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Coming off mirtazapine after short term use...

T

The-Future

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 4, 2010
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216
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Brisbane
I was recently prescribed mirtazapine for insomnia and anxiety since my new GP didn't want me on benzos anymore. It's been working great for insomnia but it's been 2 weeks now and in a way I think it's been making me feel worse through the days, a lot less motivated and kind of empty inside (also have weird body zaps straight after dosing). On benzos I was the most social I have been in my life and extermely motivated with my music and job. Since mirtazapine I haven't been working at all and pretty much avoid everyone. After trying all SSRI's and now mirtazapine, anti-depressants just don't seem to work for me.

Since i've only been on mirtazapine for a few weeks 15mg and recently increased to 30mg, should I need to taper off or can I just stop it? I'm going to rely on my benzo stash until my first phycologist appointment and see what she has to say.
 
Hey comrade,

I got the same thing from mirtazapine, it ruined me throughout the days with fatigue, no motivation... psychiatrists said it would go away but never seemed to.

Two weeks has not been that long, you should be fine to just stop. You may have some trouble sleeping though which the benzodiazepines may help with, be careful though as you and I have both had problems with benzodiazepines in the past. :)
 
Thanks man, just got a big lot of valiums in so it's gonna be hard but I'm gonna be careful and only use when neccesary.
 
^ Good luck, just remember how hard it is to come off them... I've had a couple of small doses of 10-15mg recently and it seems my tolerance has gone down so I could feel it, but there was that temptation to take more. Luckily my girlfriend is the one who gave me those and she knows about my problems and that it's a bad idea for me to take the regularly again.
 
I just ate a sheet at a time till they were gone. WORST drug ever to give to someone who's 140kg obese.
 
Mirtazapine is one interesting chemical, such an obscure one, even with a slight 5ht-2a agonist. Energetic at higher dosages, tiring at lower dosages. And the halflife, my god.. The halfife is LONG, it's like a 3-day ordeal when you administer this chemical.

I have noticed that within 1 hour and a half it is almost impossible to stay awake, and if you have a bad setting (may be only me) you get really dysphoric and nothing feels good. Though if I take it on a good setting I feel fine.

The next day is absolute death, make sure you have no plans. I managed to do a physics test and score a B on it, no idea how. People kept telling me I looked like I was about to die. The next day feels like you haven't slept in 3 days. The day after that if feels like you had around 4 hours sleep. And finally the 4th day you're all good again.

It's said to be a pretty good antidepressant too.
I got all of the brain zaps and everyhting with this chemical, and I also experienced the most interesting delierious-like CEVs.
 
^ I hated it, the fatigue never went away and it did not help my depression very much at all unfortunately. I was prescribed it in hospital, they chose this over SSRI's as I had manic episodes caused by sertraline and citalopram in the past.

What doses were you using when you had these bad experiences?
 
I had really good experiences with mirtazapine, but I was taking it for anxiety rather than depression. I was already far too energetic, full of adrenaline, racing thoughts etc which SSRI's made a lot worse, so the sedation from mirtazapine was a god send for me. It did make me put on weight though, about a kilo a month, so I only stayed on it for 6 months. My old house mate on the other hand, was always skinny as anything but absolutely ballooned on mirtazapine, she put on about 20 kilos.

IIRC though mirtazapine is one anti depressant that you don't need to worry too much about coming off, as it doesn't have a 'discotinuation syndrome' like SSRI's.

Now I know that mirtazapine is meant to be one of the strongest H1 antihistamines available and on the odd occasion I've tried using it to deal with the opiate histamine reaction for which it seems absolutely useless, and I have no idea why that would be.
 
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^ That's strange it hasn't helped with opioids for you, I used to find it worked well for that (had access to some years ago before I was Rx'd it), in fact I remember it being listed in one of the potentiation threads due to it's sedative and anti-histamine properties.

That's interesting about the discontinuation, I hadn't heard about that. :)
 
I was using 30mg, though the tablets expired in 2006, but they were kept in good conditions.
I saw my bathroom under my eyelids, when I was meditiating in the shower. So damn weird, I try to get in a hypnagogic state, and this shot my right there.
Toughest struggle back to bed though, so tired.
 
I'm sticking to 15mg whenever I have trouble sleeping and no zaps, works great. I don't feel too groggy in the morning and if I do a coffee seems to work. As far as I know it has no interactions with many popular drugs.
 
^ I read on BL once that someone had a severe reaction combining mirtazapine with psilocybin mushrooms. Not sure whether it was a one off or there is an interaction.

Also, if you do start feeling tired on that, 30mg is actually less sedating than 15mg.
 
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Luckily I'm not a fan of shrooms. I seemed to get the zaps a lot more on 30mg which made me combine with benzos to combat it. 15mg and I don't get any zaps, plus it's still giving me the muchies like crazy the next day which is great because I want to put on weight. I've put on nearly 5kgs since starting this stuff a few weeks ago. Definitely not a drug for the obese.
 
Footscrazy said:
^ I read on BL once that someone had a severe reaction combining mirtazapine with psilocybin mushrooms. Not sure whether it was a one off or there is an interaction.
Click to expand...

I think mirtazapine might actually potentiate some psychedelics? It will be listed in the big 'psychiatric medications and recreational drugs' FAQ that's on BL somewhere.

Also, I found 30mg pretty damn sedating... I think the stimulating effects might kick in at higher doses, or maybe it was just me.
 
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