Not to mention a half dozen different benzos over a period of about 14 years.

Wellbutrin has some positives, but they diminish over time. Mirtazapine has given me the least side effects of any of them, but unfortunately is just not doing the job. “Treatment-resistant major depressive disorder” is pretty accurate.

I’m willing to try antidepressants that fall outside the SSRI/SNRI/MAOI categories, but that is the majority of what doctors want to push.


Sebastian,

Like you, I’m confident in saying now, as more time has passed, that benzo PAWS has played a major role in my anger/irritability. That was bound to happen.

Maybe some day I’ll be trusted with a benzo script again, but for the foreseeable future I have to make due without them...

 

[Jabberwocky]

I don’t think it’s the right drug for me. Unfortunately, nothing I’ve taken to this point has been either. In the past 16 years I’ve been given:
-Zoloft
-Paxil
-Wellbutrin (3 Times)
-Trazadone
-Effexor
-Zyprexa
-Seroquel
-Lamictal (the most reckless prescription I’ve ever been given; not bipolar)
And now mirtazapine/Remeron

...to name a few.

Not to mention a half dozen different benzos over a period of about 14 years.

Wellbutrin has some positives, but they diminish over time. Mirtazapine has given me the least side effects of any of them, but unfortunately is just not doing the job. “Treatment-resistant major depressive disorder” is pretty accurate.

I’m willing to try antidepressants that fall outside the SSRI/SNRI/MAOI categories, but that is the majority of what doctors want to push.


Sebastian,

Like you, I’m confident in saying now, as more time has passed, that benzo PAWS has played a major role in my anger/irritability. That was bound to happen.

Maybe some day I’ll be trusted with a benzo script again, but for the foreseeable future I have to make due without them...

I went on Celexa back in 2002 and switched to Lexapro a few years ago, which are virtually the same thing (citalopram and escitalopram). They've kept me somewhat stable but that's about it.

I added the Remeron/mirtazapine in 2011 and it literally changed my life overnight (being a tetracyclic, it doesn't take 2 weeks to work like SSRIs). I slept soundly the entire night and actually woke up with an appetite... two things that rarely happened for me back then! After 6 years it doesn't work wonders like it did at first, but it's still the best thing I've found yet for my brain chemistry. I've tweaked the dosage a few times and I'm still trying to find my "sweet spot", but I know that it would work a lot better if I weren't struggling on-and-off with various drug addictions (opioids mainly).

Before Celexa I tried Paxil, which was way too strong for me. I could barely keep my eyes open on that stuff.

Before Remeron I tried Wellbutrin, which didn't have any effect on me whatsoever. Since Celexa is an SSRI and Wellbutrin is an NDRI, I thought, "Awesome, I'll be attacking all 3 neurotransmitters at once.", but unfortunately it didn't seem to work that way on me. (It didn't curb my cigarette habit either, which it's also used for.)

Sometime in there I tried switching from Celexa to Effexor (an SNRI), but it made my anxiety worse.

I know what you mean about the benzos. I've been prescribed Ativan for my panic attacks but tend to abuse it quite a bit when I'm going through a rough time for any reason.

Hey, don't you feel like we should have earned honorary degrees in psychopharmacology by now??? 8( I mean, I shouldn't even need to know what a friggin' stereoisomer is, but I do! (LOL, it's not like any of this knowledge has helped me in the crap jobs that I've been forced to take)

Hang in there my friend, and hopefully you'll find something that works just right for you...

 

[SebastianSkip]

Familiar list

I thought lamictal was a b.s. prescription too and a couple of pdocs really tried to push lithium on me. I guess lithium has helped some treatment resistant major depression people with suicidality. It didn’t help me. But, it did finally validate what I already knew. I was getting a lot of side effects from everything I took even at low doses and mental health professionals were, at best, patronizing and telling me it wasn’t the meds. But after I got a blood test for lithium that was much higher than it should have been for the low dose I was on a pdoc told me that I metabolize drugs in such a way that they are more potent with more side effects. The upside of this is I get high easy. Maybe you’ve got something similar going on ...

Like you, no matter what I am not open to the SSRI/SNRI/MAOI meds. There’s only so many freakin times I could go down that route with either no or bad outcomes.

If you haven’t tried it already, gabapentin did it for me. I was prescribed it originally for nerve pain but pdoc was fully on board. I insisted on taking less than dr wanted to prescribe to start and titrated up slower than is typical. Other than making me really sleepy at first it was an easy transition and it’s my ‘miracle’ drug.

It’s expensive because rarely covered by insurance but if you haven’t tried ‘energy work’ I recommend. Idk how, Idk why but it helped me. I did acupuncture and cranio sacral massage. Maybe they did what anti depressants are supposed to do, they just sort of facilitated what I was doing on my own. Like, if I was trying to get better sleep or lessen intrusive thoughts or let go of some past sh*t I’d actually see/feel improvements on what I was working on rather than feeling like it was an unproductive uphill battle. It seems like hooey but I’m not gonna knock results.

 

[truenamebrand]

I am currently prescribed gabapentin, as it was given to me to get off benzos, and I wanted to just keep taking it. I do find it somewhat helpful, but I always use up my script too fast...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Another added benefit of mirtazapine for me is that it completely took away my tolerance for alcohol and its recreational effects. A few drinks basically make me go right from being sober to hung over with nothing enjoyable in between.

I just wish that it had the same effect on other things like opioids.

 

[truenamebrand]

Funny how so many people end up on the mirtazapine-gabapentin combo. My two brothers — also formerly opioid-dependent and major depressive disorder like myself — are also prescribed this combination. Must be a pretty standard go-to for people matching this criteria...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Come to think of it, I don't really find opioids to be that enjoyable anymore either since Remeron, which is just fine by me! I use them very infrequently and it much smaller amounts than I used to.

 

[sadasaulna]

Mirtazapine made me angry too, and my panic came back even worse. Glad to see the back of that stuff.

 

[Runningfox]

^^^^^ gabapentin may be GIVING YOU that restless energy. It did that to me til I built up a huge tolerance . In year 3 it's stopped doing any thing but I'm on high doses n if I don't stick to it I suffer withdrawal

 

[Runningfox]

Good God don't ask. I'm prescribed two dif scripts of it so technically I'm taking around 5000/day. Yeah. It's outta control n I'm trying to get it lowered on my own.
It may be best for you in the anti-alcohol campaign so pls don't get me wrong. I'm not advising you against it. Just noting that it used to gimme buzzy energy like mad.
There's a whole mega thread on it here in BL somewhere. Many ppl feel dif effects on it.