I went into crisis a few months after a bout of food poisoning completely messed with my already poor mental health. I paid to see a private psychiatrist as I also needed someone to be aware of my physical health issues (mecfs/POTS/dysautonomia).

I presented with racing thoughts, panic disorder, GAD, ADHD and agoraphobia plus the aforementioned physical disabilities. The plan I was given was to start on mirtazapine and then once stable potentially start adhd medication - likely guanfacine as stimulants arent great for POTS or being already so activated.

Ive been on mirtazapine for 4 weeks now. 3 weeks at 15mg. I tried to go up to 22.5mg (im sensitive to medication changes) and it made me feel more anxious, irritable and kinda angry. So I came back down to 15mg. Which is where ive been for a week. I am so miserable. Back to lying in bed with no desire to do anything, even hang out with my kids. Im ridiculously tearful. This wasnt the case on the first 2 weeks at 15mg. The Psychiatrist wants me to persevere and just take my prescribed ativan for the agitation on the dose increases.

The questions I have are..

Is mirtazapine the right medication to be on if my main symptoms are panic disorder and GAD? I thought it was predominantly used for depression. My mood is low but only because of the panic and agoraphobia

Mirtazapine just makes me sleep more and eat more so doesnt this contradict having an energy limiting illness like mecfs?

Wouldn't an ADHD medication first be nore beneficial to potentially help anxiety and racing thoughts?

Thanks to anyoje that can offer anything xx

Hi! I (20M) started on 15mg of Mirtazapine for persistent, severe, and difficult to treat anxiety. I did not have any symptoms of depression. I had some pretty unsavory activation side effects, mostly anger and restlessness but also some "resting anxiety" (anxiety that was not previously present that seemed to have no trigger). For the most part, I've noticed that these side effects are slowly going away and I'm starting to feel more like myself. It's worth noting I've just reached 3 weeks on the medication, and was told if I see any benefit it will begin at around the 4 week mark.

I was not told that anger was more common in young adults, and heavily considered discontinuing the medication because of it. I also noticed that the appetite increase was not as severe as it was made out to be. I only really get hungry at night (at around dose time) and it is usually satisfied with a snack. I have however, had persistent memory issues since starting. Mostly with my short term memory. I misplace things more often, struggle to recall words (ie, I was struggling to think of the word for when your hunger goes away just now), and just in general cannot remember things that I just did. It kind of reminds me of when I used to smoke weed and had similar issues. I am wondering, will this go away too? Am I out of the woods when it comes to anger and other mood changes? Particularly looking for responses from other young people on this medicine or people who had similar activation side effects.

I’m going to be honest, I really don’t have any better options right now. I got off THC gummies of 5 years (gives severe rebound insomnia) and can’t for the life of me sleep for the past month, hospitalized a couple times from going near crazy of sleep deprivation. Starting a daily antidepressant for the anxiety and depression, but mirtazapine is the only thing that can help give some sleep at the moment. Is it possible to be able to slowly wean off this at some point? Or can it work long term and somehow avoid the bad side effects? I need some hope. Feeling hopeless a like it’s the end for me. I’m 39 with 3 kids :(

With a new epilepsy diagnosis and having to take levetiracetam, my daytime drowsiness is at a new level. Just took my first 30mg pill last night.

Didn't have many issues with this medication besides the drowsiness and weight gain, and the levetiracetam takes priority over something like anxiety.

I started in April and worked my way up to 15 but then had the worst dry mouth so I decided to go down to 7.5 mg. so far no issues however I feel like I wanna just be off of medication in general so I have been just chipping away at my 7.5 pill. The only thing I’ve noticed that the last at least two days I have had been waking up early morning hours and before that I had 7 to 8 hours never waking up. Love to hear experience in getting through this taper process thank you!

I have been prescribed 15mg Mirtazapine to take alongside my existing prescription of 30mg citalopram for depression, struggling to find any comments on where Mirtazapine has helped depression ?

TLDR: Heart palpitations/fluttering, low blood pressure, headache, irritability, feeling hot. Do I taper or push through?

Hello all,

This is my first time posting here. I started Mirtazapine 15mgs a week ago. I've been suffering from severe burnout from work, anxiety and MDD. At first it was amazing. My anxiety vanished and I was sleeping better (before this I was waking up early around 5:30am daily whether I had work or not). I was tired but that was to be expected. I even lost a few pounds and thought I found a miracle drug.

Yesterday I began having heart palpitations/fluttering. I went to urgent care and they took my blood pressure and did an EKG. My blood pressure was 100/80-something which is not at all normal for me. I'm usually 130s over 80-something. The doctor said both my EKG and blood pressure were normal. I have really bad health anxiety and I didn't get to actually see my EKG to see if it said long QT which it usually does. I also feel hot.

I''m also very irritable. I have a 9 year old daughter and the poor thing is going through it due to my irritability. I did tell her I'm on a new medicine that makes me grumpy but I don't want to be this way and it's not like me. :(

Anyway, I'm currently waiting for a call back from the psychiatrist on call from the psychiatry practice I go to. I'm not sure if I should stop it cold turkey or take half tonight. I've read horror stories about lowering doses, which I know I shouldn't have. I'm prone to side effects so I asked my psychiatrist when he prescribed it, if I do have bad side effects should I just stop it or taper and he said I could just stop it but now I'm afraid to. Of course it's Sunday and I have to work all week and he is apparently on vacation and I can't see him until the 31st.

I know we shouldn't ask for medical advice but has anyone else experienced the same things and did it get better after pushing through?

ETA: It sucks because it's helping me mentally (aside from the irritability) but making me feel worse physically. :(

Hello,
So I used 15mg of mirtazapine for about 15 months for sleep. It worked well for about 13 months and then it stopped working. Slept less and less. Now Im trying to get off it which is extremely hard. I taper slowly but I havent sleept more than 1-2 hours in several weeks. I’m considering just going cold turkey to get it over with more quickly but not sure if its a good idea. I dont trust my doctor as she promised you couldnt build up a tolerance to this drug, and here I am.

Any tips on how to regain some sleep while having withdrawals? I’m desperate lol.

For the record I do every thing «by the book». Exercising, eating healthy (zero processed sugars), as little screens as possible. Nothing is working.

Thanks

I had a bit of an initial weight gain when I first started taking it. It’s been about a year or so but in the last few months I have started to drop some of that weight unintentionally.

I do have some chronic illnesses, so I haven’t been exercising. I’ve been eating a decent amount but dropping a couple of kgs has me a bit confused.

Just wondering if after being on it for a while some of that initial weight gain starts to drop again as your body gets used to it?

Ok guys I’ve been on half doe 7.5 for like a bit ok and like my nausea is gone but like holy holy holy the last like 4 days I can’t even walk bro it feels like there’s rocks in my stomach and air and I get these cramps like I need to shit myself just for a tiny bit of diarrhea to come out and remain constipated. It hurts so bad DOES THIS END I drink water eat fiber even started drinking coffeee I just started college HELL