Remeron (Mirtazapine) Withdrawal Support Group

Thank you all for your responses. It gives me reassurance. <3

 

It's crazy that I managed to escape the clutches of benzos relatively easy compared to so many others but Mirtazapine is profoundly difficult. I had assumed 3.75mg was a tiny dose that I could just jump off and be done with it. Nevertheless, I'm going to tuff this one through. I just went to the health store and literally bought out their entire freezer of chicken bone broth to soothe my gut. LOL.

 

One little panic attack last October caused this whole mess of medications that have taken sooooo many months to unravel. NEVER AGAIN!

I noticed that when I dropped to 3.75 in December my withdrawal symptoms got worse.  The lower the dose, the more it affected me.  Don't know why.  At 1mg. I was able to tell when it kicked in after I took it.  At the one hour mark, I would get restless legs, hot flushes and felt a bit of air hunger.  That went away the first night I jumped. 

I'm 24 days off today.  I got excited because I felt so good and I did too much all weekend and ate foods that I don't normally eat.  I felt it last night and today, not bad, but just not as good as two days ago. 

I will say I am feeling much better overall, and while I absolutely needed the mirt at the time, I suspect that it was aggravating my benzo withdrawal symptoms.  I've had a dramatic reduction in symptoms the past 4 days.  Could be a window, but I've never had a window this long and profound before.  Since I jumped from the benzo, my longest window was maybe 24 hours. 

Hi Perth 22, I just saw your question.  This is a rough estimate but I would say that I jumped at around .15 mg.  My son made me a spreadsheet (which stopped at .5 mg) when I started the liquid taper, and my intent was to do a 10% reduction a month, but I got frustrated with that, so I just decided to do .1ml a week.  In the end I jumped about a month earlier than if I had done a 10% a month reduction.  The speed of this worked for me and I could tolerate it. I'd have withdrawal symptoms day 2-4 and then I'd have 3 days of increasing relief.  The only time I slowed down was when I caught a bad cold over Christmas and my benzo symptoms were aggravated for about 2 weeks.

Perth,

Warrior’s pace would have been .15 mg reduction per week.

Hey again everyone. Has anyone here CT'd off mirtazapine and survived? I honestly thought jumping off at 3.75mg was low enough, especially since I used this med for almost 6 months, which I didn't think was long. I was never consistent with this drug, sometimes taking as much as 15mg on bad nights and anything in between. Basically, I'd start off with 3.75mg and if I wasn't alseep within an hour I'd pop another 3.75mg and then another until sleep came.

 

Anyways, I gone 4 nights without anything. The first two days I had horrible IBS. I'm taking some herbs to calm and it seems to be working but now I have the worst insomnia I've ever had - even worse than benzo withdrawal! I can't believe it!

 

Last night I laid in bed from 9:30pm until 4am when I finally got just two hours of light sleep. Now I feel trashed. Has anyone CT'd? If so, how long until you were able to sleep again?

Well, I gave up and last night I took a big rescue dose of 11.25mg so I could sleep. And I did....for 10 hours. It seems mirtazapine is much harder to quit than a benzo for me. But I want off so bad. I will talk to my doctor about this liquid mirtazapine some of you are using. I"m not sure if it's available in Canada.

Hi DJ100,

 

I jumped 22 days ago from a 10 month taper from 7.5 mg. and I did have IBS symptoms during my taper and after my jump.  It went away a few days ago.  It wasn’t as bad as you are describing, but if you tapered too quickly I don’t doubt it would be worse. My taper was very slow.  I pray you have peace and full healing soon as I do for all of you here. 

 

I checked in with you all a few days ago with worsening brain fog, blurry vision and tinnitus.  It all lifted 24 hours later and I’m feeling MUCH better.  No other way to describe it other than I “feel unmedicated” for the first time in over 5 years.  Thank you all who responded to my post last week.  I appreciate you!

[/quote

How slow did you go?  Did you use liquid?  I am planning on taper of 3.5 mg.  Thanks!

]

Hi DJ100,

 

I jumped 22 days ago from a 10 month taper from 7.5 mg. and I did have IBS symptoms during my taper and after my jump.  It went away a few days ago.  It wasn’t as bad as you are describing, but if you tapered too quickly I don’t doubt it would be worse. My taper was very slow.  I pray you have peace and full healing soon as I do for all of you here. 

 

I checked in with you all a few days ago with worsening brain fog, blurry vision and tinnitus.  It all lifted 24 hours later and I’m feeling MUCH better.  No other way to describe it other than I “feel unmedicated” for the first time in over 5 years.  Thank you all who responded to my post last week.  I appreciate you!

[/quote

How slow did you go?  Did you use liquid?  I am planning on taper of 3.5 mg.  Thanks!

]

 

Lookinup,

 

Thanks for bringing us hope. It’s great to hear when someone makes it successfully. I can’t wait to be where you are. I am just about recovered from this recent setback and will be continuing to taper next week. Your post was helpful to me.

Hi DJ100,

 

I jumped 22 days ago from a 10 month taper from 7.5 mg. and I did have IBS symptoms during my taper and after my jump.  It went away a few days ago.  It wasn’t as bad as you are describing, but if you tapered too quickly I don’t doubt it would be worse. My taper was very slow.  I pray you have peace and full healing soon as I do for all of you here. 

 

I checked in with you all a few days ago with worsening brain fog, blurry vision and tinnitus.  It all lifted 24 hours later and I’m feeling MUCH better.  No other way to describe it other than I “feel unmedicated” for the first time in over 5 years.  Thank you all who responded to my post last week.  I appreciate you!

 

Have you had anxiety at the pace that you tapered and what was your method and ratio? Cut&hold or DLMT?

Hi, yes, I had anxiety the way I was tapering and it was causing me to get up and pee like crazy at bedtime. I had every test done to make sure there wasn't any infection or prostate problem too. There was no method to my tapering because I figured getting off mirtazapine would be an afterthought after I managed to get off the benzos slowly and carefully. I was wrong.

 

So I am now starting a proper taper at 7.5mg over the next 3-4 months. I got the dissolving tabs and a 100ml beaker to create a suspended solution. I will use a 1ml syringe to take out 0.5 to 1mg per night. If I bump into withdrawal symptoms with insomnia or anxiety, then I will hold.

 

Is 3-4 months a reasonable taper?

Hi DJ, in fact i asked warrior for anx, but you replied. Thanks.

 

You asked the duration of taper. My answer is simple: You must be kidding! Most people complete their taper at least one year from 7.5 mg. If you do that, you possibly ll get remarkable sxs which are near to benzo sxs. Be careful and search a bit please before you take the action.

Hi, yes, I had anxiety the way I was tapering and it was causing me to get up and pee like crazy at bedtime. I had every test done to make sure there wasn't any infection or prostate problem too. There was no method to my tapering because I figured getting off mirtazapine would be an afterthought after I managed to get off the benzos slowly and carefully. I was wrong.

 

So I am now starting a proper taper at 7.5mg over the next 3-4 months. I got the dissolving tabs and a 100ml beaker to create a suspended solution. I will use a 1ml syringe to take out 0.5 to 1mg per night. If I bump into withdrawal symptoms with insomnia or anxiety, then I will hold.

 

Is 3-4 months a reasonable taper?

 

Unfortunately, no that is not a reasonable taper. Few people are able to taper off in less than a year. Most people spend closer to 2 years tapering. Some people get it done in a little over a year if they push hard but those people seem to report it’s pretty hard. You just have to take your time. There’s

no way to rush this. You can’t really dictate the speed. You have to listen to your body and guage your symptoms.

Oh my goodness, this is devastating news. My doctor thought 3 months was reasonable. And she even checked the product recommendations for tapering to make sure that it was a good idea.

 

What about tapering based on withdrawal symptoms? Like stop and go, every time insomnia sets in?

How long are those on 15mg taking to taper?

Oh my goodness, this is devastating news. My doctor thought 3 months was reasonable. And she even checked the product recommendations for tapering to make sure that it was a good idea.

 

What about tapering based on withdrawal symptoms? Like stop and go, every time insomnia sets in?

 

The doctor thought 3 months was reasonable based on what? Doctors are the front line of pharmaceutical sales. If you ask a Chevy salesmen if they sold you a good car the answer will be yes every time. If you tell them it broke down they will tell you they have never seen that before. When the doctor asks the Remeron rep if their drug injured their patient guess what the asnswer is. Chevy makes the best cars and Remeron has no withdrawal syndrome. If you are experiencing withdrawal from benzos or Remeron be ready for the "I've never heard of that before." They say it to every patient just like the car salesmen says it to every disatsisified customer. However, I have owned a lemon Chevy and I am withdrawing from Remeron for almost a year. If you want to know if Chevy makes good cars ask a former or current owner, do not ask Chevy or the person that sold it to you. If you want to know how to withdraw from Remeron ask someone who has taken and withdrawn from Remeron not the doctor who sold it to you. That's my opinion on that. Doctors are as crooked as anyone else who needs money to the pay the bills, they can believe whatever lies they need to in order to keep the lights on and make their student loan payments. I have had so many doctors say they are not aware of benzo withdrawal and remeron withdrawal that at this point I have to believe their ignorance is deliberate. This thread contains 250 plus pages of people who could not taper in 3 months. There are countless other sites and facebooks pages who say the same. You tuber Erin Green took 2 years and 4 months to taper. Some people can stop with no problems. Some of my friends have Chevy's with 250k miles on em with no problems. It's been 15 years but as you can see I'm still pissed off about that truck. Lol. But seriously, I don't believe doctors can get us out of the mess that their ignorance got us into in the first place. We have to do that on our own. We have to control the speed of our taper. 10 percent per month is the recommended pace. So that's a minimum of 10 months and up. 10 months if you do 10 percent of the original dose all the way and up 2 plus years if you do 10 percent of current dose which is actually the recommended way. But you really should not have a timeline at all. Like you said symptoms based tapers are the best way to go. Just understand that this can still be a very long taper. Otherwise you have the option of not reinstating and just pushing through. Regardless of the route you will get through and heal.

DJ

 

I just noticed that you just jumped from valium 6 weeks ago. Honestly I would not start tapering off of mirt right now. I have gone off of short term valium for insomnia in the past as well as ambien. First time I went off valium I suffered withdrawal that lasted two years. I was fine most of the time but got hit with waves every few months where could not sleep even a minute for over a week and then would taper off. I would be shocked if you are not still in benzo withdrawal. You withdrew from benzo while on mirtazapine so you would not have felt a lot of the benzo withdrawal and it may still be going on. It would be like have a cold while taking aleve cold and sinus. You feel fine until you take the Aleve away. For many of us mirtazapine is to benzo withdrawal what nyquil is to a cold. It masks the symptoms but you are still sick.

Yep. Jack did give the journal type infos as he had done always. Lol. Grateful to him and others for the cautions which prevent me to go a mess. Dont do mistakes that i had done. When i started to this shit, i had a plan to complete it in 100 days. One ml for every day. It comes amazing to ear. But it would be disastrous. I started this plan while i was already having wds from 3 drugs and people said that this wasnt a conscius way to complete it. So i stopped and holded for 5 months. I dont know it worked, but i know things wouldnt be disastrous not even being perfect. I am still suffering anxiety, but i am taking my steps slower than these times. My only big regret is starting to this shit, because my sleep and appetite was ok, my anx. was terrible. So i can say it didnt work by the way of anx. But it doesnt make sense. We involved in this stuff anyway. So, give yourself morale not to be at high doses like 30 and 45 mgs. Give a time to it and then go forward with slow steps. When i involved in that, i gave myself to complete it in 100 days. 10 months passed and if i can complete it at the end of 2021, i ll name myself as a lucky person. To summon, my body dictates me how to push it, not my brain or plans...

Jack's simile remind me a famous Turkish man from the history(Nasrettin Hodja). It is like that: "Only one who felt from the roof can understand the other who had felt from the roof. So, dont bring me the doc, bring me him". Lol. That's why this site was founded and why we are here...

Hi Sharkie. Sorry it has been awhile since I was on last. Trying to keep busy so I’m not thinking so much about all the bad stuff. When I started my Remeron taper I was so scared because of what everyone else had been through. I too had C/T off a benzo, ( Lorazepam ) and wanted that far behind me. So I waited for I believe 2 1/2 - 3 years before I started my Remeron taper. I was on 3.75Mg. I spoke to many people on BenzoBuddies and Surviving Antidepressants as well as some Facebook groups. One of the things I was told was to make sure I was pretty well healed from my benzo. I was also told to not overthink it. That was the best advice for me.

 

When I first started I would cut my pill and weigh out my pieces but as I started getting lower I realized that I wasn’t getting all the medication in my piece so at that point I started crushing my 15Mg pill in a pill crusher and then using a mortar and pestle I was able to grind it further. Did I lose medication? Maybe a little but I decided not to worry about that. I know that some people crush several pill but I don’t. I bought a very tiny spoon or measuring type spoon from Amazon. I use that to sprinkle the powder in the bowl on my scale. Now that I’m lower it takes a bit for the scale to except the weight but it does. It takes patience. I then take the bowl of powder and put the powder in a pill case. If you want you could just weigh your dose everyday but I just want it done.

 

I think it’s important to not get to worked up about losing powder. Remeron has a longer half life and if you take your time you’ll be alright. I did similar when I tapered Valium. I’ll help you in any way I can. Just let me know. When you starting and at what Mg? Also 5, 10% a month is good, IMO.

 

Jackie 

 

I know this was meant for Sharkie but could you list what kind of scale you have and little spoon? And what is a pill case? Do you mix the powder in water and take it? I'm so confused.  I tapered off Clonazepam but mixed mine in liquid so this scale method is new to me.  Been off Benzos for three months now.  I'm going to start my Mirt taper very soon.  Thanks so much!!

 

Hi, was put on Remeron 3.75 as reinstatement for withdrawals I had from d/c it.  I also have to taper off 12.5 Valium.  Wish I didn’t have the Remeron on board now.  Not sure whether to just go ahead and get rid of this Valium first then do slow taper of Remeron.  Did you take it the whole time on benzo w/d?  Thanks

Thank you Jack37 and everyone for the good advice. Perhaps you're right. I really got off those benzos rather quickly and easily compared to most others here. Now I'm starting to see that it's entirely possible that mirtazapine was working to soften the withdrawal. I will give it much more time and be extra careful with the taper.

 

Maybe holding for a while and enjoying the sleep I get is an option too?

 

I'm so disappointed in myself for ever accepting these drugs in the first place.

Hi Jack. I hope you are doing better. Have you noticed that the last few liquid doses left in the Mirt compounded solution bottle feels off, like a bit of a cut?

 

Becky

Hi Jack. I hope you are doing better. Have you noticed that the last few liquid doses left in the Mirt compounded solution bottle feels off, like a bit of a cut?

 

Becky

 

Yes, I am doing better. I spoke to three of the guys at work who treated positive for covid. We were all exposed at the same job. They had exactly the same symptoms as me and are still feeling off just like me so again it makes me wonder. They are convinced that I had it too. But I am doing much better and am pretty sure I can continue tapering next week on June 1st as planned.

 

And yes, I have noticed that. I am not sure why but the pharmacist said that Mirtazapine is not stable in the compound. It reacts with it or something and that is why is has to be thrown out after 14 days and the refrigeration slows down the reaction I guess. I used to stretch it til it ran out and I noticed it more. Now I am very strict about refilling the prescription exactly every 14 days. I thought it was in my head because I think a fresh mix just seems stronger to me. But if you noticed it too then maybe not.

That's interesting Jack. My compounded liquid says it expires in 1 month, so I use it for a month. I've always read about Mirt on the forums that the compound liquid lasts for 1 month, but who knows. This is the first time I heard 14 days. I need to ask again what it is mixed with and see if it is the same as yours. I need to shake it more too. Thanks.

 

Becky

Hi Juneight,

Could you tell me what DLMT stands for? 

 

I did have anxiety and other psychological symptoms during my taper.  I did a liquid taper and I noticed my symptoms would peak at day 3-4 and then diminish gradually and by day 7 I was ready to drop again.  My symptoms were not bad, I could still live my life, just didn’t feel so good.  Mornings were when I felt the worst, which we know is common. The only time that my symptoms were bad was when I had a benzo wave, but even then it wasn’t  severe.  Not even close to benzo withdrawal.  I did  notice that symptoms were more bothersome once I hit 3.75 mg.  The lower I got, the more intense, but, once again, it was nothing compared to getting off Xanax.

 

I also wanted to comment on the shelf life of the liquid mirt.  My compounding pharmacy told me two weeks.  I wasn’t happy because it was so expensive, and when I got down to the last few drops I used it when it was 3-4 weeks old.  It did notice a drop in effectiveness as the nights went by when I did that.  The pharmacy also told me that after two weeks it would gradually lose its effectiveness as well. That’s just my experience.

 

So, I am 5 weeks off tomorrow.  It’s going very well.  During the past two years I have been using 1-10 to rate the severity of my symptoms as many of us do.  It’s helped a great deal to keep things in perspective.  Anyway, after I jumped from the mirt, I noticed that my symptoms (psychological and physical) went from a 2-3 to a 1 after the 2nd week. The further out I get the more I am feeling like myself.  I strongly suspect that the mirt was mildly aggravating the benzo symptoms, and when I dropped the mirt it helped me even more.  I have noticed that my burning mouth syndrome is going away also.  I developed that immediately when I began my benzo taper.  Main symptom now really is mild tinnitus and brain fog.  That comes and goes, usually right after I eat. I’m still having to be careful what I eat.  Mainly sugar and fermented foods.  I was feeling completely normal three days ago, had some ice cream and 3 hours later I was irritatable, had changes in perception and hardly slept that night.  The next morning I was weepy, feeling doom, fatigued and just plain sad.  Fortunately, I recovered from it quickly, within 36 hours.  Been reading that sugar can cause anxiety and depression even in healthy people, and given that my CNS is injured it’s no surprise that it would have such an effect on me.  Gotta behave myself if I want to feel as good as I can. 

Hi Warrior. Thanks for coming by the thread and congrats for finishing your taper. It sounds like you are doing well.

 

I am glad that you mentioned the shelf life of the liquid mirt compound. I had the suspicion and confirmed by Jack. I was really feeling poorly the last couple days at the end of the bottle. Last night I took my dose from the new bottle and voila I feel stable today and in a decent window. Like you, I am not happy about paying more for twice a month script, but if it keeps me feeling better it's a no brainer.

 

I do feel worse when I start bingeing on sugar. It's usually heavy brain fog that's the worst symptom. What dose were you on and how long until you finished your taper?

 

Becky