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Trazodone to Remeron...


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Psychiatrist said I could take the Remeron with the Trazodone 100mg and then taper off the trazodone.  Been on the trazodone 100mg for 2.5 months but doesn't seem to help or that i could notice.  Holding at 11mg Valium for 15 days so far.  Had 4 sleepless nights in those 2 weeks.  0, 6hrs, 0 the last 3 nights.  6 was the best i have gotten in 2 months since starting taper.  I'm desperate for sleep and too early in taper for this symptom to be so severe.  Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.  I have a wonderful pregnant wife and a 6 year old son.  They need me and I need them so bad.  Thanks in advance.
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I WAS ON TRAZ AND IT DIDN'T WORK GREAT, MADE ME VERY CONGESTED AND STUFFED UP. I SWITCHED TO REMERON 15MG AND IT PUT ME TO SLEEP WITH NO SIDE EFFECTS. ALTHOUGH, WHEN I WENT OFF TRAZ I HAD NO WITHDRAWL............WHEN I TAPERED REMERON I HAD TERRIBLE HYPNIC JERKS FOR A COUPLE MONTHS..........THEY GOT PREGRESSIVELY BETTER, FIRST WEEK WAS REALLY BAD.
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  • 1 month later...
Sorry to be a bother, but wanted to follow up on this. I’ve realized that I’m going to have to try something for sleep to be able to continue taper from 11mg Valium and continue to function as I am at breaking point with no sleep. Thankfully no other terrible symptoms besides some head pressure and expected elevated anxiety and depression (which I would be happy to deal with if I could sleep some). The failed rapid taper of Valium triggered insomnia which has not lifted. I have tapered down to 75mg of Trazodone (from 100mg) and didn’t notice any extra symptoms (besides my already horrendous insomnia) since it does not work. I have tried 7.5mg Remeron 2 nights in a row now and it was better sleep, not great, but could live with it. Basically 4-6 hours of mostly light dream sleep, but wife said I was snoring at one point. I am going to try the prescribed 15mg Remeron tonight just to see if that dose does any more for me for 2-3 days. If not, I plan to drop back to 7.5mg. Any opinion on reducing the Trazodone? Maybe drop to 50mg for a week? Thank you so much in advance.
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15 MG OF REMERON PUT ME TO SLEEP EVERY NIGHT............ 7.5 MG DID NOT. IT WAS HARD TO TAPER OFF. I WENT OFF TRAZADONE WITH NO PROBLEM BUT IT DIDNT WORK NEARLY AS WELL AND GAVE ME BAD SIDE EFFECTS.
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Thank you for your reply. How long had you been on Trazodone? I would love to just drop it but have been on for 3 months. I have taken 7.5mg remeron 2 nights, then 15mg last night.  All 3 nights I seemed to get 5-6 hrs of sleep with what seemed like a lot of dream. I don’t know how long it takes to get dependent on Remeron, but I figured I’d give it at least 5-7 days and then decide to drop or not.  If I could guarantee it would work for awhile, I’d be willing to deal with the withdrawal down the road. Appreciate all opinions and comments always as I don’t have any other good source to listen to. 
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I would stay on the lowest dose of remeron that helps. 15mg does not necessarily help more with sleep than 7.5mg. The sleep effect is greater at the lower doses. Remeron did help me in w/d but it has side effects that increase the higher up you go, and it's difficult for many of us to taper, so the lower you can stay, the better.

 

It might take a little while to have effect as you have a lot going on with a few different medications. If you can tolerate melatonin, that might be useful to add to the mix. It would be good if you could get off the trazadone b/c that might be effecting the sedative effect of the remeron.

 

that being said, some folks do fine on the 15mg, but thought I'd offer my experience. I hope you get some sleep soon!

 

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I really appreciate the words, openroad.  I’ve highly respected your journey that I have read and wish you nothing but the best down your home stretch. My gut agrees with everything you’ve said. I could probably just cut down to 50mg Trazodone for a week, then 25 mg for a week and be done with it. I didn’t notice anything from 100 to 75 drop, but it wasn’t working to begin with.  I slept pretty good on 7.5mg Remeron last night. My son screamed at 4am but still was able to get some light sleep after that. Was dead asleep for 3-4 hours prior. I don’t know how to evenly cut the pill down anymore at this time with out scales and be consistent to test lower levels. I can tolerate melatonin as well so agree I could add that to mix. I’m just trying to get stabilized, and functioning, as well as I am able with baby coming. Then I will most likely get rid of the baclofen via slow taper next as it works on GABA-B, then resume Valium taper, and save remeron for last if I end up keeping it. I’ve read baclofen is not good to have in system during Valium taper due to its action on GABA but I could be wrong. All medicines were prescribed for muscle issues prior to my failed rapid taper of Valium. They did not find anything conclusive over time and lots of tests, and suspect virus caused my muscle breakdown, and then I had slow recovery from there. In tolerance to both Valium and Baclofen and they do not have any affect on my body or symptoms any more. Doctors obviously were not familiar with discontinuation syndrome associated with medicines they were prescribing me even though they definitely helped for a while.
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That sounds like a good plan of action.

My understanding is that baclofen is a muscle relaxer. It would make sense to get off that, like you said.

The fewer drugs you can be on, the better. This way, when you get symptoms, side effects, or even benefits, you have a clearer idea of what's what.

Even being on just Valium and Mirtazapine for the last year, I wasn't always sure what was a V w/d symptom vs. a M side effect!

 

Glad you have a plan and that you got sleep last night!

 

Open road

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I agree and thank you! One last question for you…Did, and/or does, the Remeron help you sleep and to what degree would you say? Did the remeron seem to help your sleep for a decent or continued period of time?  Is sleep still an issue for you or is it fairly consistent now? I know very few of us get anything like 7-8 hrs consistently, just curious your experience with remeron and sleep. I just feel I’m at breaking point, holding for 9 weeks, and not much improvement in sleep department with still a long taper journey ahead of me. As badly as I don’t want to take anything else, I just don’t see how I can hold much longer like this. If I could sleep a little bit I would feel much more confident moving forward and can handle the head pressure and occasional ear ringing. The anxiety and depression I am experiencing is mostly related to sleep deprivation issue.  Just looking for a little confidence moving into a sensible taper next (now that I know!).
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I was on trazadone for a couple months and it never worked great. It also made me VERY congested, i was constantly stuffed up. Remeron worked great for sleep and did for many months, i still use it occasionally for sleep.
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When I was in acute, I had awful insomnia and akathisia. It was like being in a torture chamber for 24 hours/day. The remeron broke my acute phase. It made me functional again and it helped me sleep. I believe this is because I was having huge histamine blowout from benzo w/d, and remeron is a very strong antihistamine. Since then, I haven't struggled (yet) with insomnia (though I've had a lot of other sxs). Insomnia could still happen as I taper off the last bit of remeron. We shall see.

 

What I can tell you is that there are people on here who suffered terribly from insomnia and they did not find it helpful to keep adding more drugs to the mix. I saw in a separate thread that you are also taking 2.5mg melatonin + unisom. Those are fairly harmless, but point is you're on a lot of stuff. Based on your signature, it sounds like trazadone w/d is what created your insomnia. (I, personally, took trazadone twice and both times had very troubling experiences - it did NOT help me sleep). It sounds like the traz doesn't work for you. Maybe try to get off the trazadone before adding more drugs?

 

But you have to make the decisions that are best for you. There is an insomnia board and you might find some other folks who can relate to what you're going through who can give better advice. It sucks, any way you cut it. But it will end!

 

Open road

 

 

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openroad, I really appreciate you taking time talking through this with me. The insomnia was triggered by my failed rapid taper of Valium (didn’t know better) in signature line.  I didn’t know what was happening and in really bad shape and prescriber gave me Trazodone. It didn’t seem to hurt or help but I just kept taking it for some reason. i have been in survival mode since. I haven’t been taking the unisom or melatonin since I started the remeron and slept some at least (4-6 hrs all 5 nights). I dropped the Trazodone down to 50mg last night and took the 7.5mg remeron again for 5th straight day. I slept again for about 5 hrs in what seemed like a lot of dream sleep, but fell asleep fairly quickly after taking it. So noticed no change from dropping Trazodone yet, just like I didn’t when I dropped from 100 to 75mg.  I just need to stabilize to work and be there for my family with new baby coming.  I have still been working and going to exercise every single day even 0 sleep days.  Even went on a trip with family and fought like hell through 3-4 sleepless nights in a 2 week span. I feel I should give the remeron a chance as it seems to be my only hope to stabilize and function. I feel I need to take the remeron consistently and get rid of the Trazodone semi slowly. Maybe wait a few days or week and see if anything pops up, but if not, cut it to 25 and then be rid of it. Just would really appreciate your thoughts regarding this thought process. It’s like I’ve been in acute since the failed rapid taper. I’ve been fighting like crazy for myself and family. I have noticed the remeron seems to give me a little hope and slightly improved mood too. The next couple few days are critical for me I feel in decision making sense. Really appreciate you and all others that have tried to help me. I hope one day I will be able to pay it forward. I am going to keep fighting.
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Sorry - I totally misread your sig line. re: the trazadone and insomnia connection.

 

But, honestly, I think you are doing great. And though 5 hours/night doesn't feel great, it may be the new normal for a little bit. There are folks on this site that would kill for 5 hours/night. I don't say that to minimize your suffering, but to try to reframe 5 hours as being a decent amount of sleep.

 

I wish there were more I could do to help, but letting go of the traz and giving the remeron a chance seems like a solid idea. Remeron has some pretty unpleasant side effects. Vivid dreams/nightmares are one; weight gain is another. For me, it was worth dealing with that to stay functional this past year. But you should be aware should they pop up.

 

Also, you can take melatonin with the remeron. If you do, keep it low, like 1mg or 1.5mg. But it might help you get through this patch.

 

One of our members has this on their signature line: If you're going through hell, keep going.

 

Keep going, Faith Hope Love.

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Thank you for the words. I completely agree…an average of 5 hours per night I can still function and have to be grateful as I have already experienced about 25 sleepless nights (or less than 1hr) since the failed taper at end of September 2022. I was so crazy, fighting and didn’t know any better I reinstated at 15mg, didn’t feel any different than at 2.5mg, then kept cutting down to 11mg a complete insomniac mess.  I hope the Trazodone reduction isn’t too large, but since I didn’t notice anything from 100mg to 75mg drop, I’d continue cutting the pill into quarters and keep kicking a quarter unless something happens. I guess my best plan is to continue at 7.5mg Remeron and stay at 50mg Trazodone and see what happens, if anything, over next week then cut Traz again. I thank you, very sincerely.
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That sounds like a solid plan! I'm a big believer in having a plan! You can always change it if you need to, but it gives you direction. Keep us posted ...
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I am now down to 25mg Trazodone and have remained at 7.5mg remeron now for 12 days. I’ve had 10 nights of probably an average of 5 hours sleep.  Mainly dream sleep after I awaken 1-2 hrs after falling asleep. The 1-2 hours is deep sleep where time moves fast, no dream, and feel great except it’s only 1am. 2 nights I had very little sleep out of 12. My gut still thinks I should give the remeron a chance, be confident, and get Trazodone out of system.  Just using this as sounding board because I can’t wear my wife out being pregnant with these questions.  I just don’t know if I have much more in my tank to risk not taking anything and trying to stabilize through work and birth of my daughter next month. I’m just at point I feel where I need to set definitive plan as I am definitely coming off Trazodone (with no noticeable negative affects so far). I obviously would love to take nothing else, but don’t know if that is in the cards at this point. I know I plan to begin taper again April 2023 after baby on ground for a month. Any feedback appreciated.
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Now 3 of 13 nights with 0-1 hr drift off dream sleep around 4am. Just under 2 weeks on 7.5mg Remeron.  Questioning whether I should get off if  since less than 2 weeks on it or stick it out.  I would assume it would work a little better earlier on as so doubt Trazodone would affect it that much.  Just sad that I’ve been holding the Valium at 11mg for over 2 months and have so many sleepless, or near sleepless, nights.
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  • 1 month later...
Just an update on this thread...mainly for others who search the forum.  I am better stabilizing on the 7.5mg Mirtazapine after getting off the Trazodone fairly quickly.  I wish I hadn't felt the need to add another medication but holding alone did not seem to be sustainable to function.  I have also been holding the 11mg valium for 3.5 months which also seems to be helping.  It has required extreme patience and hope.  I am not sleeping great however much better.  My wife just had 2nd child last week, and I was able to be present and it also has given me something else to fight for.  I plan to start the valium taper again in near future when I feel my stabilization "plateaus".  For now, I seem to be (non-linearly) improving/stabilizing so will hold for a bit longer and baby girl has only been on the ground for 1 week.  The cortisol/histamine/adrenaline surges all seem to be improving as result of holding the valium and/or adding the 7.5mg Mirt.  My next taper plan is to cut to 10.5mg valium (a 4.5% reduction) and hold for at least 2 weeks.
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This is really great news. Congrats on your new baby! The remeron helped me stabilize, as well. Don't worry - you will be able to taper it down later on and 7.5mg is a low dose, so that's a good thing in regard to a future taper.

 

I'm nearly off it, myself, and it's been okay. 

 

For now, enjoy your new family member and keep getting stable! This is our brain chemistry. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

Openroad

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  • 2 weeks later...

open road: Thank you so much!  You have been a blessing to me, and I know to many others.  I finally felt confident and stable enough to reduce from 11mg to 10.5mg valium 8 days ago!  Didn't think that day was going to come.  Our baby girl is doing great.  I get my rear end out of bed everyday at 6am (sleep or no sleep) and take my 6 year old son to school before work so my wife can tend to our baby girl.  Everyday is a struggle, but I continue to fight!  Again, thank you for your support and kind words over these past months.  And most importantly, congratulations on getting off valium!  That is awesome and looks like you are almost off mirt too.  Well done and wish you happiness and complete healing!

 

keagan: I wish the low dose mirt put me into a pleasant coma every night!  I do believe it helps my sleep though slightly (in addition to appetite and mood).  It fortunately has not made me gain any weight.

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