• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

7/9/17 Mirtazapine cold turkey 1 week = insomnia heart pounding

A week off of mirtazapine, 7.5mg, was going fine then BOOM massive insomnia and heart palps that came on exactly 1 week after stopping, and at the time I usually take the mirt. Not only that but I remember ages ago when I was still adjusting doses it would take exactly a week I think for the new dose to settle/kick in.

Maybe I should add back 3.75mg tonight or tough it out hoping I can get through with valerian/niacin. Will be able to substitute other anti histamines and see if they work.

Is the heart pounding coming back due to lower adrenalin, the main reason I stuck with it in the first place is for helping POTS and sleep. Is this all withdrawal or just a return to the state I was before this med?
  • Like
Reactions: L'engle

Comments

It's hard to pinpoint what is due to withdrawal. I too stopped mirtazapine 2 days ago having been on 7.5mg and have not felt any different as yet. I guess next steps depend on what you were taking it for, what it helped with and why you came off it.

If I found something that helped with POTS I wouldn't come off it for anything, but I can't say it has helped me in that respect. For me it helped with sleep and nausea. I am starting LDN tonight and also take melatonin to help sleep.

Mirtazapine raises noradrenaline, and I feel I have an excess of this already, but a low dose of 7.5mg is probably only enough to act at histamine receptors.
 
Sounds like it is withdrawal, I've seen anxiety and panic attacks mentioned a lot, even from low doses.

A simple taper is recommended at 1mg a week or 10%, so the drug in liquid form if possible is easier to do this. The taper can be adjusted depending on how you react.

Here's a long article by a psychopharmacoligist that I hope is some use to you in regard to withdrawal symptoms, and different ways to stop.

https://rxisk.org/guide-stopping-antidepressants/#Prominent_withdrawal_symptoms

Hope it's not too bad, best wishes.
 
@luther bissett Thanks, yeah I have read about the 10% taper but figured I was already on a low dose so I would be fine, whoops

@bombsh3ll Thanks, yeah it had its side effects and I thought I might be able to control POTS with thaimine etc, I was wrong.
 
Update: LDN didn't work out for me and given I got no sleep at all last night I've decided to go back on my 7.5mg Mirtazapine dose. I had come off it in order to trial LDN (no known interactions but just wanted to keep things clean & not be on too many meds at night) and also because my cholesterol has gone up to 6.7 on it. I am now thinking about sticking with the mirtazapine which does help me sleep, and taking a statin if I am going to be on this indefinitely.
 

Blog entry information

Author
sb4
Read time
1 min read
Views
848
Comments
4
Last update

More entries in User Blogs

  • Daily doodal dandy
    Just testing this out
  • Covid day 75
    Well since my last few updates I started to suffer from exhaustion and...
  • Pray
    If you pray, will you pray for me please? I have covid pneumonia and...

More entries from sb4